Christmas in the Trenches: An Unexpected Peace (1914)
As Christmas drew near in 1914, the warring German and allied armies were stalemated. They were entrenched on the 475 miles of the western front of Europe from the North Sea to the Swiss border. It was the first Christmas of the first World War. Conditions were miserable, icy, and muddy. The opposing trenches were in shouting distance of each other, sometimes within fifty yards. The lines were separated by entanglements of barbed wire and a narrow ”no man’s land” that was a killing field. But the soldiers along the lines made their own truce. They quit killing each other for Christmas. The initiative came from the soldiers in the trenches, not the generals or national leaders. It was an unexpected peace.
What can we learn today from this stunning moment in a war? How can we change the narrative of our lives and of this time in our history?