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sirscott — Lessons From History
Published: 2008-02-22 21:42:33 +0000 UTC; Views: 3858; Favourites: 86; Downloads: 24
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I am a Historian by profession. This symbolises why we do what we do. Without learning the mistakes of our forbears we cannot hope to build a better tommorow.The Christmas Truce of 1914 is a much publiscised avent , but regardless of rumour , still represents the triumph of Humanity over hate and conflict. After an initial exchange of carols and gifts , several groups of British ,French and German troops celebrated Christmas together , despite the efforts of thier officers. For a few short days they Joked , played football ,and came together as one to bury thier dead as fellow Human beings. Thier common story is one we must never forget
Photographer Unknown, But uniform suggests that the german smoking in the foreground is of a barvarian regiment ,and others suggest saxon. British uniform is present with the man standing behind the Barvarian ,but his Regiment is unclear. Believed to have been taken Christmas Day ,1914
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Comments: 18
Lessons are learnt from mistakes. With each war and battle we evolved, became better and more efficient. Today we can kill thousands of enemy at the push of a button, snipers can shoot people from over a mile away and do this for years behind enemy lines without capture.
If there had not been wars, your nation would not have defences. It would have been invaded repeatedly, your people killed, raped and enslaved just like all the other nations before they evolved.
Humanity cannot be used in the context of war which is always for the good of the masses, whether it is to gain wealth and land for the attacker, or to repel the attacker. Humanity relates to the treatment of individuals at the hands of individuals.
A leader of an army can command his troops to be inhumane, but that trooper at the time of truth has a choice and can be humane.
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sweet i just listened to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast where he mentions this event
there seems to be lots of similiar stories from different wars. i really dig'em and hopefully they're all true
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Nice to meet a colleague. I teach history in a adult junior high school.
Cool picture.
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Amen, Humanity needs to sometimes forget war and celebrate life as it stands.
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Yes, this is one thing that i wish more people knew about, and i really hope i never forget it. The Christmas Truce is a perfect example that even in the times of war, where the world seems to be failing as we know it, humans are in fact human.
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Unlike some coments on this page, I have heard of the truce. And I think it's one of the most touching things in history. For nations to come together to celebrate in the middle of war is both fantastic, as in unbelievable, and heartwarming.
I myself have another story behind this event:
Apparently some soldiers were front linemen, and when they were sent back to war, they couldn't shoot at their newly found friends. This was taken care of by officers who made them either switch their stations or bases.
Definitely worth the
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On a side note , any soldier exectuted for a "honour" crime in the BEF (such as fraternization) were dishonourably stricken from the record ,and their names were deliberately witheld from the war graves commision so that they could not be inscribed on the memorials
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Yes ,im afraid the record of my own Nation (the U.K) is no better. Such was the nature of the european military in this period. Amongst the vast mechanised slaughter of the western front it is perhaps not suprising that this kind of insanity was commonplace.
The british army during this period executed at least a dozen young men under the age of 17 (the number is uncertain as they would have lied about their age to join) ,for various "Honour" crimes ranging from "fraternisation with the enemy" , to "cowardice" .Most of them were almost certainly suffering form the effects of shellshock at the time
Lions led by donkeys indeed
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For your information such events named "fraternisation" in french (maybe also in english, I'm not sure it has the same signification) did undoubtedly happen since lots of french soldiers ("les poilus", meaning "hairy"), more than 2400, were publicly sentenced to death for doing so. Among these, 600 were rapidly executed. In order to keep the other soldiers from repeating these acts ("fusillés pour l'exemple").
This was a hot topic a few years ago in France when Premier Minister Lionel Jospin honored the memory of some of those soldiers. It showed how complicated it still is for the State to acknowledge (I'm not talking about supporting of course) those events.
A very sad ending to these soldier's lifes ...
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this is really a touching story
too bad most of the people dont know about this event....in germany the christmas truce is not really well-known
we talked about WW1 in school but our teacher did not even mention it...:-/
PS: well it's myth
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There are many myths that surround the christmas truce , but there is significant evidence to suggest that the event itself took place. There are numerous corroberating letters sent from participants on all sides describing the events of christmas day 1914 , many of which still exist today. A google seach will bring up numerous Newspaper articles and scholarly works that provide more information on these
I respect your drive for evidence and your scientific pessimism
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*it's maybe a myth - that what i wanted to say
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There's a french movie about french, british and german soldiers celebrating christmas together, it's named "Joyeux Noël". A very nice story ...
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Yes , i read about it somewhere and i believe ive seen somthing similar in England when i was at school. Thanks for the recomendation , ill try and see if ican get a subtitled copy
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A commendable moment. If only it could exist all the time....
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