The 1914 Christmas Truce of WWI
Christmas this year is unprecedentedly different. Unlike past Christmases, the warmth, togetherness, and festive nature of what made the Holidays isn’t present this year for many. This year, many people won’t be able to see their families, or visit their loved ones to sit and share a warm Christmas meal together. Many children and grandparents won’t be able to share gifts and smiles together under the same roof. Some may say that this is the worst Christmas of all time. This isn’t just something that’s true only in a handful of homes and places here and there…this is worldwide.
But a sad and somber Christmas isn’t really something new. It has always been around ever since it has first been celebrated, really. Many lonely people are reminded even more of their loneliness during this time. Many battle with their inner demons and dreadful, painful emotions, ones that cannot be drowned by the festive jingles and bright lights that is normally associated with the blinding capitalistic nature that the holiday has become. Many grieve as Christmas was something they celebrated with a loved one who has passed away, and with them went the happiness that the celebration once brought.
As I wrote and pondered about Christmas this year, I still nonetheless find a lot of blessings to be deeply grateful to God for. Besides, the real meaning of Christmas is about God sending His beloved Son Jesus Christ to the world — for us — as a true testament of His love. I still have my family, health, friends, the necessities for living, and an amazing job. But, I wondered if there were moments and times in human history that perhaps came close to this year’s somber Christmas.
A week ago, I sat down with my mom and dad to watch a Christmas musical special by Sight & Sound Theatres. In their musical, they paid homage to the different historical stories revolving the celebration of Christmas, from how many of its carols and ornaments came to be and the stories behind them, to major human events such as Christmas during WWII. But one event stuck out and struck a deep chord to me: The Christmas Truce of 1914.
In the early years of the 20th Century, the world was thrown into a bloody state of chaos, destruction and war. On June 28th, 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb Yugoslav nationalist, assassinated the Austro-Hungarian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie in the city of Sarajevo. This single act of murder led to one of the bloodiest and most destructive human conflicts the world has ever known: The “Great” War…World War I.
Sardonically dubbed “The War to End All Wars,” WWI would scorch the world from 1914 to 1918, and in that four-year span consumed 68,208,000 lives. Political strife tore families and people apart. Husbands were ripped away from their wives, sons from their mothers, fathers from their children, brothers from their sisters…many of who will never return again. Those who do return alive no longer were the ones that left before the war; forever changed by the horrors and brutality of a war that they were forced to fight. A war for “the greater good of humanity.”
When the war was first declared, people celebrated in the streets. They filled the streets and cheered the people of power from below their royal balconies. Finally — the good will defeat and destroy the evildoers. Young men were eager to serve their country. Many did not hesitate to head towards the recruitment centres and sign up for their respective armies — for the sake of their countries and families. The ideals of heroism, bravery, glory and duty is burning in their hearts while they await deployment.
Countries and their governments rush to produce and publish patriotic, heart-stirring propaganda to enlist as much men as possible. People — young and old — were indoctrinated to think that the war was a good thing and to hate “the enemy.” In schools, children in the wee age of eight are brainwashed in schools by their governments that “the enemy” is not human; that they are worse than human. They are taught that “the enemy” crucify babies and eat their enemies. In churches, many parishes preach hatred by twisting and perverting religious doctrines by turning it into hateful propaganda, loading scriptures with bullets filled with anger and hatred and firing it into the people’s hearts, stirring their emotions with “pride and nationalism.”
They were promised that the war would be over before Christmas, and their people back home were promised that their men will be back with their families and loved ones as soon as possible.
But what awaited them did not have any glimpse of the promised glamour of war. No glorious embrace. What greeted them was simply hell on earth.
Endless barrages of artillery fire rained down upon them. Trench warfare gave them trench foot and diseases. They were weathered not only by the natural elements but also by lead from across No Man’s Land. Day by day, men are led to fall dead onto the rat-infested, barb-wired ground by men thousands of miles away from the battlefields. In the Western Front is where the war saw its heaviest. On August 22, 1914, a single day took 27,000 lives during the Battle of the Frontiers. The battle alone took 1,357,000 lives which was sent to fight other people’s wars.
As in any war, helpless civilians were caught in the evils of powerful men. The war took an estimated 6–13 million innocent men, women and children. The number of wounded were in the millions as well. Innumerable others were displaced, or have gone missing.
