Christmas Truce 100 Years Ago, 1914 Historians would be hard pressed to find a war that remade the world for the worse more than World War I. So much that the world came to fear and regret--Communist takeover in Russia, the rise of Hitler, fascism in Germany and Italy--came from the ashes of that war. But on Christmas day in 1914, soldiers on the Western front, from both sides, decided that they didn’t wish to fight anymore. The first sign that something unique was afoot came when some English units in Belgium noticed lights on the parapets of the German lines. Not knowing what to think at first, they feared an attack might be in the making--until they realized that the Germans were placing Christmas trees adorned with candles all along their line. Instead of an attack, the English heard from the German lines, “English soldiers, English soldiers, Happy Christmas! Where are your Christmas trees?” Then, drifting softly across the deadly terrain known as No Man’s Land came the singing of “Silent Night.” Not long afterwards came the playing of Handel’s Largo on a violin. One of the English soldiers who witnessed this wrote later, “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 was really a most extraordinary thing--two nations both singing the same carol in the middle of a war.” Fairly soon, soldiers on both sides came out from behind their parapets, into No Man’s Land, and began sharing gifts and drink and celebrating Christmas. It was peace in wartime. Unfortunately, the generals and leadership from both sides were appalled and angered that discipline had broken down this way. With the threat of firing squads, they insisted that their units get back to killing the enemy. The result was that there would be no more Christmas truces in this war, or any other truces. The war would continue on to its bitter ends, recording twenty million dead, and well over twenty million maimed and crippled. Watch these videos on this remarkable human moment in one of the worse wars in history. https://youtube/watch?v=bG4vjyPMhE8 https://youtube/watch?v=NOz9SpWc_yE https://youtube/watch?v=7-MGfNsgB3A
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 22:02:58 +0000