Transcription of the letter from Paul to Franz Lefmann, August 11, 1916 (English translation):

“France, August 11, 1916

Dear Papa,

I imagine that your heart will leap with joy when you read the underlined newspaper article.

By now, you will have returned from your home region. How do the people in Dissen feel about the length of the war? Has their hurrah-patriotism already been somewhat dampened?

Our food has not improved in any way. Especially now, when there is so much fresh produce, they could surely feed us something other than semolina and barley. We have had carrots and beans a few times, but never new potatoes. There are certainly enough new potatoes growing in France. The officers claim everything for themselves, and we can count ourselves lucky if we occasionally find a rock-hard old potato to eat.

Yesterday, I had quite a pleasant evening with four comrades over some beer. All four were schoolteachers: one from the local telephone department, whom I’ve known for quite a while; one infantryman, who comes here for a short rest every eight days from the trenches; and finally two artillerymen. You can’t imagine all the things that came up in conversation. In particular, the infantryman could tell stories about Mr. O[hrt] that made one’s hair stand on end.

I think, dear Papa, if you could endure this rotten stuff out here for four weeks, you would gladly go home and would not consider it an honor to be able to lie in the trenches — as you once said, when I expressed that I was glad I wouldn’t have to experience the war. But that was a long time ago.

Warm greetings,

Your Paul.”