As the months rolled in, the whole world impatiently awaits the promised end of the war by Christmas.
September.
Soldiers awake in their maggot-infested trenches hoping to hear the end of it all.
October.
Wives awaken alone in their bed in tears praying that their husband will be knocking on their home’s door.
November.
Children asking their mother where their father is and if they will see him by the time it was the moment to open presents.
Five months into the war, and it was sadly clear that the promise was built on false hope and would be broken. To raise the morale of its people, the belligerent countries and their respective governments urged its citizens to send gifts and support to their men in the battlefields. Everything from letters, small tokens, photographs to blankets, food, chocolates, drink and cigarettes were shipped over to where the soldiers were. Princess Mary and the Royal Family of the British Empire sent out small packages of goodwill that was later on called “The Princess Mary Christmas gift box.”
Finally, Christmas Eve dawns over the pockmarked battlefields. But unlike the Christmas Eves that came before that year’s, this Christmas Eve awakened some of them not with the sound of warm family cheer, but with cold, frostbitten shell shocks and gunfire erupting from their side and the other. In other parts of the front, it was eerily quiet, with no signs of conflict erupting above the trenches. Tension was nonetheless in the air, as belligerents are awaiting both orders from up top and who will go for the first move to start yet another day in a war that might draw out even longer than expected. Soldiers take their watch and guard their respective trenches, while others sleep in, dreaming for it all to go away. Other soldiers write to their loved ones of how how much they miss them, and that they hope to survive the war long enough to be able to make it home…or at least to next year’s Christmas. As Christmas Eve unfurled, the soldiers found ways to make things festive despite the grim nature of their environment. Many shared rations with each other. The French broke out the champagne bottles that they received from their loved ones back home. The British had their harmonicas with them, so they started to sing Christmas carols over chocolate and cigarettes. The Russians had vodka and sweets together. The Germans loved Christmas the most; as it is essentially a part of their culture. So as nighttime fell, German soldiers placed candles on top of their trenches and even found ways to make Christmas trees and placed candles on them as ornaments, and started to sing Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht.
Then, all over the Western front, miracles started to happen.
As the Germans sang Silent Night in their language, the Brits started singing along in English. The French and Scots traded Christmas greetings with the Germans on the other side. Soldiers started waving at each other. In some parts of the front, some soldiers started to courageously come out of the trenches with their hands up and with white flags to signal the opposing force that they are unarmed. Slowly, many other soldiers followed suit, climbing out of the trenches with their small and simple prized possessions in tow. Slowly and cautiously, both sides walk towards the middle of No Man’s Land. A German soldier meets a French soldier and extends his right hand, while the left hand holds a small makeshift Christmas tree with candles.
“Fröhliche Weihnachten!” the German soldier blurts out.
The French soldier accept’s his supposed enemy’s handshake, and then takes out his flask and offers it to the German.
“Joyeux Noël!” the French soldier replies.
Officers climbed out as well, meeting with their opponent’s fellow officers, and there and then, unsanctioned offers for truce were given and taken between battle-worn men over small gifts of tobacco and sweets. Despite the language barrier between them, gestures of handshakes, hugs and laughter were enough to warm each other during the cold, wintry night. They started to trade chocolates, cigarettes and alcohol with each other. Others traded buttons, patches, crosses, and even helmets and other small tokens while some started to give each other haircuts and shaving. Some soldiers were able to smuggle personal portable cameras with them, and were able to take photos of this miraculous peaceful moment between human beings.
This fraternization — peaceful and at times friendly interactions between opposing forces — was a sight all over the Western and Eastern Fronts that went well into the late night. As Christmas morning rolled in, many of the soldiers still had the Christmas spirit in them, and the fraternizations continued. Many held Christmas mass together with their chaplains. Others talked about their loved ones back home, sharing photos of their girlfriends, wives, and children. Some British were stunned that the “barbaric brutes” that they were supposed to eradicate from the face of the earth speaks close to perfect English.
“How is your English better than my German?” a Brit soldier asks a German soldier, as he offers his Princess Mary gift tin.
“I lived with my wife and three children in London before the war. I ran a barbershop there before being called by the Fatherland.” replied the German, as he offers a cigarette back.
