OT: The Christmas Truce

[Guest guest]

The Christmas Truce' -

When Men Said No To War

12-22-6

 

 

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 " along 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 Chrismas 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 ran 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

leaders 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, " said the

radiohost. " They telephone me deeply moved, 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 range of the TV

and newspaper stories 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.

 

 

 

Excerpted from 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.

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t suppose it’s possible to post the mp3 of that touching ballad here,

but I’ll send it to anyone who emails me offlist and asks for it. Merry

Christmas to all!

 

 

 

Dave

 

 

 

" Organized war is not a human instinct. It is a highly planned and

co-operative form of theft. "

 

-Jacob Bronowski

 

 

 

 

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