14. Summary of the lesson "The Christmas Truce"

The lesson "The Christmas Truce" was written by Aron Shepherd. The lesson opens with a British soldier named Tom writes a letter to his sister Janet. In the letter, he mentioned that there was a battle going on between the Britishers and Germans, and many of the soldiers lost their lives in the first world war. The British soldier said that they hated the Germans as they had killed many of their soldiers and the Germans too hated them because they did the same. Then he said that while he was sleeping, his friend, John woke him up by telling him to see what the Germans were doing. When he came near the sandbags, he saw an unbelievable sight as the Germans had placed Christmas trees in front of their trenches. They lit candles or lanterns in the Christmas trees. They started singing carols and the Britishers too joined them. Though the Britishers couldn't understand their language, John translated it to them. Later, they joined together and celebrated Christmas by forgetting that they were in the war zone. They exchanged gifts with each other. When the British soldier decided to go to his spot, an old German soldier clutched his arm and asked, "why can't we just have peace and go home". Then he replied to ask his emperor. Later, the British soldier wrote in his letter that he hoped that a day would come when there would be no wars when world leaders would feel such spirit to offer good wishes instead of warnings, gifts in place of retaliation.