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Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce by Stanley Weintraub
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About the author
Stanley Weintraub
177 books48 followersWeintraub was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 17, 1929. He was the eldest child of Benjamin and Ray Segal Weintraub. He attended South Philadelphia High School, and then he attended West Chester State Teachers College (now West Chester University of Pennsylvania) where he received his B.S. in education in 1949. He continued his education at Temple University where he received his master's degree in English “in absentia,” as he was called to duty in the Korean War.
He received a commission as Army Second Lieutenant, and served with the Eighth Army in Korea receiving a Bronze Star.
After the War, he enrolled at Pennsylvania State University in September 1953; his doctoral dissertation “Bernard Shaw, Novelist” was accepted on May 6, 1956.
Except for visiting appointments, he remained at Penn State for all of his career, finally attaining the rank of Evan Pugh Professor of Arts and Humanities, with emeritus status on retirement in 2000. From 1970 to 1990 he was also Director of Penn State’s Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies
He received a commission as Army Second Lieutenant, and served with the Eighth Army in Korea receiving a Bronze Star.
After the War, he enrolled at Pennsylvania State University in September 1953; his doctoral dissertation “Bernard Shaw, Novelist” was accepted on May 6, 1956.
Except for visiting appointments, he remained at Penn State for all of his career, finally attaining the rank of Evan Pugh Professor of Arts and Humanities, with emeritus status on retirement in 2000. From 1970 to 1990 he was also Director of Penn State’s Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 1, 2024
AN EXCELLENT RECOUNTING OF THE ‘CHRISTMAS TRUCE’ OF 1914
Author Stanley Weintraub wrote in the Introduction to this 2001 book, “‘Live-and-let-live’ accommodations occur in all wars… None had ever occurred on the scale of, or with the duration, or with the potential for changing things, as when the shooting suddenly stopped on Christmas Eve, 1914. The difference in 1914 was its potential to become more than a temporary respite. The event appears in retrospect… to have happened without consequences for the outcome of the war. Like a dream, when it was over, men wondered at it, then went on with a grim business at hand. Under the rigid discipline of wartime command authority, that business was killing.” (Pg. xvi-xvii)
He states, “Most higher-ups had looked the other way when scattered fraternization occurred earlier. A Christmas truce, however, was another matter. Any slackening of the action during Christmas week might undermine whatever sacrificial spirit there was among troops who lack ideological fervor… both sides fought as soldiers fought in most wars---for survival, and to protect the men who had become extended family.” (Pg. 8)
He recounts, “Saxons … began placing small Christmas trees on the parapets of their trenches, replete with candles… Tommies crawl[ed] out of their trenches, curiosity rather than courage involved to ask about the glittering trees… on the bare, blasted landscape. Although fraternizing was a court martial offense on both sides, company officers pretended not to notice.” (Pg. 14)
He notes, “The truce bubbled up from the ranks. Though it was to become so widespread as to impact much of the front, no one was ever certain where and how it had begun.” (Pg. 21) He continues, “Voices reached them across the dark void of No Man’s Land. Then the Scots saw dim figures silhouetted on the German parapet, and about them more lights… [They] realized that a Christmas tree was being set there, and around it were Germans talking and laughing together… They had begun to hear a rich baritone voice singing, ‘Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht.’” (Pg. 22)
He goes on, It took a suspension of disbelief to accept the reality that the hateful enemy hungered for [Brotherhood]. For most British soldiers, the German insistence on celebrating Christmas was a shock after the propaganda about Teutonic bestiality, while the Germans had long dismissed the British as well as the French as soulless and materialistic savages… Germans were not expected to risk their lives on behalf of each beloved Tannenbaum. Yet when a few were felled by Scrooge-like gunfire, the Saxons opposite the seaforths stubbornly climbed the parapets to set the endangered trees up once more.” (Pg. 24)