French soldiers were stunned to learn that the German in front of them lived in their neighbourhood in Paris and ran a butcher shop that they frequently passed by.
“We’re all descended from the Saxons after all.”
Captain Robert Miles, King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, who was attached to the Royal Irish Rifles recalled in an edited letter that was published in the Daily Mail and the Wellington Journal & Shrewsbury News in January 1915, following his death in action on 30 December 1914
“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.” (Sourced from Wikipedia)
As they continue to converse, they start to learn that they are tired of the war. Some didn’t even want it in the first place.
Slowly, their perceived notions of each other started to break apart.
Their enemies have families. Children. Wives. Hobbies. Love for music and great food.
Slowly, they started to realize…their “enemy” is not the monster that they were told was merciless…but a simple human being, who only yearns to live a quiet and peaceful life.
As the fraternization in No Man’s Land went on, many soldiers saw the bodies of their dead comrades frozen and rotting in the mud. So each side agreed to take the time to collect their dead and give them a proper, dignified burial. Some helped their enemies carry their dead over to their side, and vice versa. Many chaplains held funerals for both their own, and their enemies — paying respects for the heroic fallen while praying for the end of the senseless war.
In some parts of the fronts, football matches even started between opposing armies, as recalled through the accounts of many who participated in the truce. Although not photographically documented, many veterans would later recall it happening. Many soldiers also wrote back to their loved ones recalling the games. Some claims state that the Germans won 3–2 in one match, while another match saw the Scots beat the Germans 4–1.
They improvised the game of football however they can. They used shovels to mark the net posts, and shovels for other indications for the field of play. Some did not have footballs in hand, so they used cans or bully beef tins as substitutes instead. Lieutenant Kurt Zehmisch of the 134th Saxon Infantry Regiment recalled that the English “brought a soccer ball from their trenches, and pretty soon a lively game ensued. How marvellously wonderful, yet how strange it was.” (Sourced from Wikipedia)
Many from the top military brass were furious and angered by the fraternizations. This was seen as weakness as the whole idea behind war is to kill the other man that is labeled the enemy. Commanding officers were instructed to sternly inform their men to not engage the enemy in friendship. Doing so will result to harsh discipline and penalties, and can even be deemed as acts of treason. Many were instructed to shoot on sight if any sign of fraternization from the enemy is even perceived.
The media received word of the fraternizations as people back home received letters from their brave men detailing the peaceful exchanges, which they in turn reported to the media. Public reaction was mixed; from happiness to confusion, and even anger. Many saw that humanity is truly capable of peace, while others saw that their men are weak. Others just couldn’t comprehend it: their boys are all pally with “inhumane creatures who rape women and impale babies for fun.” In France, the government purportedly tried to censor their soldiers’ mail by going through them and making sure any mention of the fraternizations do not make it out in public, for fear of public distrust and loss of morale.
In a letter to the editor published in the Aberdeen “Daily Journal” on January 9, 1915, an irate Scotsman writes:
“I am surprised and disappointed to think that British soldiers would have agreed to shake hand with murderers and thieves. Was all this done with the concurrence of their officers and will it be mentioned in Sir John French’s next dispatch? I doubt not. In the same issue of your paper where the handshaking is mentioned we read report of the French Commission appointed to investigate acts committed by the enemy in violation of international law that ‘outrages on women and girls have been of unprecedented frequency’ and ‘the soldiers and officers’ finished off the wounded and mercilessly killed the un-offensive, sparing neither women nor children’. Fie on ye, Scotsmen! There is not much of the boasted Highland Pride left in you when you would sell it for a German souvenir.” (Source: Collectors Weekly)
Despite the friendly Christmas fraternizations happening across the 500-mile Western Front, many sadly did not participate. Many soldiers still died during Christmas Eve and Christmas Day due to clashes. Many stood their ground and maintained the rules of war. In one recollection, British soldiers wrote of agreeing to a truce with their Saxon-German counterparts, only to witness comrades being gunned down by more zealous Prussian-German troops. This was detailed in this anonymous account published in the Whitehaven “News” on January 7, 1915:
“We had a rather sad occurrence on Christmas Day. Directly in front of our regiment there were two German regiments. On our right was a regiment of Prussian Guards and on our left was a Saxon regiment. On Christmas morning some of our fellows shouted across to them saying that if they would not fire our chaps would meet them half-way between the trenches and spend Christmas as friends. They consented to do so. Our chaps at once went out and when in the open Prussians fired on our men killing two and wounding several more. The Saxons, who behaved like gentlemen, threatened the Prussians if they did the same trick again. Well, during Christmas Day our fellows and the Saxons fixed up a table between the two trenches and they spent a happy time together, and exchanged souvenirs and presented one another with little keepsakes. They said they did not want war, and think the Kaiser is quite in the wrong. They were continually falling out with the Prussians — they are the people who are the cause of the war.”
