‘Somehow, this scene became a peaceful one.’
The renowned ‘Christmas truce’ of 1914 took place about five months after the First World War began, when unofficial ceasefires spontaneously emerged along the Western Front on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. In 2016, at Freemasons’ Hall in London, as part of the Letters Live series, where actors read significant letters before a live audience, a video captured a firsthand account of this extraordinary moment, delivered by Scottish actor Peter Capaldi. In a letter to his wife, English Captain Reginald John ‘Jake’ Armes recounts having witnessed ‘one of the most extraordinary scenes imaginable.’ On this rare occasion, his troops and the German soldiers in the opposing trenches ceased fire for the holiday. They sang songs together, exchanged gifts, and even assisted each other in burying the dead. Capaldi’s reading of Armes’s words carries a powerful energy that highlights the brief spark of humanity amidst the brutality of war, making the account both hopeful and poignant—especially when considering the years of suffering that followed.