This is the cover to the pamphlet. A mother holds the booklet while her four children look on. The father is presumably at the front. Page 2 introduces the pamphlet: “Dear German mother! Christmas has always been particularly a festival for children. War and destruction may rage in the world, and everyone, man or woman, in Germany may have to arm themselves with hardness and will in order to continue the battle until victory — yet our children should delight in this most German of all holidays as much as possible. We are fighting this war for our children, for them we are bearing the burdens and dangers, but their eyes should remain bright during the Christmas season, and they should laugh with joy in anticipation and Christmas pleasure…. In most families, the father is in the field, and often they have been forced to leave their homes because of the war. Death’s hard hand may even have torn holes in the family. Still, the German mother will hold her hand protectively over childhood joy and childhood thoughts in this Christmas season.”
One day before Christmas. Two German soldiers stand by a Christmas tree covering the grave of a comrade. The text: “In war or in peace, you may never forget the quiet thankfulness and obligation owed to those whose sacrifices enabled you to celebrate Christmas. Therefore, a candle should burn in every home for those most loyal who stand eternal watch on the wide fronts of this war.”
How We Celebrate Christmas by Wilhelm Beilstein
Lonely watch
Ice-cold night!
The frost creaks
The storm rages
The peace I extol
I see in them.
The bright flame blazes!
Murder, hatred, death
They fill the earth
With grim threatenings.
Never will there be peace, they say,
Swearing an oath with bloody hands.
What care I about cold and pain!
In me burns an oath
Blazing as a flame
With sword and heart and hand.
Come what may Germany,
I am ready!
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