He adds, “Armed only with wine, cakes, chocolate and cigarettes, one German gravely saluted and announced in English that he was an officer and a Londoner… ‘YOU NO FIGHT, WE NO FIGHT’ was the most frequently employed German message. Some British units improvised ‘MERRY CHRISTMAS’ banners and waited for a response… Momentarily forgetting their hatred of the invaders, the Belgians put down their rifles.”(Pg. 25) Next, “it was with shared traditions and song that the two sides approached one another. Yuletide carols initiated a tentative courtship that further developed through physical contact and ultimately the sharing of the solders’ most valued commodities---food and tobacco…” (Pg. 26-27) However, “Officers up to the rank of colonel were involved from the beginning but kept a low profile.” (Pg. 39)
He recounts, “I shouted to our enemies,’ Captain Josef Sewald of the 17th Bavarians… recalled, ‘that we didn't wish to shoot and that we [should] make a Christmas truce. I said I would come from my side and we could speak with each other… the British shouted ‘No shooting!’ Then a man came out of the[ir] trenches and I on my side did the same and so we came together and we shook hands---a bit cautiously!’” (Pg. 45)
He notes, “Almost always, it was the Germans who at least indirectly invited the truce. They were winning, and had much less to lose by it. Christmas may also have meant more to the Germans. And as they celebrated vigorously and without apparent concern, the other side gave in to its war weariness. The Germans, too, were weary of a war they were assured would be short… However much enemy territory they occupied… they were bogged down well short of victory. Christmas helped… to forget that, and to bring together men who really, they recognized, didn’t hate each other.” (Pg. 50-51)
He reports, “To maintain amity, the combatants had agreed almost everywhere on Christmas Eve (although neither side stuck strictly to it) that ‘the only thing forbidden was to make any improvement in barbed wire.’ Further, they concurred ‘that if by mischance a single shot were fired, it was not to be taken as an act of war and that an apology would be accepted…’ For a moment in time the war restored rules evoking an earlier century and a less complicated world.” (Pg. 55)
He notes, “an approaching German called out warily into the darkness, ‘I am a lieutenant! Gentlemen, my life is in your hands, for I am out of my trench and walking towards you. Will one of your officers come out and meet me half-way?’ … the Bedforshires captain suspected trickery. Then, coming closer, the German asked again, ‘Will not one of you come out and meet me[?] I am halfway across now, alone and unarmed.’ … The Bedfordshires officer… broke out beyond his own barbed wire and went on… The enemies met in No Man’s Land… the number of unarmed men who were exposed on both sides by morning light soon became vast, including the two officers…” (Pg. 75-76)
He continues, “For less comfortable troops on the line, the surprising Christmas was, at the least, a reprieve from death, and an opportunity to drown their mixed emotions in more plebian drink. Drunkenness raised extraordinarily few discipline problems on the line; yet almost everywhere alcoholic refreshment was offered by one enemy or another, usually the better-provisioned Germans.” (Pg. 93-94) He states, “A [soccer] match had been proposed… to be played in a field behind the German trenches. Whether a game of ‘footer’ actually occurred INSIDE German lines is unproven, but references to football among the Flanders front are numerous.” (Pg. 101)
But eventually, “Although the truce seemed to end as it had begun---from the bottom up, with random acts of violence---the High Commands on both sides were also demanding renewed war, and by orders and threats they made it happen. Tradition on one side and discipline on the other made any other outcome impossible. The illegal truce was widespread but not effective everywhere.” (Pg. 122)
He summarizes, “Five months into the war, although a million were already dead, the trenches remained graves for the living. On both sides in 1915 there would be more dead on any single day than yards gained in the entire year. And there would be nearly four more years of attrition---not to determine who was right, but who was left.” (Pg. 155)
He wonders, “But that if---? Had the war ended abruptly with the Christmas truce one enters into the fantasy world of alternative history. It is an intriguing and illuminating, yet dangerous place to visit. Much evil would have been avoided by a world war ended early… The more than six thousand deaths every day over forty-six months of war would not have occurred.” (Pg. 161-162)
He concludes, “However much the momentary peace of 1914 evidences the desire of the combatants to live in amity with one another, it was doomed from the start by the realities beyond the trenches…A celebration of the human spirit, the Christmas Truce remains a moving manifestation of the absurdities of war.” (Pg. 175)
This book will be “must reading” for anyone interested in the Christmas Truce.
