Of course, the media and exhibition organizers will claim that their commemorations are neutral and not at all pro-war. But until they show images and texts as graphic and truthful about the realities of war as these, their claims are, at best, self-delusion.

The book has recently been republished by Spokesman Books. Here is a short extract followed by just some of its shocking images (the last picture shows the Nazis occupying Friedrich's Anti-War Museum in Berlin, after they had destroyed it):

WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC IMAGES!

THE CAUSE OF WAR
Long ago, Plato who was born 427 years before the Nazarene, Plato, that wise man, said: -
“All wars arise for the possession of wealth”.
That is as true a word as ever was spoken.
And wonderfully enough
the working slaves of all lands abandon their plough and their anvil,
they hasten to arms,
and protect the life and property of their masters with their own blood and life.
What did I say? “That this is strange?” No, it is quite natural – a natural monstrosity!

I, therefore, always say to my brothers, the proletarians, I say to the class-war fighters:
Free yourselves from bourgeois prejudices!
Fight against capitalism within yourselves!
Fight against Capitalism – and you fight against every war!
The battle-field in the factories and the mines,
the hero’s death in the infirmaries, the mass graves in the barracks,
in short, the war, the apparently eternal war, of the exploited against the exploiters!
DO – YOU – NOT – REALISE – ALL – THIS?

The war against war signifies:
The war of the victimised against the profiteers!
The war of the deceived against the deceivers!
The war of the oppressed against the oppressors!
The war of the tortured against the torturers!
The war of the hungry against the well fed!

More of Friedrich's book can be found here:  http://josefchladek.com /  http://fotografie.hfg-karlsruhe.de /  http://craigritchie.co.uk