During World War I, Christmas in 1914 brought about an undeclared truce that resulted from Pope Benedict XV’s effort to persuade warring nations to agree to an official cease-fire to celebrate Christmas.
Although no truce was signed, soldiers in the trenches along the Western Front had heard about the Pope’s ploy. The night before Christmas, British and French troops in their trenches heard the Germans singing Christmas carols, and a spontaneous truce began when combatants from both sides put down their arms and entered no man’s land, the battlefield separated by barbed wire on both sides.
Members of the Kaiser’s army began to intermingle with the French and British soldiers, beginning with the burying of their respective dead comrades who were lying on the killing ground between their trenches. Funeral services were conducted, and the combatants began to exchange gifts.
Also, by the end of the 36 hours that the unofficial truce lasted, the enemies had engaged peacefully by playing soccer, sharing photographs, drinking champagne and exchanging gifts of such items as cigarettes and chocolates.
The chivalry between enemies came to be known as the Christmas Truce. John McCutcheon, the famous folk singer from Wisconsin, wrote and recorded “Christmas in the Trenches 1914,” in 1984. McCutcheon performed in the Historic Masonic Theatre for Appalfolks of America in the mid-1990s.
By the time World War I ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on Nov. 11, 1918, 8.5 million soldiers had died from their wounds or diseases, and the only known unofficial truce that took place during the entire war took place on the Western Front during the first Christmas.
The Christmas Truce leads one to think of the anti-war novel, “All’s Quiet on the Western Front,” by Erich Maria Remanque who chose the Western Front and Germany between 1916 and 1918 for his novel’s setting.
McCutcheon performing his recording of “Christmas in the Trenches 1914” can be viewed and heard on YouTube. He has recorded 41 albums, received six Grammy nominations, and is considered in American folk music circles as one of America’s leading folk singers, songwriters and multi-instrumentalists.
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