The Christmas Truce of 1914

by Gary G. Kohls

A century ago, before the start of World War I (referred to in the history books as "The Great War" or, navely, "The War to End all Wars"), arfare as a !eans of settling dis"utes bet een nations as often regarded as an honorable undertaking# $ilitary officers, hich ca!e fro! the aristocracy, ere res"ected and honored because of their i!"ressive unifor!s and the !edals and ribbons on their chests# $ilitary veterans, dead or alive, ere regarded as heroes and the acts of ar they "artici"ated in ere considered to be glorious# $any of the !ales on the "lanet see!ed to look for ard to the e%citing act of going off to ar# A century ago, little &rench and 'ritish schoolchildren, not yet the age of !ilitary conscri"tion, ere indoctrinated in the belief that Ger!any as evil incarnate and deserving of death, and Ger!an schoolchildren ere taught to believe the sa!e things about the &rench and the English# The "eace that had e%isted for decades in Euro"e since the &ranco()russian War had resulted in tre!endous "rogress in culture, co!!erce and international relations# Euro"eans of all stri"es crossed borders freely, des"ite the significant class and ealth dis"arity# There as very little ho!elessness or chronic hunger# *e s and +hristians inter!ingled and inter!arried ith fe eyes being raised# The !a,ority of "eo"le ere basically content, des"ite the kno ledge of the e%cess lu%ury ealth of the ruling classes# -on(de!ocratic e!"ires ruled by kings, e!"erors, ca"italists, generals and the bureaucratic hangers(on of the ruling elite see!ed to have everything going for the! in order to stay in "o er# .es"ite their ealth and "o er, !any of the ruling classes ere still looking for ays to enrich the!selves or further secure the ill(gotten gains that they had already accrued# /o!e of these elite ere also ho"ing to e%"and their colonial e!"ires by the use of !ilitary force directed against innocent "eo"les ho ere eaker or other ise less able to defend the!selves# /o!e of those in "o er desired to reca"ture or !aintain control of dis"uted territories (e%# Alsace(0orraine), but they all bound the!selves by a co!"le% eb of treaties that "ro!ised nations to co!e to the !ilitary aid of another if one of the! as attacked# When Archduke &erdinand as assassinated in /ara,evo, the "eace ra"idly unraveled and, by a series of errors of ,udg!ent, bureaucratic inefficiencies, ine"titude, and a lack of co!!unication skills and a refusal to risk the dishonor of "turning the other cheek" all

the treaty nations declared ar on each other in a do!ino effect and the first orld ar as on# The !o!entu! that had built u" over the decades by the "ro"aganda in the schools turned out to be unsto""able and the indoctrinated boys, ignorant of the tragedy of "ast ars and looking for glory and a ay out of their boredo!, rushed to the recruiting offices to sign u" for ar# And the ar as on# The ar ulti!ately destroyed four e!"ires, che!ically "oisoned the earth and ater su""lies ith the !assive a""lication of !ilitary to%ins and killed off 12,333,333 "eo"le, 435 of ho! ere young nave co!batants# An entire generation of young &rench, 'ritish and Ger!an !en as asted, either killed, ounded or rendered insane or cri!inal# 6irtually all of the casualties had been brain( ashed to believe that ar as glorious rather than satanic# )redictably, the +hristian churches chi!ed in ith their nationalistic blindness and refused to teach hat *esus had taught his follo ers about violence# The "ul"its on all sides, 'ritish, /cottish, &rench, Ger!an, Austrian, 7ungarian, 8ussian, Italian, etc, all rang ith "atriotic fervor and flags aving, telling their doo!ed sons that it as their +hristian duty to obey their secular leaders and to go off to ar to kill the fingered ene!y on the other side# &ive !onths into the !ass slaughter of trench arfare, the +hrist!as holiday ca!e, holidays that re!inded the! of the safe ho!e they had foolishly left behind# The "hysically e%hausted, s"iritually deadened and co!bat(trau!ati9ed soldiers on each side of -o $an:s 0and sought so!e res"ite fro! the cruelty of the fro9en trenches# The frontline soldiers ere at the end of their ro"e because of the unrelenting slee" de"rivation, hy"eralertness, bad food, rats, lice, frostbitten toes and fingers, deadly artillery bo!bard!ents, !achine gun !assacres and suicidal assaults that ere stu"idly ordered by the co!!anding officers in the rear# The horrors of -o $an:s 0and ere "unctuated by the screa!s and "leas for hel" of the ounded soldiers ho ere hel"lessly hanging on the barbed ire or lying in the bo!b craters, each one dying an agoni9ing death that often lingered for days# /o, on +hrist!as eve, .ece!ber ;2, 1412, the troo"s on either side of the front line, settled do n to s"ecial food, s"ecial li<uor, s"ecial rest = and the singing of +hrist!as carols# >aiser Wilhel! had ordered that 133,333 +hrist!as trees be delivered to the Ger!an trenches for +hrist!as eve, thinking that the e%"ense of such an irrational act as ,ustified because, after all, the ar as soon to be on by the su"erior Ger!an ar!y and so using the su""ly lines for such unnecessary ite!s see!ed to be an acce"table e%"ense# And then a s"ontaneous event ha""ened at various s"ots on the ?33(!ile(long trench line that stretched bet een 'elgiu! and &rance# The singing of +hrist!as carols started a

