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    Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce
    Unavailable
    Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce
    Unavailable
    Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce
    Audiobook5 hours

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

    Written by Stanley Weintraub

    Narrated by Edward Holland

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    In the early months of World War I, on Christmas Eve, men on both sides of the trenches laid down their arms and joined in a spontaneous celebration. Despite orders to continue shooting, the unofficial truce spread across the front lines. Even the participants found what they were doing incredible: Germans placed candlelit Christmas trees on trench parapets, warring soldiers sang carols, and men on both sides shared food parcels from home. They climbed from the trenches to meet in "No Man's Land" where they buried the dead, exchanged gifts, ate and drank together, and even played soccer.
    Throughout his narrative, Stanley Weintraub uses the stories of the men who were there, as well as their letters and diaries, to illuminate the fragile truce and bring to life this extraordinary moment in time.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateAug 27, 2003
    ISBN9781415911600
    Author

    Stanley Weintraub

    Stanley Weintraub is Evan Pugh Professor Emeritus of Arts and Humanities at Penn State University and the author of notable histories and biographies including 11 Days in December, Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce, MacArthur's War, Long Day's Journey into War, and A Stillness Heard Round the World: The End of the Great War. He lives in Newark, Delaware.

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    Reviews for Silent Night

    3.5/5

    86 ratings13 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Really interesting subject, but the book misses the mark.

      The book is a series of anecdotes, which, although related under the big umbrella "Christmas Truce of 1914," still manages to feel quite disconnected.

      The narrative pushes both forward and backward in the time line, which is confusing at times.

      I'll keep looking for a better book on this subject.

      More reviews at my WordPress site, Ralphsbooks.
    • 3/5
      Good short account of the "Christmas truce" during the first year of World War One. The soldiers stopped fighting and mingled together!
    • 3/5
      This account of the spontaneous World War I Christmas truce is mildly disappointing. Had I not read other World War I histories earlier this year, I wouldn't have had enough context for the events described in the book. It also bothered me that Weintraub intersperses accounts of fictional characters with those of real people. I had a hard time sorting out which events were real and which were fictional but based on real events. I think it would have been better if Weintraub had discussed fictional accounts of the truce in a single chapter. The book is worth reading for those with a strong interest in the topic, but readers should already have a basic familiarity with World War I history and chronology.
    • 2/5
      I've seen so many things on the Christmas Truce that I really wanted to read something relating to it. I perhaps went into this with overly high expectations due to how much I love the subject and it never quite hit the heights I was hoping for. Obviously as a historic account there's not much that can be done but I never found myself particularly engaged at times. I don't know if having a section with Brits another with the Germans and another for the French would have worked better or if it was maybe just the number of people mentioned made it hard to follow, but for whatever reason I didn't get the emotional punch that I've gotten when watching documentaries on it.

      I did enjoy the way the individual sections of the book, and I enjoyed the excerpts, poems and drawings from actual accounts that went on. The last section - the what if section wasn't needed imho. It was too easy to imagine the ideal world scenario, and although it would have been nice, the truly predictable thing about the human race is that they will invariably find a way to shoot themselves in the foot, so if it wasn't WW1, I'm certain something else would have come along that caused untold miseries. I mean it's a nice idea, but really a bit indulgent.

