100 YEARS AGO TODAY on the western front in WWI: “First the Germans would sing one of their carols and then we would sing one of ours, until when we started up ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful’ the Germans immediately joined in singing the same hymn to the Latin words ‘Adeste Fideles.’ And I thought, well, this is really a most extraordinary thing—two nations both singing the same carol in the middle of a war.” - Graham Williams of the Fifth London Rifle Brigade German counterpart, Josef Sewald of the 17th Bavarian Regiment, recalled, “I shouted to our enemies that we didnt wish to shoot and that we make a Christmas truce. I said I would come from my side and we could speak with each other. First there was silence, then I shouted once more, invited them, and the British shouted ‘No shooting!’” Exactly one hundred years later the story still moves us, not simply because men abstained from fighting—after all these were not the only informal truces during WWI. But because it strikes us as fitting that if there were one day when men would turn aside from slaughtering, it should be Christmas. MERRY CHRISTMAS from the Oberg family!
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 15:01:02 +0000
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