Wojny światowe zapisały się w historii jako czas niewyobrażalnego okrucieństwa. A jednak w samym sercu tzw. wielkiej wojny (czyli I wojny światowej) wydarzyło się coś niezwykłego. W Boże Narodzenie 1914 roku żołnierze walczących stron przerwali ogień, by wspólnie śpiewać kolędy, wymieniać się drobnymi podarunkami. O kulisach tego wydarzenia dowiemy się z tekstu Lilii z klasy 2a, artykułu, który pojawił się na łamach naszej anglojęzycznej gazetki szkolnej AimHigh Magazine. Zapraszamy do lektury!
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Christmas
The day that stopped the war (for a moment)
The Great War (or WWI) – which was one of the most terrible conflicts in the history of humanity, widespread and having a major impact on a lot of aspects of life, influenced not only politics, military, society and economy, but also had an impact on the world’s culture. Nevertheless, something unimaginable happened, which confirmed the power of God’s peace and humanity in people. The Christmas Truce, as it was called, between the German and the Allied soldiers, happened before and during Christmas and was a brilliant example of the fact that even in the dreadful war reality, people are able to remember about God’s light.
World War I started on the 28th of July 1914 and quickly became a large-scale conflict. Countries in Europe divided into two alliances: the Central Powers – the German Empire, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire – and the Triple Entente – the Russian Empire, Great Britain and France, with their allies, among others, Belgium. The first months of the war were very tense, and the fronts moved quickly. German troops – the troops of a military superpower – although fighting on both sides of their country, quickly captured a large part of Europe: on the western front, they occupied Luxembourg, all of Belgium and almost took over Paris. Then Great Britain joined the war, and the Germans had to fight the Allied troops. In the autumn, as a result of battles and the unpreparedness and exhaustion of troops on both sides, they started digging trenches.
On the eve of Christmas, about 100,000 soldiers on both sides stopped firing unofficially. The first truce – the most famous one – began on Christmas Eve, the 24th of December 1914, near the area of the Belgian city of Ypres. Soldiers on both sides received gifts from their relatives, which contained not only warm clothes, medicines and letters, but even Christmas decorations. The Germans decorated their trenches with candles and Christmas trees. As part of the celebration, the Germans sang German carols, and the Englishmen joined them with English carols. Soldiers also shouted greetings to each other, from which the famous dialogue arose:
- Germans: “A happy Christmas to you, Englishmen!”
- Englishmen: “Same to you, Fritz, but dinna o’er eat yourself wi’ they sausages!”
Soon, soldiers started going into no-man’s-land, where they met, exchanged gifts like tobacco, food, alcohol, even hats and buttons. They even played soccer. During the truce, they buried the bodies of the dead. Artillery was silent.
This beautiful truce happened not only on the western front between the Germans and the Englishmen, with the French in 1914. A similar one took place on the eastern front, between the Russians and the Austrians. Attempts were also made to call a truce during Easter and the next Christmas Day, but the same ceasefire did not happen. Some attempts ended with prohibitions from commanders and marshals against similar truces.
Of course, not everything went without victims. Some soldiers were killed by the opposite side.
This expression of humanity caused different reactions in different countries. For example, in Great Britain this event was called one of the most unexpected of the surprising war. Newspapers wrote about supporting this event and expressed regret that the absurdity and massacre would start again.
In honour of this experience, there are monuments reminding us about the peace that happened during the war. Soldiers ignored commands to kill each other to celebrate together the birth of Jesus Christ. This episode is a brilliant example of humanity and of God’s love in people who strive to make peace.
Lilia Liubchak (2a)
