I have decided – for the 3rd time – to take up the same theme and said to Hans a few days ago: This is now my legacy: ›Seed for sowing should not be milled‹ […] So I painted the same scene again: Boys, proper Berlin boys, who greedily scent the air outside like young horses, are held back by a woman. The woman (an old woman) has wrapped the boys into her protective mantle, spreading her arms and hands over them in a violent and dominant gesture. ›Seeds for sowing must not be ground‹ – this demand is, like ›Never again War‹, not a sentimental yearning, but a command, a demand.«
Käthe Kollwitz, Diaries, December 1941