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“We train the world’s greatest fighter pilots and combat ready Airmen” December 2019
Vol. 18, No. 13

Silent Night

The Christmas Truce of 1914

“War is not sustainable when you
come to know your enemy as a person.”
— Opera librettist and Pulitzer Prize winner for
music Mark Campbell
The following is based on actual re-
corded history (as told by veterans).
On Christmas Eve 1914, along the
four-hundred-mile Western Front of
World War I, a famous ceasefire took
place, as enemy soldiers spontaneously
emerged from their trenches, arms
laid aside, to celebrate Christ’s birth
together. They sang carols, exchanged
gifts (jams and candies, cigarettes,
newspapers), kicked around a soccer
ball, and shared photos of loved ones.
They also buried each other’s dead and
prayed communally over the bodies,
led by chaplains. Some even exchanged
home addresses and promised to visit
after the war.
It began with an opera singer who
had been sent to the front by the Ger-
man Crown Prince Wilhelm to entertain
the nation’s troops. Sitting in a trench,
he began to sing “Stille Nacht” (Silent
Night). Having an international repu-
tation, his voice was recognized by a
Frenchman across the way, who started
cheering. The Scottish, stationed
downfield, heard the distant song and
started playing an accompaniment on
bagpipes. Throughout the song, the
German became more engaged, aware
that he had a listening audience across
the void. After the song, all three sides
applauded, giving the opera singer the
courage to step out of his trench and
into No Man’s Land, singing “Adeste
Fideles” (O Come, All Ye Faithful) in
Latin, the universal language of the
church.
The peace was short lived. By New
Year, hostilities had resumed in most
places. The Christmas truce faded like a
dream, and the war claimed more than
16 million lives.
Editor’s note: This article was origi-
nally published on the 100th anniver-
sary of the Christmas Truce of 1914 on
theJesusQuestion.org. Last year, 2018,
marked a hundred years since the end
of World War I and two hundred years
since the composition of the carol “Silent
Night.”
National World War I Museum and Memorial
Courtesy of theJesusQuestion.org Fanciful illustration of the Christmas Truce with British and German soldiers exchanging gifts.