How was Christmas celebrated and
experienced during 1944, the last year of World War II?
Bastogne in Belgium, Christmas 1944.
Plagued by biting cold and the nerve-wracking sound of exploding mortar bombs,
American soldiers sang Christmas carols. They ate their meagre rations,
yearning for well-laid Christmas dinner tables and roasted turkey. On the
Eastern front, German military assembled to listen to Christmas music on the
radio, if they had a little respite from the bloody battle against the
advancing Red Army. After reading the latest mail from Germany, they wiped away
their tears, thinking of their families back home.
In liberated Paris as well as in other
European cities, Christmas was celebrated no matter how limited the
circumstances may have been. In the major cities in the western part of the
Netherlands, occupied by the Germans, civilians scraped the very last bits of
food together for a Christmas dinner that could not appease their hunger. POWs
in camps all over the world looked forward to Christmas parcels from home. Even
in Nazi concentration camps, inmates found hope in Christmas, although their
suffering continued inexorably.
Christmas Under Fire, 1944 describes the circumstances in which the last
Christmas of World War II was celebrated by military, civilians and camp
inmates alike. Even in the midst of war’s violence, Christmas remained a
hopeful beacon of western civilization.
Christmas Under Fire, 1944 has been written by Kevin Prenger, owner of the highly recommended website Tracesofwar.com.
You can read the first chapter here.
Available from:
(Paperback and Kindle)
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