"The only thing that explains the Christmas Truce of 1914 is Christmas," says Professor Álvaro Núñez about his book. Because the Truce in World War I (1914-1918) was not only a cessation of hostilities: it was an act of brotherhood, of fraternization, of joint celebration, of Christmas songs in unison. "Yes, Christmas music was decisive. It was the common 'language' in which the contenders could understand each other."
The author has published in Meeting this exciting documented account of hundreds of testimonies of British, French, Belgian or German soldiers who sang, drank, played, exchanged objects and addresses with the enemy, and hundreds of fragments of diaries of the First World War, in which between 9 and 11 million soldiers died, the vast majority of them soldiers, and as many millions of civilians, in addition to some 20 million wounded.
The events took place while the military high command forbade any truce, and the politicians deplored it. Álvaro Núñez (Quetzaltenango, 1955), professor at the University of Almería, father of three children, reveals to Omnes what moved him to write the book, the appeals of the Popes, the premonitory words of Churchill, the letter of a German lieutenant to his beloved Trude, the song of 'Silent Night'...
Why this book? You have been a lawyer, a magistrate.
- Yes, it is true, but as a university professor, I have been writing for more than forty years and, whenever the subject matter has allowed it, I have put passion into my legal writings. And passion is what I feel about Christmas, and especially about this unique event, in the true spirit of Christmas, which was the Truce of 1914.
Reasons to study the Truce of '14 and write about it? Above all, the desire to tell a truth (with all its evidence) that is beautiful and that, moreover, invites us to be good, and because in Spain the colossal dimensions of what happened on the Western Front at Christmas 1914 are unknown.
However, it has also been influenced by the fact that a European Commissioner wanted to prevent people from explicitly congratulating Christmas a few years ago and that twenty-five years ago -I remember it perfectly well- someone said to me: 'Álvaro, Christmas has twenty years left'. It will not happen that I will die, of course, but if that were the case, I would like to die first. In the end, if this has not been the main reason for this book, it has been a great incentive: to collaborate with the story of that enormous truth so that this does not happen.
The summer of 1914 was supposed to be calm and peaceful in Europe. What happened to trigger a Great War with millions of deaths?
- As I say in the first lines of the book, wars, like deadly diseases, begin long before their terrible manifestation. In the case of the Great War, the powers of the time had been preparing the ground for a possible war for some time.
But nothing foreshadowed a war in that summer of '14. Nor did the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and his wife in Sarajevo necessarily determine the war. The real cause, what made the war unstoppable and 'worldwide', was, I believe, the July 23rd ultimatum of Austria-Hungary to Serbia: Serbia could not accept it in all its terms, and the resulting war could not be only regional, given the system of alliances that would immediately be set in motion.
The Pope Pius XWhy did the cessation of hostilities he proposed fail to bring about peace? Benedict XV?
- Before saying why it failed, I would like to point out that the truce was accepted by several contenders: UK, Belgium, Germany and even Turkey accepted. Neither Russia nor France accepted. The first, because Russian Orthodox Christmas is celebrated on January 7, more than two weeks after Catholic, Protestant and Anglican Christmas. The second, because it did not want to interrupt its ongoing operations.
It must also be said that the Catholic 'patriots' - Austrians, Germans and French - were more patriotic than Catholic (I am referring to those in their offices, in their newspapers, in their homes, not those at the front) and did little to echo the Pope's plea.
A young Churchill had wondered what would happen if the armies laid down their arms at the same time. What happened so that, at Christmas 1914, the soldiers would lay down their arms and want to celebrate Christmas with their enemy?
- Yes, Churchill's words, in a letter to his wife, were prescient. Churchill, from the experience he had as a military man and as a war reporter himself, knew that there might arise at some time, somewhere, a feeling of understanding, a desire for rapprochement between enemies; that some soldier might see in the enemy a brother who suffered the same misfortune as himself and against whom he had nothing.
This explains, in the context of trench warfare, the existence of brief truces, of understandings between contenders in order to make the war smoother (the live and let live system), but it does not explain the Christmas Truce. The only thing that explains the Christmas Truce is Christmas. Because the Truce was not just a truce, that is, a cessation of hostilities: it was an act of brotherhood, of fraternization, of joint celebration, of Christmas songs in unison. Yes, Christmas music was decisive. It was the common 'language' in which the contenders could understand each other. It was, in many cases, the spark that caused tempers to cool and men to come out of their trenches to embrace each other.
What was the attitude of the military commanders, of the soldiers? And the politicians?
- The High Command, in each of the armies, prohibited any truce and, with respect to that Christmas truce, demanded that those who had participated be held accountable, but, in the end, took no disciplinary action (with some exceptions).
The front-line officers were another matter. They consented and, in many cases, agreed to the truce and participated in the fraternization. The Christmas Truce was not a soldiers-only truce.
Politicians, in all cases, in all countries, deplored the Truce.
How were you able to document these numerous truces, summarized in what you call 'The Christmas that stopped the Great War'? The work is laborious, with 886 notes.
- The book is the product of a person who does not know how to write in any other way; who needs to prove everything he says. It is a professional defect like any other. Hence, all the documentation, all the sources, all the quotations. The collection of sources has certainly been laborious, but I have had help and also the good fortune that the official sources, British and French, are very accessible.
In the book there are many stories of soldiers who told their truce to the media, in the middle of the war. To cite one, a letter in 'The Times' of January 2, 1915. Can you mention one (s) that moved you the most?
- Yes, the book tells many little stories of those Christmas days. The book could have been written differently, but from the very beginning I wanted to give voice to the protagonists. The letters are the most precious source, not the most surprising, because the most surprising thing is that the diary of a battalion tells what happened in detail. The letters are exciting because of what they tell, because of how the soldiers tell it - it is doubtful that today, boys of eighteen or early twenties, write so well - and because they tell it from the mud of their trenches, with their hands frozen with cold - mittens on - and with all the emotion of something they have lived through and that, as many say, they will not forget as long as they live.
The letters are really moving...
- Emotional? I have cried many times, and even today, after four years of work and two years that have passed since I finished the book, my voice breaks when I read a letter.
But he asks me for one, and I don't know which one to offer him... Well, this is one among many: that of a German lieutenant who begins: "My beloved Trude, [...] since then it has been raining incessantly, and outside, in the trenches, the water is again knee-deep. On the other hand, the English opposite have become quite quiet since Christmas. Not a single shot was fired on Christmas Eve. The soldiers made an armistice, although the commanders had forbidden it. English and Germans came out of their trenches on the first holiday, gave each other presents and sat together for a long time in the middle of the enemy trenches. Then our people sang 'Silent Night' and brought a Christmas tree to their enemies."
I loved two pages with the Truce Songbook.
- I'm very happy to hear that. It's proof that music had a lot to do with it. In a few days, by the way, I have organized a choral concert with some of the carols that appear in that list.
Finally, did they try another Christmas Truce in 1915 or thereafter? Because the Great War lasted four years, is this initiative transferable to today's wars in any way?
At Christmas 1915 there was no Truce in the sense of a halt to the war and fraternization between enemies as occurred in 1914, but there were some truces, one of them told by Robert Graves.
The reason it did not happen again is very simple: the High Command was forewarned and prevented any attempt at a Christmas truce.
As for the possibility of such a truce happening again, I do not want to rule it out, even though Christmas no longer represents for many Europeans the sacred moment of the birth of Christ, when it is inconceivable to kill each other and, instead, absolutely natural to embrace each other. However, for this to happen, it would require trench warfare.
