A Time to Live and a Time to Die by Erich Maria Remarque, summary

The novel "A Time to Live and a Time to Die" was published in 1954. This anti-war work follows the fate of German soldier Ernst Graeber, who experiences a moral epiphany at the turning point of World War II. The author describes the senselessness of military action, the spiritual crisis of a generation, and the emergence of human tenderness amid total catastrophe.

In 1958, director Douglas Sirk created a film adaptation of the work, in which Erich Maria Remarque personally played the role of teacher Pohlmann.

Retreat on the Eastern Front

April 1944. On the Eastern Front in Russia, the snow melts, revealing the rotting corpses of soldiers killed in winter battles. The German army is in irresistible retreat. Private Ernst Graeber and his unit are in a dilapidated village. The company is made up of a diverse group of men: the nineteen-year-old Nazi fanatic Steinbrenner, the former Social Democrat Immermann, Feldwebel Mücke, and the seasoned soldier Sauer.

The soldiers are forced to dig up the dead and clear the graves. From under the melting snow, they unearth the body of Lieutenant Reicke. At dawn, a firing squad executes four captured Russian partisans, including a young woman. Doubt and disgust at what is happening grows within Graeber. He compares the current defeats with the previous successful campaigns in France in 1940 and Africa. Graeber understands that the war is lost, and the official slogans about "shortening the front line" are nothing but a lie.

After two years of service, Greber will be given three weeks’ leave. Company commander Lieutenant Rahe signs the papers. Greber heads to Germany, hoping to find his parents and find peace of mind.

A ruined city and the search for loved ones

The journey home passes through sanitary checkpoints, disinfection, and field gendarmerie checks. On the train, vacationers are given gift rations from the Führer and are strictly forbidden from disclosing the truth about the state of affairs. Soldiers from the Rhineland are informed that entry into Cologne is prohibited due to the widespread destruction.

Arriving in his native Verdun, Graeber finds himself in a terrifying world of ruins. The city is subject to regular nightly Allied bombing raids. The Graeber house at 18 Hakenstrasse is completely destroyed. All that remains of the building is the façade, with a grand piano stuck between the rafters. His parents are nowhere to be found. Graeber finds only his old school catechism among the rubble.

Graeber begins his search. He visits the town hall, evacuation centers, hospitals, and cemeteries where air raid victims are buried en masse. Officials are helpless, and the filing cabinets have burned. Seeking information, Graeber visits Kruse, the medical adviser. At his home, he meets Kruse’s daughter, Elisabeth, whom he had known as a child. It turns out that Dr. Kruse was arrested by the Gestapo, and a fanatical Nazi, Frau Lieser, has been moved into their apartment.

Love amidst disaster

Elisabeth and Ernst quickly become close. Alone amid the devastation and looming death, they find solace in each other. Elisabeth works in a sewing factory, making army overcoats. Graeber falls in love with her.

In the city, Graeber accidentally encounters his former school friend Alfons Binding, who has made a career as a Nazi Kreisleiter. Binding lives in a luxurious villa, revels in his power, and supplies Graeber with alcohol and rare canned goods. Graeber despises Binding but accepts the food to help Elisabeth. While visiting Binding, Graeber sees SS officer Heini bragging about the atrocities committed against prisoners in Russia.

Graeber visits his former history and religious studies teacher, Pohlmann. In conversation with his teacher, Graeber attempts to understand the extent of his personal guilt and complicity in the regime’s crimes. Pohlmann risks his life by hiding in his closet a fugitive Jew, Josef, who was tortured in a concentration camp.

Wanting to protect Elizabeth from possible persecution, Graeber proposes marriage. The wedding takes place in the school gymnasium, with an SS officer acting as a witness.

A nighttime air raid destroys Elisabeth’s house. The couple saves only suitcases of clothes and spends the night in the garden of the ruined Church of St. Katharina. Graeber then manages to rent a room from Frau Witte in a small hotel with an entire garden. Soon, a bomb destroys Binding’s villa, and he perishes under the rubble.

Having received a summons to the Gestapo, Graeber goes there in Elisabeth’s stead. In the basement office of No. 72, he is handed a cigar box containing the ashes of Dr. Kruse, who supposedly died of heart failure. To spare his wife from a cruel blow, Graeber conceals this news from her and secretly buries the ashes in the church garden at the foot of someone else’s tombstone.

Return to the front lines and death

The vacation is coming to an end. Elisabeth confides in Graeber that she hopes to have a child and raise him to be an enemy of violence. At the station, Graeber leaves alone, but at the last moment, he spots Elisabeth standing behind the station warehouses.

Returning to the regiment, Graeber encountered even more brutal fighting. The defenses were breached, and the company retreated 120 kilometers west, suffering catastrophic losses. Sauer, Girshman, Lieutenant Mass, and Sergeant Major Mücke were killed, while the commander of the neighboring company, Fresenburg, was seriously wounded.

Graeber is assigned to guard four captured Russian peasants, locked in a stone barn on a former estate. A new Soviet offensive begins, and the company prepares to retreat hastily. Steinbrenner runs to the barn, intending to shoot the defenseless prisoners.

Graeber refuses to allow the massacre. When Steinbrenner reaches for his pistol, Graeber raises his rifle and shoots him in the chest. Graeber then unlocks the barn door and releases the Russians.

The prisoners run toward the forest. One of them, an old man, picks up a discarded rifle, turns, and aims it at Graeber. Graeber sees the barrel pointed at him but makes no move to defend himself. A shot rings out. Mortally wounded, Graeber falls facedown in the grass in front of a small red flower and closes his eyes.