Christmas Truce 1914

 

In 1914, during World War I, an event known as the "Christmas Truce" occurred on the Western Front. Despite the ongoing conflict, soldiers from opposing sides called a spontaneous ceasefire around Christmas.

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, about 5 months after the start of Word War I soldiers from the British, German, and French trenches laid down their weapons, emerged from their trenches, and ventured into no man's land—a space between the opposing lines. They exchanged gifts, sang carols, and even played football (soccer) matches in some areas. Choosing to spend Christmas time at peace with one another rather than continue to fight an already unpopular war.

It’s said to have started on the Western Front in Belgium, when the Germans started singing Silent Night from their trenches. Silent night was originally a German song, but was very recognizable to the Allies across No Man’s Land, a 250 yard expanse between the opposing trenches.  

The serene melody contrasted greatly with the No Man’s Land that it drifted over. Pictures of No Man’s Land show a haunting expanse of abandoned equipment and barbed wire. It was pockmarked with shell holes from artillery fire filled with water, and littered with bodies of men that were shot as they crawled through the mud to obtain information from their enemy. 

The Truce happened up and down the Western Front. Soldiers on both sides sang, in their native tongue, Christmas carols that were recognizable by Central and Allied troops. Graham Williams of the Fifth London Rifle Brigade recounted,  

“First the Germans would sing one of their carols and then we would sing one of ours, until when we started up ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful’ the Germans immediately joined in singing the same hymn to the Latin words Adeste Fideles. And I thought, well, this is really a most extraordinary thing – two nations both singing the same carol in the middle of a war.”

As soldiers crept out of their trenches, they began to see German soldiers carrying Christmas trees, and realized that this was not a trick. They met on No Man’s Land, exchanging things like chocolate, brandy, and tobacco. They even played soccer together. Some soldiers even used this short-lived ceasefire for a more somber task: the retrieval of the bodies of fellow combatants who had fallen within the no-man’s land between the lines and also took time to bury their dead. 

Strangely enough, it wasn’t in a bitter manner. Soldiers they had called their enemy only moments ago were helping with the burial. Soldiers were also surprised to meet enemy soldiers that could speak their own languages. They saw that these men didn’t want to be there as much as they didn’t want to be there. Soldiers on both sides saw the others as fathers and sons, just as they were.  

The so-called Christmas Truce of 1914 came only five months after the outbreak of war in Europe and was one of the last examples of the outdated notion of chivalry between enemies in warfare. It was never repeated, future attempts at holiday ceasefires were quashed by officers' threats of disciplinary action, but it served as heartening proof, however brief, that beneath the brutal clash of weapons, the soldiers' essential humanity endured. 

A story so sad  because peace  was not permitted to break out among the troops who were ordered  to kill and die in a war brought about by politicians hundreds of miles away that would ultimately  continue to kill about 10 million soldiers and about 7 million civilians.

However as the world teeters on the edge of new imperialist wars, the memory of how those ordinary soldiers  that defied their armies still teaches us so many things. and acts as a powerful reminder that even in the midst of conflict, empathy and camaraderie could and can prevail and that human nature is not inherently bound to violence.

Amid waves of strife, this wish for a Christmas truce still echoes, and offers hope in these tumultuous times, lets  not  forget that there is   no peace on earth, no goodwill or silent night to the Palestinian as more are  killed in Israeli raids and  airstrikes for  the second consecutive year.

In Gaza, the occupied West Bank the typically festive season  remains sombre,after Israel has killed at least 45,317 Palestinians and wounded over 107,713 since October 2023.

The war on the enclave having  destroyed most of the territory’s infrastructure and forced the population into a deep humanitarian crisis, while a succession of international rights monitors have recently accused Israel of carrying out a genocide against the Palestinian people, with the result that the Palestinian community in the Gaza Strip our  facing this Christmas season without celebrations, as displacement and life in tents have deprived them of their homes and the joy of the holidays, our  calls for peace must  persist.