Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce [Hardcover]

Stanley Weintraub (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 2001

It was one of history's most powerful -- yet forgotten -- Christmas stories. It took place in the improbable setting of the mud, cold rain and senseless killing of the trenches of World War I. It happened in spite of orders to the contrary by superiors; it happened in spite of language barriers. And it still stands as the only time in history that peace spontaneously arose from the lower ranks in a major conflict, bubbling up to the officers and temporarily turning sworn enemies into friends.

"Silent Night," by renowned military historian Stanley Weintraub, magically restores the 1914 Christmas Truce to history. It had been lost in the tide of horror that filled the battlefields of Europe for months and years afterward. Yet in December 1914 the Great War was still young, and the men who suddenly threw down their arms and came together across the front lines -- to sing carols, exchange gifts and letters, eat and drink and even play friendly games of soccer -- naively hoped that the war would be short-lived, and that they were fraternizing with future friends.

It began when German soldiers lit candles on small Christmas trees, and British, French, Belgian and German troops serenaded each other on Christmas Eve. Soon they were gathering and burying the dead, in an age-old custom of truces. But as the power of Christmas grew among them, they broke bread, exchanged addresses and letters and expressed deep admiration for one another. When angry superiors ordered them to recommence the shooting, many men aimed harmlessly high overhead.

Sometimes the greatest beauty emerges from deep tragedy. Surely the forgotten Christmas Truce was one of history's most beautiful moments, made allthe more beautiful in light of the carnage that followed it. Stanley Weintraub's moving re-creation demonstrates that peace can be more fragile than war, but also that ordinary men can bond with one another despite all efforts of politicians and generals to the contrary.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

History is peppered with oddments and ironies, and one of the strangest is this. A few days before the first Christmas of that long bloodletting then called the Great War, hundreds of thousands of cold, trench-bound combatants put aside their arms and, in defiance of their orders, tacitly agreed to stop the killing in honor of the holiday.

That informal truce began with small acts: here opposing Scottish and German troops would toss newspapers, ration tins, and friendly remarks across the lines; there ambulance parties, clearing the dead from the barbwire hell of no man's land, would stop to share cigarettes and handshakes. Soon it spread, so that by Christmas Eve the armies of France, England, and Germany were serenading each other with Christmas carols and sentimental ballads and denouncing the conflict with cries of "Á bas la guerre!" and "Nie wieder Krieg!" The truce was, writes Stanley Weintraub, a remarkable episode, and, though "dismissed in official histories as an aberration of no consequence," it was so compelling that many who observed it wrote in near-disbelief to their families and hometown newspapers to report the extraordinary event.

In the end, writes Weintraub, the truce ended with a few stray bullets that escalated into total war, and that would fill the air for just shy of four more Christmases to come; further, isolated attempts at informal peacemaking would fail. But what, Weintraub wonders at the close of this inspired study, would have happened if the soldiers on both sides had refused to take up arms again? His counterfactual scenarios are intriguing, and well worth pondering. -- Gregory McNamee

From Publishers Weekly

Popular historian Weintraub (MacArthur's War, etc.), emeritus professor of arts and humanities at Penn State, tackles a sober subject from WWI, when amid the millions of casualties in the obscene carnage of trench war, a mutual agreement arose for a cease-fire at Christmastime of the first year of conflict. Drawing from secondary sources as well as much archival research in a variety of languages, Weintraub has compiled a brief, anecdotal account that reveals his skill as a researcher and deftness as a narrator in chapters like "An Outbreak of Peace," "Our Friends, the Enemy" and "How It Ended." There are lively anecdotes, contemporary doggerel and some extraneous asides such as that "a Chinese fourth century B.C. military text mentions a primitive form of football." While succinctly conveying the mood and stakes of this unprecedented display of mutual trust during war, Weintraub's short book could help draw Malcolm Brown and Shirley Seaton's magisterial Christmas Truce back into print. In the meantime, and just in time for the holidays, we have this offering from one of our most patient chroniclers.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; First Edition edition (October 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684872811
• ISBN-13: 978-0684872810
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #313,310 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At least for a brief time, "All is calm....", December 22, 2001

