Josef Behm
A reluctant student pressured into volunteering and among the first classmates to die.
To avoid shame without surrendering the instinct that enlistment is wrong for him.
The book
At a glance
- Paul's schoolmate
- Reluctant enlistment
- Early wartime death
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freeBehm initially resists Kantorek's enlistment campaign more than his classmates do.
Social pressure overcomes his judgment, making his fate the clearest answer to the teacher's claim that he guided the boys well.
How the book draws them
- Reluctant volunteerHe sees danger before his peers admit it.
- Pressured studentThe classroom makes refusal feel dishonorable.
- Early casualtyHis death precedes the main narrative.
- Moral evidenceHis fate exposes Kantorek's irresponsibility.
Behm is wounded, left for dead, and then killed. His early death haunts the class's memory of enlistment.
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