      This is a decent enough book if, like me you have an interest in the subject but I really don't know if it would be the type of book that would spark an interest if you didn't know anything about it.
    • 3/5
      Interesting and well enough written. Felt more like a collection of snapshots than a book. For a wonk like me, good. For a more casual reader, I doubt it.
    • 3/5
      This is an enjoyable and well written account of the 1914 truce that happened during World War 1 on the Western Front in the improbable setting of the trenches. Time and again Stanley Weintraub uncovers examples of how, despite orders from senior officers, the troops in the trenches came together to sing carols, exchange gifts, eat and drink together, and even play football. In most of these examples the troops discovered how alike they were and how much they shared in common.I am not sure this subject warrants a whole book and there is quite a bit of repetition as Stanley Weintraub gives numerous different examples of the different ways the truce occurred in different parts of the Western Front. The book concludes with a short chapter titled "What if....?" in which Stanley Weintraub speculates what might have happened had the war ended with the 1914 Christmas truce which felt a bit pointless.Interesting, if inessential.3/5
    • 3/5
      In the heat of the battle form moving a few yards forward the war took a break that made plain the insanity of it all. Men came out of the trenches on both sides of the conflict and celebrated Christmas together in "no mans land" with singing and exchanging of gifts if ever so small.
    • 5/5
      The Christmas truce of WWI has gained fame through movies and historical fiction but how does one separate truth from fiction? This is a wonderful work based on research of journals and letters written by the soldiers and officers who were there when it happened. Only a few months into the First World War, troops from Scotland, India, Germany, France, Prussia, England and Belgium on the rain soaked battlefields of Flanders were already sick of the soggy, cold and muddy conditions of war. They were in the front line and under constant fire from, their trenches were constantly flooding, they had nowhere dry to sleep, rats were running around, they were surrounded by filth and now dead bodies of their fallen comrades.By tacit understanding and overtures started apparently by the Germans who took Christmas extremely seriously and were shipped little Christmas trees which they lit with candles and then placed on their parapets, there was less fighting in the days coming up to Christmas Eve. Some soldiers clearly started to adopt a live and let live attitude to the war, trading vocal insults with the opposite enemy but without much heat behind their words. Then signboards with Christmas greetings went up and responded to by the opposite side. Some soldiers and officers gradually stood on their parapets, clearly unarmed, and asked for a truce to celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. They understood that the war would have to resume at some point, but they just wanted to celebrate Christmas and to bury their dead. I had previously thought that the Christmas Truce took place only between a particular German troop and an opposing English platoon. It came as a surprise to me to learn that this truce was conducted across multiple sections of the Flanders and between the Germans and some of their enemies even up to New Year's. Not all embraced the truce and there were a few French and German officers who spurned overtures.The emerging stories highlighted that decisions for wars are often decided on by leaders sitting far away from the action while those on the front line bear the worst consequences of their decisions.
    • 4/5
      During World War I, German, French, British and Belgian soldiers found solace in the “enemy” for a brief period. On Christmas Eve in 1914 the men were dug into miserable trenches, up to their ankles in mud and filth. Despite warnings from their superiors and even at the risk of losing their own lives, the soldiers declared a momentary truce and enjoyed the holiday. They crossed into no man’s land and swapped cigarettes and food. They ever played soccer and buried their dead. This occurred all along the front, with different groups of men deciding to initiate a cease-fire. Weintaub’s book is wonderfully researched, pulling information from soldiers’ letters, newspaper articles, etc. he recreates the scenes. The details are what really stuck with me, a German soldier giving a British soldier buttons from his uniform, a soldier who was accidently shot in the midst of the peace. The event itself is so unbelievable that’s it’s fascinating to read about, but the author’s writing is a bit dry. To me, it was still worth it, because it shows a gleaming light of humanity in the face of an awful war, but it’s not a page-turner.  
    • 4/5
      I had heard about the Christmas truce of December, 1914 but I did not realize how extensive it was. According to Weintaub, instances of fraternization by German soldiers with French, English and Scottish soldiers occurred all along the Front and were usually initiated by the Germans- especially the men from Saxony. Using soldiers letters to home or in some cases to newspapers at home, military unit histories, and soldier memoirs, Weitraub explains how the events were started and what the soldiers did when they met in the No Man's Land between the lines. He also adds a chapter on how the story has been mythologized in modern culture by giving examples of modern songs such as Christmas in the Trenches to show the story has been altered to suit story lines. Apparently there is a Garth Brooks song that has American soldiers participating in this event, a historical moment that could not have occurred since no American units fought at the front until 1918. He concludes with speculation on how world history would have been different if the politicians had followed the soldiers' actions and stopped the war in December 1914.
    • 3/5
      I read this book for my NF readers' group ... it was an OK book, stimulated some discussion ... but not the best book we've selected.
    • 4/5
      I picked up Stanley Weintraub's brief account of the 1914 Christmas truce after setting it down without completing it a couple of years ago. It is a good account of this odd anomaly of the Great War. Weintraub does a fine job of setting the scene: soldiers a settling down into their trenches, replete with the discomfort of the wet winter weather, the rats, bad food, and the nearness of the enemy lines divided by a No Man's Land littered with bodies-friends and foes alike. He contrasts this with the incongruities of the Christmas season-British and German soldiers alike receive government-sponsored goodies from home, which, while appreciated, do little to alleviate the suffering of those in the trenches-they don't drain the trenches, some waist high in mud, they don't reduce the danger from sniper's bullets or artillery shells. That is left to the men themselves. From December 24th through December 26th, chiefly German and British soldiers informally agree to a lull in the fighting, first to bury their dead, and then to trade petty luxuries, souvenirs, trade pleasantries, and even to kick around a football. What the governments and generals will not do, the front line troops do themselves. Weintraub, importantly, points out that the truce wasn't universal, but many, many units in the trenches sent home accounts of the several days of quiet and fraternization. If the book has a failing it is not fully exploring the fear of the governments and the generals that the truce could lead to an outbreak of peace-and what they did to insure it did not happen again. Well told, with an eye to humanize an inhuman conflict. A special nod goes to Weintraub's use of English, German and French source.
    • 3/5
      Pretty basic, but a good story.