Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce (Stanley Weintraub, 2001)

I always liked this story, but didn't know very much about it. We rented a recent movie on the topic (mentioned here) and I thought it was very nice, but suspected it was way too dressed up for film-making purposes compared to what more likely was happening on the ground.

But after reading this book it turns out pretty much all the elements shown in the movie were based upon actual events. (The one exception was the female love interest that the film-maker threw into the story.) There were impromptu soccer games in no man's land. Burial of dead. Singing back and forth between the trenches. And yes, the Crown Prince brought a German opera star out (Kirchoff), and he did perform in the trenches. Etc.

Overall - the bottoms-up truce was not likely to stop the war as some overstate. But it clearly was a widespread phenomenon in some sectors of the line.

What a story. Flooded trenches finally froze right as Christmas arrived. The German soldiers were much more into the Christmas celebration than French or British (which the author says was consistent with how things were celebrated those days). German authorities arranged for thousands of small trees to be sent to the front. The Germans started lighting the trees and singing carols; some called across no mans land. Many Germans apparently knew at least some English, having worked in Britain before the war.

This led to meetings, gift exchanges, shared cigars and meals. The famous German pickle helmet was the most popular souvenir. There were impromptu soccer matches and group photos. Gift boxes had been received from the English royal family or the Kaiser, so there was plenty of material to barter.

This of course made the senior officers very unhappy. Censorship wasn't nearly as effective at this stage, so word quickly got out via letters home.

In some areas, each side would fire shots deliberately overhead - aiming too high - when the officers happened by. Then the fraternizing would resume. This dragged on for several days.

When you think about it - and without looking to make some kind of general antiwar statement - you had a pretty typical scenario where all these suckers were lined up trying to kill one another at the behest of the ruling classes. Some wars are pretty clearly necessary (obvious example = taking out a Hitler). In all wars, to get the suckers fired up to fight, the ruling class has to put out a bunch of propaganda. No doubt there were plenty of incidents, but the main propaganda against the Germans was the stories - often deliberately exaggerated - about abuses in occupied Belgium. The consistent reaction of the French and British participants in the "truce" was surprise that the Germans were actually normal human beings. This of course was considered a dangerous idea by the higher-ups - the suckers in the line might lose the proper zeal for killing.

An interesting observation were the differences within units of the German army - the Saxon units often expressed dislike for the ruling Prussians, as well as affinity for their Anglo-Saxon opponents.

The story just strikes me as very powerful. All the war rhetoric sounded pretty ridiculous to these folks as they stood there sharing cigars, looking at each other's family photos, and inviting each other to visit after the war. The ordinary guys on both sides of the line were farmers, tradesmen, etc. - the usual cannon fodder. Men who had a lot in common.

Anyway, after a few days they had to turn around and start killing each other again. Except for the units who were transfered away from the area due to doubts (stemming from their participation in the Christmas truce) about their reliability as killers.