All Quiet on the Western Front Chapter Summary & Analysis - Chapter 8 Summary

Chapter 8 Summary

After leave, Baumer is sent to a training camp in the countryside, instead of back to the front with his company. There he is assigned guard duty over some Russian prisoners of war. The quality of life for the prisoners proves to be especially poor, and they beg daily for food handouts from the soldiers through the wire fence that separates the two camps. Often the soldiers renege on deals with the prisoners, who are dying of starvation and dysentery.

Baumer realizes that the Russians are not much different from him and his comrades. He notes that, had the lines of the war been drawn differently, he would be fighting with these men instead of against them. However, he realizes that, were the men released, they would shoot the German troops, and Baumer would undoubtedly fire at them. HE dwells on this fact, instead, to make guarding them more bearable.