The trip to Verdun was one of the most impactful trips of my life. While I was there, I felt I received an authentic taste of humankind’s potential for absolute chaos. Before I had arrived, I knew world war one was extremely deadly and drastically altered the European continent forever, but I didn’t know of just how great of an extent it was. This violence wiped out millions and put into question whether or not society as a whole could achieve peace or would we eventually lead ourselves into destruction. It was hard to imagine that people allowed for this to occur for the sake of gaining territory. What struck me the most though was not the amount of destruction that ensued in world war one but how the soldiers reacted to it. Reading the words of soldiers on both sides made me understand that when one faces the horrors that exist in our world, they have no intention of being a part of it. When these men wrote to their families, they didn’t speak about the how terrible the Germans or how they wanted to conquer the French. They talked about the absolute terrors of war. They described being in a place compared to hell; were bullets, corpses and explosions perpetually surrounded the battlefield. They described the horrible conditions where rats would crawl on your cold, muddy body night in and night out, and one would just hope to be injured just enough so that they would be able to go home. These men had no interest in fighting for the sake of conquering land. They only fought so that the turmoil would end. I believe going here demonstrated that although war is a very gruesome and horrific act we should not lump all these people into a group of evil people trying to see if the world will burn. We must understand that these soldiers were human being required to fight for the corrupt leader spreading propaganda. To understand this, I believe we will begin to end our prejudice of other countries and cultures and move closer to a peaceful society
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