The Christmas Truce

The Christmas Truce

By the end of 1914, on the cold day of Christmas, humanity rediscovered a moment of peace and love, after months of constant hate and fights. A little truce from the horrible World War I.

British soldiers were told to kill their enemies, the German soldiers, even on that day that we now live joyously. The German soldiers instead, were really festive and acted peacefully. They said to the British soldiers: “We won’t fight you on Christmas day” and they called them to meet in no man’s land, a land between the mortal trenches that didn’t belong nor to British neither to Germans.

First, the British thought it was a trap, that Germans will kill them and tried to ignore their cheer. But then the British sergeant went to meet the German one in no man’s land. Neither of them wanted to shoot on that day, so they agreed not to fight until the following morning.

The sergeants called their men, who in less than an hour were sharing beers, sweets,  they were chatting, laughing and singing with the people that the day before they were trying to kill.

Everybody was sharing peace, even if they couldn’t speak the same language. At a certain point, a soldier created a ball made with things he could find, and in less than five minutes a match was organized. The Germans won 3 – 2, but nobody was upset.

That day, they were not “British” or “German”, they were “Humans”. Then, they all went to sleep, Christmas day finished.

The day after that incredible day, at half-past eight in the

morning, the British sergeant fired three shots in the air, and the German fired two shots in reply, so the war started again.

That was a unique and miraculous truce in the disastrous journeys of four years of World War I, where enemies became friends for just a day.

 By Tampu Diana Federica, Step 10.