Fritz Kreisler's Four Weeks In The Trenches

War, the name itself leaves the man psychologically and physically disturbed. As described by Fritz Kreisler in his memoir “Four Weeks in the Trenches”, war not only bring destruction upon the nations and countries but also destroys the people engaged in the war. Kreisler described the situation of the people of Austria before the war; excited, determined, and eager to work for their country. Fritz and his platoon consisted of fifty-five men, two buglers, and an ambulance patrol of four men. Not all of the men were soldiers, but some were city-bred people living professional life, and some of them were peasants. But all of them had something in common, and that was the excitement and determination for fighting the war for the country. The terrifying …show more content…
Fritz describes the same scenario, when the son of the brigadier lost his life in the battle. How the man (brigadier) so stable, shattered from inside, into pieces as his own son was taken to the hospital, wounded badly, from the battlefield. At the end of the day, when Fritz was returning from escorting the Russian prisoners, to the base, brought with him the sad news; the death of the son of the brigadier. When Fritz returned to the camp, brigadier was issuing orders for the upcoming day, while maintaining his calm, and stable psyche. But when Fritz enters the room of the brigadier, saw the man’s arms shaking and he concluded that finally, the iron mask has fallen. The very next morning, Kreisler had a looked at the face of the brigadier, and he seems to have aged many years, still expressionless and not an inch moved off his face.
Analysis of the war pensioners who were diagnosed with shell shock showed that the disorders was characterized by a range of functional physical symptoms such as exhaustion, palpitation, shortness of breath, tremor, joint and muscle pain, dizziness, and headache; together with nightmare, persistent anxiety and difficulty