Encounter between Paul Bäumer and Gérard Duval

The encounter between Paul Bäumer and Gérard Duval is the novel's most intimate and morally shattering moment, in which Paul, trapped in a shell-hole with a French soldier he has just killed, is forced to see his enemy not as an abstraction but as a man with a name, a family, and a life as precious as his own. It is the point at which the impersonal machinery of war collapses into a direct, unbearable confrontation between two individuals, and Paul's carefully maintained defenses against feeling are broken open.

The Killing

During a patrol in the darkness, Paul becomes separated from his comrades and takes refuge in a large shell-hole half-filled with water. When the barrage lifts and an attack begins, he lies motionless, pretending to be dead, his dagger clutched in his hand beneath the mud. A body stumbles and falls over him into the hole. Without thought or decision, Paul strikes madly with his knife, feeling the body convulse and then go limp. Only afterward does he realize that the man is not dead but dying, gurgling and gasping for breath. Paul crawls to the farthest corner of the hole, his eyes fixed on the dark figure, his hand still gripping the knife, ready to strike again if the man stirs.

The Face of the Enemy

As dawn breaks, Paul sees his victim clearly for the first time: a man with a small pointed beard, brown skin, black hair slightly curly at the sides, a soft mouth beneath his moustache, and a slightly arched nose. The man's eyes open and fix on Paul with an expression of utter terror, a look so powerful that Paul feels the eyes have the strength to carry the body away. He whispers "No, no," and strokes the man's forehead, trying to show that he wants to help. He fetches water from the muddy bottom of the crater in his handkerchief and gives it to the dying man to drink. He tries to bandage the three stab wounds in the man's chest, but he knows the man cannot be saved. For hours Paul lies beside him, listening to his gurgling and groaning, fetching water, and wishing he had not lost his revolver so he could shoot the man and end his suffering. The dying man's every gasp lays Paul's heart bare; time and his own thoughts become an invisible dagger stabbing him.

The Name and the Letters

After the man dies in the early afternoon, Paul, desperate and unable to bear the silence, opens the dead man's pocket-book. He finds portraits of a woman and a little girl, amateur photographs taken against an ivy-clad wall, and letters in French. Though he can barely read the language, each word he translates pierces him like a shot in the chest. He learns the man's name: Gérard Duval, a compositor—a printer. Paul writes the address on an envelope with the dead man's pencil and thrusts everything back into the tunic. He thinks confusedly, "I have killed the printer, Gérard Duval. I must be a printer, be a printer." He promises the dead man that he will write to his wife, help his family, and fight against the forces that have struck them both down. But even as he makes the vow, he knows he will not keep it.

Aftermath and Return

When darkness falls, Paul crawls out of the shell-hole and makes his way back to the German trench, where Kat and Albert have come out with a stretcher to look for him. He tells them briefly what happened, but he does not mention the dead printer. The next morning, he can no longer keep it to himself and tells Kat and Albert everything. They try to calm him, saying, "You can't do anything about it. What else could you have done? That is what you are here for." Paul listens and feels comforted, reassured by their presence. He watches Sergeant Oellrich shoot snipers from the fire-step and hears Kat say, "It's very good for you to see it just now." And now Paul hardly understands his own anguish anymore. He tells himself, "After all, war is war." But the encounter has left an indelible mark: the face of Gérard Duval, the letters, the name that is a nail hammered into him that will never come out again.