The Most Unlikely Christmas Dinner Guests
Last week we wrote about the Christmas Truce of 1914—an unofficial ceasefire in which Allied and German soldiers fighting in World War I joined together to celebrate Christmas. Another similar event occurred 30 years, on Christmas Eve, 1944.
Fritz Vincken, a young boy, was spending Christmas with his mother is a cold shack in the Belgian Forest. Allied troops had invaded Normandy the previous summer, and the Battle of the Bulge was in full swing.
On this cold, winter night, Fritz said a knock came to the door. His mother opened it to find three American soldiers lost and looking for a warm place to stay. Although Fritz and his mother were German, they invited the young men inside to warm by their fire and share dinner. A short time later another knock came. Four tired German soldiers stood in the doorway, also looking for a warm place to stay.
Fritz’s mother told the German and American soldiers they all could stay in the shack on one condition: No fighting.