Christmas Eve, 1944
In Stalag XIII-B
“Father, this is Christmas Eve.
You will have to say a good prayer with us tonight.”
The following is excerpted from Battlefield Chaplains: Catholic Priests in World War II, Donald F. Crosby, SJ (University of Kansas Press, 1994).
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They called it the Forest of the Ardennes: a gentle timberland of open meadows, meandering streams, and tree-lined lanes.
In the middle of December, 1944 the area suddenly exploded with the sound of warfare when the German army staged a massive counterstrike against the Allies.
Chaplain Paul Cavanaugh, a Jesuit from the Midwest, and several thousand men from the 106th managed to elude the Germans for the first four days of the battle, hiding out in isolated farms and villages in the forest. On the fourth day, however, the officers leading the group committed a major error that eventually led to the capture of Cavanaugh and his men and their imprisonment.
In this camp, Cavanaugh and his men experienced the most moving night of the Christian year, Christmas Eve. Their wretched surroundings brought them close to the poverty and lowliness of the nativity scene than anything they had ever experienced before. As they huddled together that evening, trying to ward off the intense cold, one of them suddenly said to Cavanaugh, “Father, this is Christmas Eve. You will have to say a good prayer with us tonight.” Cavanaugh obliged as best he could, talking about the first Christmas Eve in Bethlehem and how it demonstrated God’s continuing love for each of them. He told them that His love was somehow present even on that winter night when their hopes lay frozen on the barracks floor.
Soon he approached the end of what he sensed might well be the best Christmas sermon he ever delivered. He prayed … “Lord, grant peace to the world … Grant that the peace which Christ, who is called the Prince of Peace, came to bring us may be established all over the world. Amen.” Then, without pause, he led the men in the singing of a Christmas Carol, and afterward, the men sang all the other old, familiar hymns that they could remember. Then came a great, deep silence that lasted the rest of the night. Cavanaugh turned to the young man slumping against him. “Paul, are you awake?” he whispered. No answer. In a louder voice he asked, “Is everybody satisfied?” Still no answer. At long last, all was “still and calm and peaceful, and I was very happy.”
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NB: On March 27, 1945 Fr. Cavanaugh and the other POW’s were freed when the camp was liberated. He later served at the Jesuit novitiate in Milford, Ohio, directed retreats at Manresa in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and worked on staff at Gesu Church in Toledo. He died in 1975 in Stow, Ohio.
A personal note: from August 1943 till March 1945 my father was a prisoner in Stalag Luft 3. I’m not sure how his Christmas of 1944 was, but he survived and later thrived as a true representative of “the greatest generation”.
I remember the scene in the movie Band of Brother's when the German soldier were singing Silent night in their trenches on the front line. The Americans could hear them and Sgt Grenier asked” What the hell are they singing about”? I believe it was in the Ardennes as well. It was incredibly beautiful and equally sad at the same time.
Pray for us good Father Crosby SJ