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce (Hardcover)

I was curious to know why Weintraub wrote a book about a brief period prior to Christmas in 1914, on the battlefields of Flanders, when German and British soldiers spontaneously agreed to declare a truce and suspend fighting, thereby defying their commanding officers. The answer to that question, in my opinion, has profound significance 87 years later. No doubt the book's impact on me is explained, at least in part, by the fact that I read it during the holiday season, following the events of September 11th, as a war on terrorism continues. But also because, as an eager student of military history, I am intrigued by isolated situations in which humanity (for lack of a better term) at least temporarily prevails over death and destruction. Centuries ago, knights and their attendants would work with their enemies to clear a field for combat the next day. Such cooperation had an obvious practical value. That's not what interests Weintraub as he examines a temporary truce during one of the bloodiest wars ever fought. It had little (if any) practical or tactical value but it did (and does) suggest a human need which transcends military obligations.

Weintraub draws upon a wealth of primary sources (e.g. letters and diaries) in which firsthand accounts comment on the shared misery created by "shells, bombs, underground caves, corpses, liquor, mice, cats, artillery, filth, bullets, mortars, fire, and steel." I am reminded of movies such as All's Quiet on the Western Front and Paths of Glory in which the human misery portrayed is almost unbearable to watch. I had the same reaction when seeing more recent movies such as Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down.

As Weintraub explains in this book, at least some of the opposing forces decided to call what we today would describe as a "time out." Several displayed signboards and banners which said "You no fight, we no fight" (by the Germans) and "Merry Christmas" (by the British). Messages and holiday greetings were exchanged, sometimes conveyed by trained dogs serving as intermediaries. Weintraub credits the Germans with taking the initiative but not all of the German soldiers and few of their officers condoned the truce. (The choice of the book's title is apt. More than 200 years ago, Joseph Mohr wrote the lyrics and Franx X. Gruber the music of "Stille Nacht," a German carol.) Nor did all of the Allied forces. Everyone involved correctly understood that battle would soon resume but at least for a very brief time, everyone involved (to varying degrees) experienced "peace on earth, good will toward man." For many of them, death had merely been delayed. How welcome it must have been to have a silent night or two after enduring deafening bombardments. And no doubt an opportunity to reflect upon loved ones far away and to recall happier Christmases in the past.

It is possible but highly unlikely that there will ever again be a land war of the nature and to the extent of the two World Wars. Never again will opposing warriors in near proximity exchange Christmas greetings and gifts. This is part of the significance of what Weintraub has recreated in his book: Warfare in the 21st century will mostly be waged by high-tech systems to deliver weapons of mass destruction to achieve global and regional military objectives. At least to this reader, Weintraub seems to ask: Why not eliminate war in any form so that the world can have a "silent night" every night? Why not indeed?

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Story, July 11, 2003

By 

Nicholas M. Lamarca "Book & Movie fan" (West Seneca, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce (Hardcover)

Let me open by saying that the book is not all that well written. However the story is amazing. I am shocked that I have never really heard about this prior to reading this book. Everyone should read this book especially those who think peace will never happen. Very good lesson.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard to put the book down, May 30, 2008

By 

Philip J. Bohlken (Caldwell, Idaho) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce (Paperback)

Three or four years ago there were a number of features on NPR and elsewhere about The Christmas Truce of 1914. The story is amazing and simple at the same time. I wondered what more could be added in a full book. The author fleshes out the story with lots of detail added from many sources.

While the story is amazing, I found the book to be a broader study of fraternization between opposing soldiers. That has been going on through the centuries. In the Battle of Chattanooga during the US Civil War opposing soldiers sometimes crossed the Tennessee River for card games and dances together. This book explains how and why enemies can share time together in friendly pursuits.

I had always wondered about the language barrier in The Christmas Truce, but many of the German soldiers had worked in London as waiters and had learned English. One English soldier met his old barber among the German soldiers in the other trenches, and even got a haircut from him on the battlefield!

The book is very interesting to read and worth the time, although, I found the "What if..." chapter not that useful.