Author Stanley Weintraub wrote in the Introduction to this 2001 book, “‘Live-and-let-live’ accommodations occur in all wars… None had ever occurred on the scale of, or with the duration, or with the potential for changing things, as when the shooting suddenly stopped on Christmas Eve, 1914. The difference in 1914 was its potential to become more than a temporary respite. The event appears in retrospect… to have happened without consequences for the outcome of the war. Like a dream, when it was over, men wondered at it, then went on with a grim business at hand. Under the rigid discipline of wartime command authority, that business was killing.” (Pg. xvi-xvii)
He states, “Most higher-ups had looked the other way when scattered fraternization occurred earlier. A Christmas truce, however, was another matter. Any slackening of the action during Christmas week might undermine whatever sacrificial spirit there was among troops who lack ideological fervor… both sides fought as soldiers fought in most wars---for survival, and to protect the men who had become extended family.” (Pg. 8)
He recounts, “Saxons … began placing small Christmas trees on the parapets of their trenches, replete with candles… Tommies crawl[ed] out of their trenches, curiosity rather than courage involved to ask about the glittering trees… on the bare, blasted landscape. Although fraternizing was a court martial offense on both sides, company officers pretended not to notice.” (Pg. 14)
He notes, “The truce bubbled up from the ranks. Though it was to become so widespread as to impact much of the front, no one was ever certain where and how it had begun.” (Pg. 21) He continues, “Voices reached them across the dark void of No Man’s Land. Then the Scots saw dim figures silhouetted on the German parapet, and about them more lights… [They] realized that a Christmas tree was being set there, and around it were Germans talking and laughing together… They had begun to hear a rich baritone voice singing, ‘Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht.’” (Pg. 22)
He goes on, It took a suspension of disbelief to accept the reality that the hateful enemy hungered for [Brotherhood]. For most British soldiers, the German insistence on celebrating Christmas was a shock after the propaganda about Teutonic bestiality, while the Germans had long dismissed the British as well as the French as soulless and materialistic savages… Germans were not expected to risk their lives on behalf of each beloved Tannenbaum. Yet when a few were felled by Scrooge-like gunfire, the Saxons opposite the seaforths stubbornly climbed the parapets to set the endangered trees up once more.” (Pg. 24)
He adds, “Armed only with wine, cakes, chocolate and cigarettes, one German gravely saluted and announced in English that he was an officer and a Londoner… ‘YOU NO FIGHT, WE NO FIGHT’ was the most frequently employed German message. Some British units improvised ‘MERRY CHRISTMAS’ banners and waited for a response… Momentarily forgetting their hatred of the invaders, the Belgians put down their rifles.”(Pg. 25) Next, “it was with shared traditions and song that the two sides approached one another. Yuletide carols initiated a tentative courtship that further developed through physical contact and ultimately the sharing of the solders’ most valued commodities---food and tobacco…” (Pg. 26-27) However, “Officers up to the rank of colonel were involved from the beginning but kept a low profile.” (Pg. 39)
He recounts, “I shouted to our enemies,’ Captain Josef Sewald of the 17th Bavarians… recalled, ‘that we didn't wish to shoot and that we [should] make a Christmas truce. I said I would come from my side and we could speak with each other… the British shouted ‘No shooting!’ Then a man came out of the[ir] trenches and I on my side did the same and so we came together and we shook hands---a bit cautiously!’” (Pg. 45)
He notes, “Almost always, it was the Germans who at least indirectly invited the truce. They were winning, and had much less to lose by it. Christmas may also have meant more to the Germans. And as they celebrated vigorously and without apparent concern, the other side gave in to its war weariness. The Germans, too, were weary of a war they were assured would be short… However much enemy territory they occupied… they were bogged down well short of victory. Christmas helped… to forget that, and to bring together men who really, they recognized, didn’t hate each other.” (Pg. 50-51)
He reports, “To maintain amity, the combatants had agreed almost everywhere on Christmas Eve (although neither side stuck strictly to it) that ‘the only thing forbidden was to make any improvement in barbed wire.’ Further, they concurred ‘that if by mischance a single shot were fired, it was not to be taken as an act of war and that an apology would be accepted…’ For a moment in time the war restored rules evoking an earlier century and a less complicated world.” (Pg. 55)
He notes, “an approaching German called out warily into the darkness, ‘I am a lieutenant! Gentlemen, my life is in your hands, for I am out of my trench and walking towards you. Will one of your officers come out and meet me half-way?’ … the Bedforshires captain suspected trickery. Then, coming closer, the German asked again, ‘Will not one of you come out and meet me[?] I am halfway across now, alone and unarmed.’ … The Bedfordshires officer… broke out beyond his own barbed wire and went on… The enemies met in No Man’s Land… the number of unarmed men who were exposed on both sides by morning light soon became vast, including the two officers…” (Pg. 75-76)
