love or hate

One night during the battle of Stalingrad in World War 2 a Russian soldier was playing the violin. Over a megaphone a German soldier asked, “Could you play some Bach?” And so he did. Earlier that day they were trying to kill each other, and the next day they tried to kill each other again, but for one night they were compatriots because of a violin player.

Another day during the same battle a German soldier was defending his post against a Russian tank attack. He had sited a tank with his bazooka, fired, and hit it. One lone Russian climbed out, he was quite lucky to have survived. The German soldier had already pulled out his rifle. He had the Russian in his sites. Then he thought to himself, “My God he is lucky, and who am I to ruin his luck?” He lowered his rifle and let the Russian go.

In 1914 soldiers on the western front met their enemies in no man's land to celebrate Christmas. The war essentially ended for one night because the soldiers were celebrating the birth of Christ. I always thought that it was cool that soldiers celebrating love ended war for a day.