Time: Christmas 1914, ninety years ago today.
Place: The Front Lines in France and Belgium.
The Situation: A general Christmas truce that temporarily halts the carnage of World War I.
Analogous To: Modern western society, peacetime (not counting Iraq)
Fact or Fiction: Fact
By the time Christmas Day arrived in 1914, British and German soldiers had been battling for several months. Hundreds of thousands had already been lost on both sides. In order to celebrate Christmas, leaders on both sides agreed to a temporary truce. British soldiers hoped (at the very most) to spend a much-needed quiet day in their trenches. Large numbers of German soldiers all along the front lines had a different idea.
At various locations that day, British soldiers could hear the German soldiers singing Christmas carols. On Christmas morning, the British peeked out of their trenches and were stunned to see small groups of unarmed German soldiers standing on top of their own trenches just staring in the direction of the British trenches. At any other time, this would have meant certain death for those German soldiers. The British thought it must be some sort of trick, but they didn't fire their weapons. The Germans began shouting at the British soldiers to come out of their trenches and celebrate Christmas with them.
They shouted, "We don't want to kill you, and you don't want to kill us. Is this not true?"
The British replied that they did, indeed, have no desire to kill the Germans either. As such, a few unarmed British soldiers went out to meet the Germans (while their compatriots who were still in the trenches covered them, just in case). As the British approached, they were amazed to see Christmas trees and other decorations in the German trenches. After general introductions, the Germans offered whatever they had as gifts to the British. The British returned the favor. In one location, the Germans even offered a large keg of beer to the British, saying that they had plenty more where that came from. The British gladly accepted the gift.
At another point on the front lines, a British officer was returning from headquarters and was surprised to find none of his soldiers in the trenches. Everywhere he went, he found no one. The place was abandoned. After a while, he could hear people singing Christmas carols, some in English, others in German. He eventually found all of his men in the "no-man's land" between the opposing trenches, singing and sharing food, etc., with all of the German soldiers. At another point along the line, the Germans and British even played a soccer (football) match, which the Germans won 3-2.
If not for selfish, arrogant leaders on both sides, peace could have broken out permanently that day in a large part of Europe due to this wonderful display of Christmas spirit. The men on both sides had proven that there was no need for fighting such a terrible war.
But there were selfish, arrogant leaders, and so the men on both sides knew that the peace must come to an end at a specified time. Therefore, at midnight on the night of December 25, or 8:30 AM on December 26 (depending on where you were on the battle line), officers on both sides, shook hands and saluted to one another. They then returned to their own trenches and fired two or three signal shots into the air, thus signifying that the magical peace had come to an end.
Makes You Wonder
These German and British soldiers were convinced that they had no choice but to follow orders and return to the act of killing one another (for reasons that none of them really understood). If left to their own devices, they would gladly have signed an armistice on the spot that day allowing them to celebrate a permanent peace with one another. Instead, millions more men on both sides were yet to be killed (probably some of them by the very men with whom they had just celebrated) before the actual armistice was signed almost four years later, on November 11, 1918.
What About "Us"?
What is our excuse in this day and age? None of us is required to return to our cold, unfriendly ways as soon as Christmas ends. So why do we? Or, asked in reverse, why do we choose to let ourselves feel a certain warmth and generosity toward our fellow man (excepting a few psychotic Arab terrorists) for just a few weeks every year? Then, the rest of the year, we don't give a second thought to snubbing any and all passers-by, or even those people who appear to be going out of their way to be nice to us? I have spent my life trying to be nice every day of the year, but I'm not perfect, and I'm definitely outnumbered.
