The Myriad Chronicles
The Christmas Truce - World War I - 1914
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| The Christmas Truce Christmas Day - 1914 By Rinse.Com "When Men Said No To War" On Christmas Day, 1914, in the first year of World War I, German, British, and French soldiers disobeyed their superiors and fraternized with "the enemy" alonh two-thirds of the Western Front. German troops held Christmas trees up out of the trenches with signs, "Merry Christmas." You no shoot, we no shoot." Thousands of troops streamed across a no-man's land strewn with rotting corpses. They sang Christmas carols, exchanged photographs of loved ones back home, shared rations, played football, even roasted some pigs. Soldiers embraced men they had been trying to kill a few short hours before. They agreed to warn each other if the top brass forced them to fire their weapons, and to aim high. A shudder tan through the high command on either side. Here was disaster in the making: soldiers declaring their brotherhood with each other and refusing to fight. Generals on both sides declared this spontaneous peacemaking to be treasonous and subject to court martial. By March, 1915 the fraternization movement had been eradicated and the killing machine put back in full operation. By the time of the armistice in 1918, fifteen million would be slaughtered. Not many people have heard the story of the Christmas Truce. Military leader have not gone out of their way to publicize it. On Christmas Day, 1988, a story in the Boston Globe mentioned that a local FM radio host played "Christmas in the Trenches," a ballad about the Christmas Truce, several times and was startled by the effect. The song became the most requested recording during the holidays in Boston on several FM stations. "Even more startling than the number of requests I get is the reaction to the ballad afterward by callers who hadn't heard it before," siad the radiohost. "They telephone me deeply oved, sometimes in tears, asking, "What the hell did I just hear?" I think I know why the callers were in tears. The Christmas Truce story goes against most of what we have been taught about people. It gives us a glimpse of the world as we wish it could be and says, "This really happened once." It reminds us of those thoughts we keep hidden away, out of the range of the TV and newspaper stores that tell us how trivial and mean human life is. It is like hearing that our deepest wishes really are true: the world really could be different. Exerpted froom David G. Stratman, We CAN Change the World: The Real Meaning of Everyday Life (New Democracy Books, 1991). Available for $3.00 from New Democracy Books, P.O. Box 427, Boston, MA 02130. Comment: From Patricia Doyle, PhD 12-24-06 Hello Jeff - I was so happy to see the Christmas Truce article at this time of year. It was an amazing spontaneous event and sadley so few know or knew of it. The top brass really did not know how to handle the situation at the time. Lone voices rising out of the trenches saying "Merry Christmas." Amazing. One opposing soldier was given a German helmet by a German soldier who said he needed it back for a parade the next day. He trusted that his opponent would give it back to him. These folks had so much trust in their hearts for one another. They were, on all sides, total vicitms of circumstance and greed and international 'politics'... Sadly, the aftermath of WWI was the direct cause of WW2, and is the cause of much of our troubles today. America was duped into entering WWI. That hideous war should have never happened at all. Again, thanks for posting the article. Patty Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics Univ of West Indies Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message board: http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php Also my new website: http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/ Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa Go with God and in Good Health |