Interfaith Stories From the Trenches of WWI: The Unbearable Lightness of Strangers
Luc Ferier shares heart-warming stories discovered by The Forgotten Heroes 14- 19 Foundation of the respect and unity that thrived among the soldiers of different faiths in the trenches of WWI.Further Resources:
https://www.theunknownarchives.com/: dedicated to The Unknown Fallen in the First World War.
Among the personal World War I diaries traced by the Forgotten Heroes 14 19 Foundation are numerous heart-warming accounts of Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Sikh and Jewish soldiers among many others of different faith, fighting united, side-by-side; sharing their experiences and accommodating each other’s cultures, music, dietary codes, and religious practices, despite the difficult conditions in the trenches.
Furthermore, chaplains, priests, rabbis, and imams went out of their way to learn, Arabic, Hebrew, Urdu, English, and French, in order to accommodate religious burials of the dead on the battle front. If soldiers then could accept and accommodate each other in this way, in the trenches during wartime, what’s stopping us from doing the same today?