chain of events that resulted in an event that as never to be re"eated in the history of arfare after that night# The tradition that has e!erged fro! this fa!ous and true story as that the Ger!ans started singing /tille -acht (/ilent -ight) and the 'ritish res"onded ith another carol# And the &rench and /cots ,oined in and all sides sang together in their o n tongues, the /cots ith their bag"i"es, acco!"anying the Ger!an singing# And the sense of their co!!on hu!anity, hich had been driven out of the! in the schools and in basic training, broke through to consciousness# 7o!esickness !ay have set in or "erha"s the futility of the slaughter beca!e clear or "erha"s the reali9ation that they ould have had things if they had !et in different circu!stances# @r "erha"s their sheer e%haustion took the fight out of the!# 7o ever it started, the soldiers disobeyed the orders to kill (their co!!anding officers ere, after all, celebrating +hrist!as eve back here it as safe fro! the killing), dro""ed their guns and ca!e out of their trenches to !eet one another# The for!er ene!ies shared "ictures fro! ho!e, chocolate candy, ine = and soccer ga!es ere "layed# &riendshi"s ere !ade and every soldier ho e%"erienced the events as forever changed# The !otivation to blindly kill a "erson ho had never done the! rong suddenly vanished, never to return# /o "o erful as the e%"erience, that !ost of the affected !en had to be ithdra n fro! the front lines, re"laced ith fresh troo"s ho had never had the life(changing e%"erience# &raterni9ation in ti!e of ar as an act of treason that as "unishable by su!!ary e%ecution# Ane%"ectedly, the co!!anding officers, not anting to dra "ublic attention to this aberrant but "otentially contagious e"isode, and kno ing that such actions ould threaten the ar effort if it so!eho beca!e idely kno n, ordered no e%ecutions# There ere "unish!ents, ho ever, ith !any of the Ger!an soldiers ho refused to fight being transferred to the eastern front to kill and die in the ar ith 8ussia# The "ri9e( inning !ovie that beautifully characteri9es the s"irit of the +hrist!as truce of 1412 is Joyeux Noel (&rench for $erry +hrist!as)# It is a !oving tale hose basic story co!es directly fro! surviving veterans ho e%"erienced the event and fro! letters fro! soldiers ho rote ho!e about it, letters that so!eho survived !ilitary censorshi"# The story that is so beautifully told in *oyeu% -oel needs to be retold again and again in this era of the cleverly orchestrated, bankru"ting, "er"etual "A/(led" ars of e!"ire that are being fought by our indoctrinated, soon to be e%hausted young !en and o!en, so!e of ho! are doo!ed to a life over hel!ed by the horrendous realities of "osttrau!atic stress disorder, socio"athic "ersonality disorder, suicidality, ho!icidality, loss of religious faith, "er!anent and virtually untreatable trau!atic brain in,ury, and a host of other nearly i!"ossible(to(treat "roble!s that are e!inently "reventable#

$ilitarists re!ain fearful about allo ing their co!batants to e%"erience the hu!anity of their future targeted victi!s, hether they are average civilians fro! Iran, Ira<, Afghanistan or -orth >orea# $ilitary cha"lains, ho are su""osed to be nurturers of the souls of their soldiers, are also forbidden by their su"erior officers to talk about the Golden 8ule or about love of ene!ies or about the ethics of the /er!on on the $ount# They are a "art of the a""aratus that re,ects all of the Ten +o!!and!ents, es"ecially the one that says "thou shalt not kill#" $ilitary cha"lains, in their defense, !ay the!selves have never heard about the nonviolence of the gos"els or the re,ection of en!ity because their ho!e churches or their se!inaries never e!"hasi9ed those realities -ear the end of Joyeux Noel there is a "o erful scene, a confrontation bet een the +hrist(like cha"lain and his /cottish bisho" ,ust as the cha"lain as giving last rites to a dying /cottish soldier# The bisho" had co!e to relieve the cha"lain of his duties and abusively ordered hi! to return to his ho!e "arish because of his "treasonous and sha!eful" behavior (being !erciful to the ene!y) in a ar 9one# The cha"lain tried to e%"lain to the authoritarian, "ro( ar, Ger!an(hating bisho" that he had ,ust "erfor!ed "the !ost i!"ortant !ass of !y life" and anted to stay ith his troo"s ho ere losing their +hristian faith# @n +hrist!as eve, Ger!an, /cottish and &rench +hristian soldiers (and one *e ish Ger!an officer) had all gathered for the !ass on +hrist!as eve, had "rayed together and had listened to a "o erful rendition of Ave $aria# The bisho" denied the re<uest# The bisho" then delivered a "ro( ar ser!on (the e%act ords having been obtained fro! a ser!on that as delivered by an Anglican bisho" in England later in the ar) to the troo"s ho ere being brought in to re"lace the suddenly reluctant soldiers# The dra!atic res"onse of the cha"lain re"resents a serious arning to the +hristian church in A!erica and also to its ar(,ustifying citi9ens and their "olitical leaders# This is a "rofoundly i!"ortant and very !oving fil! that deserves to be annual holiday fare, alongside .ickens: A Christmas Carol# December 9, 2009 Gary Kohls, MD an associate of E ery Church a !eace Church, is a "racticin# "hysician in Duluth, MN$