<P> Kat is hit by shrapnel at the end of the story, leaving him with a smashed shin . Paul carries him back to camp on his back, only to discover upon their arrival that a stray splinter had hit Kat in the back of the head and killed him on the way . He is thus the last of Paul's close friends to die in battle . It is Kat's death that eventually makes Bäumer careless whether he survives the war or not, but that he can face the rest of his life without fear . "Let the months and the years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more . I am so alone, and so without hope that I can confront them without fear ." </P> <P> One of Bäumer's non-schoolmate friends . Before the war, Tjaden was a locksmith . A big eater with a grudge against the former postman - turned corporal Himmelstoß (thanks to his strict "disciplinary actions"), he manages to forgive Himmelstoß later in the book . Throughout the book, Paul frequently remarks on how much of an eater he is, yet somehow manages to stay as "thin as a rake". He appears in the sequel, The Road Back . This shows that Paul has other friends not just his school friends . </P> <P> Kantorek was the schoolmaster of Paul and his friends, including Kropp, Leer, Müller, and Behm . Behaving "in a way that cost (him) nothing," Kantorek is a strong supporter of the war and encourages Bäumer and other students in his class to join the war effort . Among twenty enlistees was Joseph Behm, the first of the class to die in battle . In an example of tragic irony, Behm was the only one who did not want to enter the war . </P> <P> Kantorek is a hypocrite, urging the young men he teaches to fight in the name of patriotism, while not voluntarily enlisting himself . In a twist of fate, Kantorek is later called up as a soldier as well . He very reluctantly joins the ranks of his former students, only to be drilled and taunted by Mittelstädt, one of the students he had earlier persuaded to enlist . </P>

This story is neither an accusation nor a confession