Ninety-Nine Years Ago: A Pause in the War on Christmas

[Omaha Steve]

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/20833-ninety-nine-years-ago-a-pause-in-the-war-on-christmas

Wednesday, 25 December 2013 11:00 By David Swanson

Frank Richards Recalled:

"On Christmas morning we stuck up a board with 'A Merry Christmas' on it. The enemy had stuck up a similar one. Platoons would sometimes go out for twenty-four hours' rest -- it was a day at least out of the trench and relieved the monotony a bit -- and my platoon had gone out in this way the night before, but a few of us stayed behind to see what would happen. Two of our men then threw their equipment off and jumped on the parapet with their hands above their heads. Two of the Germans done the same and commenced to walk up the river bank, our two men going to meet them. They met and shook hands and then we all got out of the trench.



Re-enactors Peter Knight and Stefan Langheinrich, descendants of Great War veterans, shake hands at the 2008 unveiling of a memorial to the 1914 Christmas Truce. (Photo: Alan Cleaver / Wikimedia)


"Buffalo Bill [the Company Commander] rushed into the trench and endeavoured to prevent it, but he was too late: the whole of the Company were now out, and so were the Germans. He had to accept the situation, so soon he and the other company officers climbed out too. We and the Germans met in the middle of no-man's-land. Their officers was also now out. Our officers exchanged greetings with them. One of the German officers said that he wished he had a camera to take a snapshot, but they were not allowed to carry cameras. Neither were our officers.

"We mucked in all day with one another. They were Saxons and some of them could speak English. By the look of them their trenches were in as bad a state as our own. One of their men, speaking in English, mentioned that he had worked in Brighton for some years and that he was fed up to the neck with this damned war and would be glad when it was all over. We told him that he wasn't the only one that was fed up with it. We did not allow them in our trench and they did not allow us in theirs.

"The German Company-Commander asked Buffalo Bill if he would accept a couple of barrels of beer and assured him that they would not make his men drunk. They had plenty of it in the brewery. He accepted the offer with thanks and a couple of their men rolled the barrels over and we took them into our trench. The German officer sent one of his men back to the trench, who appeared shortly after carrying a tray with bottles and glasses on it. Officers of both sides clinked glasses and drunk one another's health. Buffalo Bill had presented them with a plum pudding just before. The officers came to an understanding that the unofficial truce would end at midnight. At dusk we went back to our respective trenches."

FULL story at link.

[johnnyreb]

1. Must see versions: PBS, and the movie Joyeux Noel

A spectacular opera version on PBS, watch online:

The Minnesota Opera presented the world premiere of Silent Night in November, 2011 at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
http://www.pbs.org/program/silent-night/

And a fabulous 2005 movie;

[Javaman]

2. Imagine if they instead just walked away?

and told their superiors, "up yours!"

[Ron Obvious]

3. K&R

I've always found this a profoundly moving episode in human history.