He continues, “For less comfortable troops on the line, the surprising Christmas was, at the least, a reprieve from death, and an opportunity to drown their mixed emotions in more plebian drink. Drunkenness raised extraordinarily few discipline problems on the line; yet almost everywhere alcoholic refreshment was offered by one enemy or another, usually the better-provisioned Germans.” (Pg. 93-94) He states, “A [soccer] match had been proposed… to be played in a field behind the German trenches. Whether a game of ‘footer’ actually occurred INSIDE German lines is unproven, but references to football among the Flanders front are numerous.” (Pg. 101)
But eventually, “Although the truce seemed to end as it had begun---from the bottom up, with random acts of violence---the High Commands on both sides were also demanding renewed war, and by orders and threats they made it happen. Tradition on one side and discipline on the other made any other outcome impossible. The illegal truce was widespread but not effective everywhere.” (Pg. 122)
He summarizes, “Five months into the war, although a million were already dead, the trenches remained graves for the living. On both sides in 1915 there would be more dead on any single day than yards gained in the entire year. And there would be nearly four more years of attrition---not to determine who was right, but who was left.” (Pg. 155)
He wonders, “But that if---? Had the war ended abruptly with the Christmas truce one enters into the fantasy world of alternative history. It is an intriguing and illuminating, yet dangerous place to visit. Much evil would have been avoided by a world war ended early… The more than six thousand deaths every day over forty-six months of war would not have occurred.” (Pg. 161-162)
He concludes, “However much the momentary peace of 1914 evidences the desire of the combatants to live in amity with one another, it was doomed from the start by the realities beyond the trenches…A celebration of the human spirit, the Christmas Truce remains a moving manifestation of the absurdities of war.” (Pg. 175)
This book will be “must reading” for anyone interested in the Christmas Truce.
December 16, 2025
The holidays are for stories, no matter what you celebrate. These accounts of the WWI Christmas Truce are orderly laid out with numerous accounts taken from letters from the soldiers and officers writing home or to newspapers. This collection can be repetitive with so many accounts from different divisions, regiments etc of the same happens. Understandable since the trenches spanned such a great distance that not everyone had to same experience. Sometimes it was disorienting. This is not a narrative non-fiction, these are the accounts. I thoroughly enjoyed the book but it lost 2 stars for this layout choice and the inability to read it straight through.
I think it is important for people to know of this event that occurred at the beginning of WWI. It certainly was never repeated. The author does lean towards a Goodwill Towards Men romanticized story rather than the Harden Soldier Needing a Day Off From Shooting where many Historians seem to stand.
The title needs to be altered to "The Stories of the WWWI Christmas Truce however. Since it was made abundantly clear that no one had the same story going home.
I think it is important for people to know of this event that occurred at the beginning of WWI. It certainly was never repeated. The author does lean towards a Goodwill Towards Men romanticized story rather than the Harden Soldier Needing a Day Off From Shooting where many Historians seem to stand.
The title needs to be altered to "The Stories of the WWWI Christmas Truce however. Since it was made abundantly clear that no one had the same story going home.
December 17, 2024
While I found some of the information interesting, for the most part, this was a very dry read. It also wasn't very well organized and extremely repetative. I liked that the author included bits from letters and such the soldiers had written. But the same thing happens over and over from snippet to snippet and regiment to regiment. A lot of names and numbers are thrown at you as well. I like that they author highlighted the Christmas truce. I just wish it had been more interesting and a better read.
January 30, 2025
Having read "Christmas in the Trenches" during the Christmas season, I was intrigued by the historical notes by the author. He referenced Silent Night by Stanley Weintraub. So, I'm glad to say that I checked out a copy. The Christmas truce was not an isolated incident, but happened in several places along the trenches. I realize that sometimes it is necessary to defend ones self and country, but mostly war is hell--and stupid.
January 23, 2024
I read about 1/2 the book and it was just very repetitive. It said the same thing various ways and just didn’t grasp my attention so I didn’t finish reading it.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews