Soldiers Find Goodwill Toward Men In Miracle Truce Of WWI

November 19, 2001

University Park, Pa. ------ As 2001 holidays approach amid world tensions, an impromptu 1914 Christmas truce between warring soldiers shines brightly as a true peace on earth miracle, says a new book by a Penn State cultural historian.

"Silent Night. The Remarkable Christmas Truce of 1914," published by The Free Press of New York, tells how English, Belgian, French and German soldiers, covered in mud and living in lice-infested trenches in Flanders, spontaneously laid down their arms, sang carols, played soccer, and shared food, tobacco and souvenirs such as uniform buttons, to the dismay of their generals. The spirit of goodwill originated in early December as the war stalemated, and on Christmas Eve, the shooting stopped over much of the fighting zones.

Author Stanley Weintraub, Penn State professor emeritus of arts and humanities, notes, "Friendly intercourse with the enemy was absolutely prohibited. Any slackening in the action during Christmas week might undermine whatever sacrificial spirit there was among troops who lacked ideological fervor.

"Separated by the miserable waste of No Man’s Land as Christmas approached, troops seemed likely to enjoy nothing of the holiday’s ambience, not even mere physical warmth. Cold rain had muddied and even flooded many trenches and decomposing bodies floated to the surface," the book says. "Candle stubs lit dripping, rotting sandbagged walls. Floors were foul-smelling viscous mush."

For both Germans and English, Christmas was a major holiday culturally and emotionally, he says. And as Christmas approached, Tommy (nickname for the English) and Jerry (nickname for Germans) impulsively decided to shout greetings and threw food to each other, with some actually drinking toasts together. Some troops sang carols in English or German, and exchanged gifts sent to the front lines. Many German soldiers placed small candle-lit trees on the parapets of their trenches, although earlier, a single lighted match would lead to shooting.

"There was little actual hatred between the men from either country," Weintraub notes. "Many Germans were familiar with English customs because they had been working in England before the war, some as hotel waiters, cooks, cabbies and barbers. But they were called home and drafted into the military as hostilities increased between their governments. Both sides fought as all soldiers fight in most wars — for survival and to protect the men who had become extended family."

In his research, the author found accounts in soldiers’ letters and memoirs, and newspapers about the truce. According to the book, Lt. Bruce Bairnsfather, an English engineer and reservist, said he could hear songs coming from the German trenches, such as "Stille Nacht" (Silent Night in German), followed in response by irreverent songs from suddenly jolly Englishmen. A boot flew through the air and landed in an English trench, filled with sausages and chocolates. Bairnsfather, looking for something to throw back, offered plum pudding.

In other places, a few signboards had popped up from the trenches either in English or fractured English from the Germans: "YOU NO FIGHT, WE NO FIGHT."

Still the peace was not universal. Often, machine gun fire would answer attempts at camaraderie. But eventually, the spirit of goodwill spread to the Belgian and French soldiers also fighting in the trenches. In some areas, the truce lasted into New Year’s Day of 1915.

"The end of World War I and the failure of the ensuing peace later would validate the Christmas cease-fire as the only meaningful episode in the apocalypse," Weintraub says in his book. "It suggested that the men fighting and often dying were proxies for governments and issues that had little to do with their everyday lives.

"In all wars since the beginning, both sides often allowed time to bury the dead, to pray to the gods or to negotiate a peace, but none had ever occurred on the scale of, or with the duration, or with the potential for changing things as when the shooting suddenly stopped on Christmas Eve, 1914," the author adds.

"The difference in 1914 was its potential to become more then a temporary respite. The event now seems unreal and incredible, and when it was over, men returned to the grim business of killing for three more years."

There is no official monument to this remarkable event. Weintraub says the truce survives only in memoirs, letters, song, drama and story. "For the rival governments, it was imperative to make even temporary peace unappealing and unworkable," the Penn State cultural historian notes. "But the memories of 1914 persist and ask the intriguing question, "What if…?".

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Contacts:

Vicki Fong (814) 865-9481 vfong@psu.edu

EDITORS: Dr. Weintraub is at 814-466-6057 or at sqw4@psu.edu by email. For media review copies, contact Jenny Dworkin, The Free Press, at 212-632-4994 and fax number at 212-632-4989.