Never Again! A Protest and a Warning Addressed to the Peoples of Europe

In these stirring words a disillusioned veteran turns his pen into a warning bell for a continent still trembling from the Great War. He paints the grim tableau of trench mates who sang together one moment and were forced to fire at each other the next, recounts the endless rows of shattered families and the relentless churn of factories pouring out shells. Against that backdrop he asks Europe to decide whether it will march toward ever more lethal scientific inventions or toward a growing empathy that makes war itself repugnant.

The essay weaves personal testimony with a broader moral appeal, urging ordinary citizens as well as governments to confront the crossroads before them. It reminds listeners that the very tools that promised progress can become instruments of unprecedented destruction if left unchecked. Though spoken a century ago, the plea for peace, mutual understanding, and vigilance against the seductive lure of endless weaponry remains unsettlingly relevant.