He continued his education at Temple University where he received his master's degree in English “in absentia,” as he was called to duty in the Korean War. He attended South Philadelphia High School, and then he attended West Chester State Teachers College (now West Chester University of Pennsylvania) where he received his B.S. He was the eldest child of Benjamin and Ray Segal Weintraub. Weintraub was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 17, 1929. Stanley Weintraub's moving re-creation demonstrates that peace can be more fragile than war, but also that ordinary men can bond with one another despite all efforts of politicians and generals to the contrary. ![]() Surely the forgotten Christmas Truce was one of history's most beautiful moments, made all the more beautiful in light of the carnage that followed it. Sometimes the greatest beauty emerges from deep tragedy. When angry superiors ordered them to recommence the shooting, many men aimed harmlessly high overhead. But as the power of Christmas grew among them, they broke bread, exchanged addresses and letters and expressed deep admiration for one another. Soon they were gathering and burying the dead, in an age-old custom of truces. It began when German soldiers lit candles on small Christmas trees, and British, French, Belgian and German troops serenaded each other on Christmas Eve. Yet in December 1914 the Great War was still young, and the men who suddenly threw down their arms and came together across the front lines to sing carols, exchange gifts and letters, eat and drink and even play friendly games of soccer naively hoped that the war would be short-lived, and that they were fraternizing with future friends. It had been lost in the tide of horror that filled the battlefields of Europe for months and years afterward. ![]() Silent Night, by renowned military historian Stanley Weintraub, magically restores the 1914 Christmas Truce to history. And it still stands as the only time in history that peace spontaneously arose from the lower ranks in a major conflict, bubbling up to the officers and temporarily turning sworn enemies into friends. It happened in spite of orders to the contrary by superiors it happened in spite of language barriers. It took place in the improbable setting of the mud, cold rain and senseless killing of the trenches of World War I. It was one of history's most powerful,yet forgotten,Christmas stories.
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