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

highly recommend if you like history especially!

I have heard about this but never read actual account of it. I enjoy historical books and really enjoyed this to read over the holidays. It is amazing what war can do and yet the spirit of the mtrue meaning of Christmas came through all that war on that special night.

Inspiring

This beautifully written book reads like a novel. It's uplifting and inspiring. These men showed what the human spirit can accomplish even in the ugliest of circumstance, and Stanley Weintraub captures the scene perfectly. This true story makes you wonder, if the heroes WWI could show compassion for their fellow man, why can't the rest of the world?

Silent Night

Given that the Christmas Truce happened only once, under unfavorable conditions and never again was repeated during the duration of the first World War, the story told in this book is pretty amazing. That numerous countries in different parts along the front line all had the same idea to put down their weapons and enjoy Christmas was unheard of and for the governments involved, potentially dangerous.

Against restrictions and bans from both sides of the battle front, soldiers disobeyed direct orders and officers looked the other way, singing carols, putting up Christmas trees, trading drinks, exchanging smokes and even playing futbol.

Based on letters and stories related by veterans, Stanley Weintraub puts together a comprehensive tale of what happened on December 1914. And strangely it is a war story with a good, heartfelt message. Unfortunately, the truce was not to last and in most places did not extend into New Years, and for the rest of the war, never repeated itself anywhere. The book gives insight into what happened in numerous places and tells some very interesting stories.

Because the topic discussed is so narrow, however, this book can get tedious to read, for as one goes on, the stories seem to repeat itself. Many times, it may seem like you are reading the same story. Also questionable, though not incredibly so, is the fact that the author jumps around from one place to another to unfold his book, where I think it may have been better to make this book a compilation of stories and let the reader take on the stories they found intriguing. Nonetheless, the way it is broken down is comprehensive and relatively well narrated.

There is however a pair of points that I did find frustrating. One, the fact that a lot of times he quotes in the tongue in which things were written and fails to provide translation, even as foot notes. Having studied French, I caught all the English and French references, but I was entirely lost in the German vocabulary and it took reading into the book to put two and two together to figure out what some words meant. The other problem I had with the book was a very obvious bias on the author¿s side to paint the Germans as the saintly figures, in fact crediting them with most of the realizations that took place between trenches. It may have been the case that, as he explains, the Germans were winning and therefore they had less to lose by extending a hand to their enemies, but throughout the book, one gets the feeling that there is a definite bias.

If one can overlook those two points, however, the book did make for some interesting reading.

Excellent read..

This is a wonderful book. I don't recommend reading it if you can't read books without using your agenda as a bookmarker. It defines fact from fiction, and is reputable in doing so. I found it a stimulating glimpse into humanity.

Boring, Disorganized, and Highly Repetitive

I have read over 40 books about World War I, and this is the worst book I've ever read on the subject. The book is boring, disorganized, and relentlessly pursues it pacifist agenda. The book is repititous ad nauseaum. In the author's attempt to convince his readers that the ordinary soldiers didn't want to fight, he presents a huge number of barely discernible short stories and excerpts throughout the book. The text is erratic and disorganized. This unconvincing book seems not like the work of a published author, but the work of a human psychology student's term paper. Much of the book simply consists of word-for-word extracts from other published media. Ignore the positive reviews on the back cover - it's clear these reviewers didn't read more than the first few pages. This book isn't worth the paper it's printed on!

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A heartwarming story about the absurdity of war

In December 1914, the Western Front ran through Belgium and northern France. The muddy, slimy quagmire of Flanders trenches became the home-away-from-home of soldiers from Belgium, France, including Algeria, and Britain, including Scotland, Wales and India, on the one side, and from Germany, Saxony, Westphalia, Bavaria and Prussia, on the other. Bubbling up from the ranks of the enlisted and the conscripted, soldiers observed a Christmas 'you no shoot, we no shoot' day, initially to reclaim and bury their dead from No Man's Land. The holiday feelings manifested themselves in Christmas trees, carolling, friendly insults and facetious taunts, followed by heartfelt exchanges of sausages, chocolates, cigarettes, plum pudding--and even barrels of beer and soccer matches. Recalled memorably later on in 'Oh! What a Lovely War,' and in letters, songs and poems, the remarkable impromptu truce was downplayed in official reports. Seeking plausible deniability, officers on both sides blamed the enemy side. But here Weintraub poignantly presents in black and white the ample evidence, including photographs. Highly recommended.

HORRIBLE!!!

This book was very painful to read. I could barely make it through the first fifty pages before throwing it out of the window. I would strongly suggest not reading this book to anyone who is interested.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Riveting !!!

Christmas will never be the same again. Every time that I hear the carole 'Stille Nacht', I will always remember how the true Christmas spirit lived, a long time ago, in a place that too many people have long since forgotten.

Praise for Silent Night

Silent Night is an excellent book! It not only provides the facts of the Truce but also the fiction. The reader cannot help but be provoked to speculate on the What if ...? It is a must have for any World War I collection.

This book is about a very remarkable truce and brings back the miracles of Christmas.

This story brings the warmth of a family Christmas dinner in a warm house with friends, to the soldiers at war. No matter where you are or which ever country you come from, a war will always stop at the dinner table.

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