The soldiers go in fresh from school, knowing nothing except the environment of hopeful youth, at nineteen and twenty, and they come to a premature maturity with the war their only home. It is a story of an almost obliterated generation. Remarque makes one realize that it is perhaps the most tragic generation our human records tell of. He complained to a fellow reporter that none of the publishers wants his book. Just tear it up and forget the whole thing.
Nobody wants to read books about the war.
When the Nazis came to power in the 1930s, Remarque left Germany for Switzerland. After an attempt to lure him back, they burned his books and films. The BOMC Interactive Timeline was created by Time Warner Electronic Publishing.