... lasted anywhere from a matter of hours to several weeks, and were completely orchestrated by the troops partaking in them, with no approval or guidance from their governments. As historian Stanley Weintraub points out, the idea of the truce came from earlier wars, simply as respite from fighting to bury fallen comrades (Lopez par. 8). What sets Christmas, 1914 apart is the potential it had for changing things because "the scale of the 1914 truce far exceeded the localized respites of previous wars" (Simmermacher, par. 17). The truce exposed the lack of hatred many soldiers felt towards their counterparts, and the impractical nature of the war that had been pressed upon them. Overall, the Christmas Truce of 1914 demonstrated how the humanity and compassion of primarily British and German soldiers could overshadow and nearly defeat the violence and animosity of the war. The truce at Christmas was not a ...

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