Remembering the Christmas Truce of 1914
In 1914, Europe found itself in a major war with each other for the first time since the Napoleonic Wars 100 years ago. After nearly 100 years of peace, growing tensions and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. With this, a bloody conflict broke out that would lead to the rise of Hitler, Mussolini, Lenin, and another World War II.
But for one singular moment, there was peace among the fighting.
On Christmas 1914, Roughly 100,000 British and German troops were involved in the informal cessations of hostility along the Western Front. The Germans, dug into their trenches, placed candles and Christmas trees there as they sung carols to celebrate the holiday. The British did the same thing.
In between the two sides was an area known as no man’s land. Ammunition and dead bodies laid there, showing the carnage of war for all to see. The war itself was hard for the survivors, growing tired of fighting and seeing horrors that no man should see.
Having enough of the fighting, the men on both sides stopped the fighting, crossing no man’s land to greet their supposed “enemy.” Instead of fighting, they celebrated.
The two sides traded food, tobacco, alcohol, and souvenirs with each other. Killed soldiers were brought back to their respective sides. Joint services were held.
They even decided to play soccer with one another. In front of their trenches, the two sides enjoyed friendly games with each other as they enjoyed the sport with one another.
Henry Williamson wrote to his mother that
Dear Mother, I am writing from the trenches. It is 11 o'clock in the morning. Beside me is a coke fire, opposite me a 'dug-out' (wet) with straw in it. The ground is sloppy in the actual trench, but frozen elsewhere. In my mouth is a pipe presented by the Princess Mary. In the pipe is tobacco. Of course, you say. But wait. In the pipe is German tobacco. Haha, you say, from a prisoner or found in a captured trench. Oh dear, no! From a German soldier. Yes a live German soldier from his own trench. Yesterday the British & Germans met & shook hands in the Ground between the trenches, & exchanged souvenirs, & shook hands. Yes, all day Xmas day, & as I write. Marvellous, isn't it?
Captain Robert Miles wrote:
Friday (Christmas Day). We are having the most extraordinary Christmas Day imaginable. A sort of unarranged and quite unauthorized but perfectly understood and scrupulously observed truce exists between us and our friends in front. The funny thing is it only seems to exist in this part of the battle line – on our right and left we can all hear them firing away as cheerfully as ever. The thing started last night – a bitter cold night, with white frost – soon after dusk when the Germans started shouting 'Merry Christmas, Englishmen' to us. Of course our fellows shouted back and presently large numbers of both sides had left their trenches, unarmed, and met in the debatable, shot-riddled, no man's land between the lines. Here the agreement – all on their own – came to be made that we should not fire at each other until after midnight tonight. The men were all fraternizing in the middle (we naturally did not allow them too close to our line) and swapped cigarettes and lies in the utmost good fellowship. Not a shot was fired all night.
The brief moment of truce was a glorious occasion for both sides before they had to go back to fighting each other.
This example is reveals the nature of the state and the violence it produces. We don’t need to fight with each other because their respective states say so. We do not need wars and violence that see destructions of many lives. We need peace with all and we can achieve that, even admits bloody conflicts like World War I.