British and German soldiers of the First World War fraternise during the ‘Christmas truce’ of 1914
British and German soldiers of the First World War fraternise during the ‘Christmas truce’ of 1914
‘Somehow this scene became a peaceful one.’
The famed ‘Christmas truce’ of 1914 occurred some five months after the outbreak of the First World War when widespread, unofficial ceasefires arose on the Western Front on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Filmed at Freemasons’ Hall in London in 2016 as part of the events series Letters Live, in which performers read notable letters in front of a live audience, this video features a firsthand account of the truce as read by the Scottish actor Peter Capaldi. In a letter to his wife, the English Captain Reginald John ‘Jake’ Armes reports having lived through ‘one of the most extraordinary scenes imaginable’ as the forces under his command and the Germans in the trenches across from them agreed to halt fire for the holiday, performed songs for one another, exchanged gifts and even helped one another bury their dead. Heard today, Armes’s words, given a forceful verve here by Capaldi, are at once hopeful for their flickering of humanity amid the horrors of war, yet deeply poignant given the years of brutality still to come.
Video by Letters Live
video
Making
On the Norwegian coast, a tree is transformed into a boat the old-fashioned way
6 minutes
video
Animals and humans
One man’s quest to save an orphaned squirrel, as narrated by David Attenborough
14 minutes
video
Computing and artificial intelligence
A future in which ‘artificial scientists’ make discoveries may not be far away
9 minutes
video
History
Hags, seductresses, feminist icons – how gender dynamics manifest in witches
13 minutes
video
Wellbeing
Children of the Rwandan genocide face a unique stigma 30 years later
20 minutes
video
War and peace
Two Ukrainian boys’ summer unfolds just miles from the frontlines
22 minutes
video
Nature and landscape
California’s landscapes provide endless inspiration for a woodcut printmaker
10 minutes
video
Love and friendship
Never marry a man you love too much, and other views on romance in Sierra Leone
5 minutes
video
Engineering
Can monumental ‘ice stupas’ help remote Himalayan villages survive?
15 minutes