The past did suck.
It sucked in Europe.
It sucked at home.
It sucked everywhere and all did groan.
Ludicrous you might say.
Preposterous it might sound.
The past was great.
The past was grand.
Happiness surrounded me in that great time.
We do forget.
We fail to regard how the past hurt and killed most we loved.
How sad a truth we choose to forget.
And our minds mirages tells us it was grand.
Suck it did yet we forget.
How the past let few of our children's hair turn grey.
Early death, how sad and withered a villain.
How marvelous our victory over infant death
The past did suck.
It killed our children, our infants, and our hopes.
We have improved. We have grown.
And most our children's hair grey now grows.
For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.
How sad a thought Hemingway once wrote.
Of a reality abundant in times of yore.
How Ernest a truth of a time past and lost.
The future oh uncertain a hero.
Ambiguous and undescribable
Treacherous and devious.
Unknown and unknowable.
Yet, much oh how much better than our dreadful past.
PS: Data on youth and infant mortality both are below 5% today, an order of magnitude decrease to historic values.
The values for German can be accessed here.
TL;DR: Back in the day, a 30% death rates before 1st birthday!