The insanity and inhumanity that people can be led to have never been shown more clearly than the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day truce in 1914 during World War I between the Germans and Allied Forces. The trench warfare of WWI saw many soldiers who were wounded or dead being left in the "no man's land" between the trenches separating the two armies. After trying for weeks to kill each other the truce allowed the two warring armies to lay down their arms and fraternize with each other for one day. Here is how Wikipedia describes it:
"The Christmas truce (German: Weihnachtsfrieden; French: Trêve de Noël) was a series of widespread unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front of the First World War around Christmas 1914.
The truce occurred only five months into the war. Hostilities had lulled as leadership on both sides reconsidered their strategies following the stalemate of the Race to the Sea and the indecisive result of the First Battle of Ypres. In the week leading up to 25 December, French, German, and British soldiers crossed trenches to exchange seasonal greetings and talk. In some areas, men from both sides ventured into no man's land on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to mingle and exchange food and souvenirs. There were joint burial ceremonies and prisoner swaps, while several meetings ended in carol-singing. Men played games of football with one another, creating one of the most memorable images of the truce.
The truce reflected a mood of "live and let live", where infantry close together would stop overtly aggressive behavior and often engage in small-scale fraternization, engaging in conversation or bartering for cigarettes. In some sectors, there were occasional ceasefires to allow soldiers to go between the lines and recover wounded or dead comrades; in others, there was a tacit agreement not to shoot while men rested, exercised or worked in view of the enemy. The Christmas truce was particularly significant due to the number of men involved and the level of their participation—even in quiet sectors, dozens of men openly congregating in daylight was remarkable—and are often seen as a symbolic moment of peace and humanity amidst one of the most violent events of human history."
After the one day truce, the soldiers resumed trying to kill the men that they had just enjoyed fraternizing with hours before. All because some leaders decided war was preferable to peace. Something to reflect on this Christmas 106 years later.
Here is a link to watch the truce.
P.S.
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