The Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day

In the wee hours of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, 1918, a group of powerful men convened in a railcar in France to sign an agreement to cease hostilities.

Then the sun rose. For the men in the trenches and fields, the morning carried on as it had for four long years. Guns boomed. Bullets whizzed. Men died—never knowing that at 5:10 a.m., their leaders had agreed to stop fighting.

Finally, at the 11^th hour … silence. The “war to end all wars” was over.

A Fragile Peace and a Shattered Promise

The time had come for the world to recover and rebuild, to transition back into peace.

Though the armistice was not a formal surrender, the Germans signed it believing peace negotiations would follow President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, which promised fairness and leniency.

Wilson’s ideals shaped the early talks, but France and Britain had their own agendas. Britain needed funds to recover and longed to reclaim its naval dominance. Germany’s neighbor, France, still nursing the humiliation of losing Alsace-Lorraine 47 years earlier in the Franco-Prussian War, wanted security against another German invasion—and revenge.

To be fair, France had borne the brunt of the war’s destruction. A ribbon of red winds through a map of northeastern France, where the war so contaminated the land that habitation was deemed impossible. Portions of that land have since been reclaimed, but not all of it.

Versailles: A Treaty Without Grace

On June 28, 1919 — the fifth anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which started the war — Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles. But who drew up this agreement? The Allied leaders, through negotiations that excluded any representatives from Germany. The Germans didn’t like the conditions, but they had no choice since their people were being starved by an Allied naval blockade keeping foodstuffs from reaching them.

Even some on the Allied side felt the treaty was unfair. French Marshal Ferdinand Foch is credited with saying, “This is not peace. It is an armistice for twenty years.” (Historians debate whether he truly said this, especially since he was a vocal critic of the treaty, stating it wasn’t harsh enough.)

Among the many bitter pills the Germans were forced to swallow was the “War Guilt Clause” (which placed the entire responsibility for the war on Germany). Also imposed were massive reparations, humiliating military restrictions, and territorial losses.

Germany struggled throughout the 1920s. The humiliation of defeat, coupled with economic and political unrest, fueled resentment and a sense of betrayal. Then came the stock market crash of 1929, plunging the world into depression. Reparations that had been loosely enforced were now called in, deepening Germany’s despair.

The Rise of a False Savior

These conditions created fertile ground for the rise of a leader who promised order, pride, and strength. In just a few years, Hitler quelled political violence, revived the economy, and began a military buildup that should have signaled to the world that Germany’s aggression had not been extinguished.

Also in those few years, one segment of the population—the Jews—saw their lives turned upside down. They lost their jobs and rights, saw their property stolen, and were often singled out for general cruelty.

Kristallnacht: The Night of Broken Glass

On November 9 and 10, 1938—just shy of twenty years to the day after the end of WWI—Kristallnacht shattered any illusion of safety. Brown Shirts marched through the streets, smashing windows of Jewish homes and businesses, looting, burning, and brutalizing. Synagogues were torched. Some 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps, though they had committed no crime.

After Kristallnacht, many Jews tried to flee. Some escaped to Switzerland or the Netherlands, others to Britain or the Americas. Most were turned away. Small nations feared such an influx of refugees could overwhelm their economies. Larger ones feared political entanglement. Understandable, perhaps, but devastating.

From Silence to Second World War

On September 1, 1939, nearly twenty-one years after the guns fell silent in France, the Second World War began when Germany invaded Poland.

Would the German people have embraced Hitler if the Treaty of Versailles had been less harsh? Some historians say yes—his rise was inevitable. Others believe that if  Germany had been shown some grace, Hitler might have remained an angry little man with a tiny following, and WWII might never have happened.

Scripture’s Wisdom for Peace

We’ll never know for sure. But the Bible says that “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.” — Proverbs 15:1, KJV. 

And Scripture has plenty to say about how we should treat our enemies. 

Paul writes in Romans 12:20 and 21, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Jesus calls us to radical love in Matthew 5:44 when He says, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you…” And Luke 6:27 and 28 adds an admonition to pray for them.

Maybe if the architects of peace had looked to the wisdom of Scripture, that era of history might be a gentler chapter.

Because cruelty doesn’t bring healing. Only God’s grace can do that.