As with the reality of the war, the happy encounters between opposing forces had to sooner or later end. As the war raged on into the new year and further on, many of the soldiers who showed peace and love to each other eventually had to kill their brother. Imagine talking to an enemy soldier about their lives, dreams and ambitions only to be forced to aim a rifle and put a bullet in him. To exchange stories of each other’s wives only to train an artillery cannon that will take each other away from the very wives they just lovingly opened up to each other with just a night ago.
The fraternizations did still go on as the war raged on for the next three years after 1914, but it dwindled down drastically as the military enforced strict rules and punishments against befriending the enemy. The governments of the belligerent countries ensured to quiet the news of the fraternizations back home to bolster military might and to ensure public opinion stays pro-war. Soldiers became jaded to it all, and were forced to continue their fatal duties of killing their fellow brother and to fight a war that went on to claim precious lives in the millions.
I can only imagine the true nature of what went through their minds in that time of war. As much as I reflected on this incredible story, It is nothing compared to hearing it from the actual people who were there in that incredible Christmas days of 1914. I highly suggest that you listen to their stories below:
War is senseless. It is so sad that even after history itself has laid the foundation in how to avoid making these bloody and evil mistakes, humans seem to really never learn.
But at the same time, despite the loud, dark boomings of war, the spirit of Christmas shone a quiet but bright light through this miraculous story of love and kindness despite all odds. Despite being capable of evil and destruction, human beings also have it in them to seek peace, love and to be generous and kind. Its stories like these that I wish were being told more over the constant negativity that is always sold all around us. It’s through these acts of human kindness that I try my best to be the best human being that I can in the sight of God, and to just simply be kind to others.
A century later, many come together every year to remember and commemorate those who participated in the Christmas fraternizations of 1914 and the years after that. Many of the participants’ descendants come together, dressed in their respective nation’s uniforms and pay their respects and show love towards each other, just like how their forefathers did some hundred years ago.
This story reminds me of the peace and love that we ought to show one another, just like how Jesus was when He walked this world. When He first lived here on earth, it was great time of oppression for the people of Israel. The Romans were going hell-bent on world domination, and the people subjugated by the Roman Empire were made to suffer. With any show of force, there will always be a response of counter hostilities and rebellious sentiment. The Jewish people longed to God for a king that would save them from their oppressors; a leader that will lead them through military victory and conquest against their enemies. But the King that was delivered to them by God was mightier and more powerful than they can ever imagined…except it wasn’t in their own human terms of violence and revenge, but of peace.
As Christmas is the celebration of Jesus’ birth, I reflect on how Jesus’ birth happened during a time of war. God came in the form of an innocent baby in a simple, peaceful stable in a manger — devoid of kingly and royal materials. His humble birth mirrors the rule of King Herod — the king of Israel during Roman Rule — who was as violent and oppressive as any wartime king in history would come. When Herod came across the news that the prophecy of a King being born has been fulfilled, his immediate reaction was to kill this baby. In fact, he wanted Him killed so badly that he ordered all babies to be killed to ensure that his position as king of the land is secure. Yet, Jesus survived to go on and be a counter-cultural force, telling everyone to love their enemies, and to do good to those who hate them.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour’ and ‘Hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven…” — Matthew 5:43–45
The acts of what those soldiers did a century ago, reminds me of Jesus’ message. In a world where evil puts fear and strife into the hearts of men, God’s love can be a courageous weapon that can break the chains of hatred through peace and forgiveness.
I pray that you can find ways to love and be kind to others during this Christmas season, especially in this trying times that we are all in. I also pray that God will bless you.
Have a blessed, Merry Christmas, and remember…
Love Others Like Jesus Loves You.
Sources and other great links to watch and read:
