Christmas 1945 Around the World: Hope, Ruins, Liberation & Global Holiday Rebirth

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome back, dear listeners to the Strange History Podcast, where

0:04 Speaker 1: we travel so deeply into the past that we occasionally

0:07 Speaker 1: need a sturdy pair of emotional hiking boots and a

0:10 Speaker 1: flask of brandy. Tonight, we continue our journey into Christmas

0:14 Speaker 1: nineteen forty five, but this time we leave American shores

0:19 Speaker 1: and wander across a world trying to rediscover the meaning

0:22 Speaker 1: of joy. Because while Americans were untangling victory lights and

0:26 Speaker 1: bribing Gramma for butter ration stamps, the rest of the

0:29 Speaker 1: world was facing a question far heavier. How do we

0:33 Speaker 1: celebrate Christmas in a world that has been shattered? Some

0:37 Speaker 1: nations were rebuilding, some were mourning, Some, like the UK,

0:41 Speaker 1: were still rationing everything except oxygen and sarcasm. And yet

0:46 Speaker 1: in the cold winter of nineteen forty five, something remarkable happened.

0:50 Speaker 1: People celebrated anyway. They found tiny sparks of joy in

0:55 Speaker 1: bombed out cities, refugee camps, military outposts, and homes without roofs.

1:01 Speaker 1: They sang carols with cracked voices. They lit candles in

1:04 Speaker 1: broken windows. They found hope, flickering, fragile, stubborn hope. So

1:10 Speaker 1: bundle up. The world is cold. In nineteen forty five,

1:14 Speaker 1: but its people are alight.

1:16 Speaker 2: The United Kingdom a Christmas on rations.

1:20 Speaker 1: Britain's Christmas nineteen forty five was not glamorous. In fact,

1:24 Speaker 1: it was held together with ration coupons, stiff upper lips,

1:28 Speaker 1: and a national sense of humor so dry it could

1:31 Speaker 1: be stored in a desert. The war was over, but

1:34 Speaker 1: rationing was not. The UK was still cutting coupons for sugar, butter, meat, cheese, eggs, tea, yes,

1:43 Speaker 1: even tea. This alone was arguably a human rights violation.

1:48 Speaker 1: A famous London newspaper joked, Britain has won the war,

1:52 Speaker 1: but lost the pudding. True story. A London woman wrote

1:56 Speaker 1: in her diary that her nineteen forty five Christmas pudding

1:59 Speaker 1: was so small it could fit inside a teacup if

2:02 Speaker 1: one were so wasteful as to reserve a whole teacup

2:04 Speaker 1: for pudding. But despite the shortages, Britain celebrated. Families decorated

2:10 Speaker 1: bomb damaged homes with greeneries scavenged from parks, children hung

2:14 Speaker 1: stockings over fireplaces without mantles. In some pubs, patrons shared

2:19 Speaker 1: a single bottle of whiskey like it was the Holy Grail.

2:22 Speaker 1: One of the most touching true stories. At Coventry Cathedral,

2:26 Speaker 1: the one that had been destroyed in nineteen forty the

2:29 Speaker 1: choir sang Christmas hymns surrounded by rubble. There was no roof,

2:34 Speaker 1: wind blew through the aisles, and yet over one thousand

2:38 Speaker 1: people came to hear them sing. One attendee wrote, we

2:41 Speaker 1: sang louder than the wind. It was the first time

2:44 Speaker 1: since the blitz that I felt Christmas might come again,

2:47 Speaker 1: even in broken buildings.

2:49 Speaker 3: The spirit held, do you live in a world where

2:52 Speaker 3: butter is scarce, flower is precious, and your Christmas pudding

2:56 Speaker 3: looks like an oversight? Try ration padding, the war time

3:00 Speaker 3: food extender that adds volume without flavor or nutrition, made

3:04 Speaker 3: from ground disappointment air, and a whisper of optimism. Ration

3:10 Speaker 3: patting because sometimes Christmas dinner needs help.

3:15 Speaker 2: Germany Christmas in the ruins.

3:18 Speaker 1: Germany's Christmas in nineteen forty five was unlike anything the

3:22 Speaker 1: country had experienced before. Bombed out cities, homes turned to shells,

3:27 Speaker 1: family scattered, millions still displaced. Yet Christmas came anyway. Churches

3:33 Speaker 1: those still standing were packed. Some held services in basements,

3:38 Speaker 1: others outdoors because the roof was missing, Many parishioners attended

3:42 Speaker 1: wearing coats because there was no electricity or heating. Left

3:46 Speaker 1: true story. In Cologne, residents decorated a Christmas tree in

3:51 Speaker 1: the ruins of a building that had once been a

3:53 Speaker 1: department store. They scavenged bits of colored paper, scraps of ribbon,

3:58 Speaker 1: and broken glass ornaments from the rubble. One man used

4:02 Speaker 1: foil from cigarette packs to create stars. A reporter wrote,

4:07 Speaker 1: it was the most beautiful tree I had ever seen,

4:10 Speaker 1: because it stood where nothing should have survived. On Christmas Eve,

4:15 Speaker 1: American gis occupying Germany distributed chocolate, cigarettes, and small toys.

4:21 Speaker 1: One young girl in Stuttgart said she had never tasted

4:24 Speaker 1: real chocolate before. It had been unavailable since she was

4:27 Speaker 1: five years old. She wrote later in life, I still

4:31 Speaker 1: remember the soldier's face more than the chocolate. He looked

4:34 Speaker 1: so happy to give it to us. It was a

4:37 Speaker 1: Christmas of contradictions, sorrow and generosity, ruins and rebirth, loss

4:43 Speaker 1: and tentative peace.

4:44 Speaker 3: Feeling down, world destroyed. No decent chocolate you need. Goodwill

4:49 Speaker 3: gis the nineteen forty five subscription service where American soldiers

4:53 Speaker 3: appear out of nowhere and hand you candy canned peaches

4:58 Speaker 3: a smile that could international hostility. Goodwill gis bringing sweetness

5:03 Speaker 3: to the apocalypse. Since nineteen forty.

5:05 Speaker 2: Five, France a Christmas of liberation and red wine.

5:11 Speaker 1: France entered Christmas nineteen forty five with a mix of

5:14 Speaker 1: relief and celebration. Paris had been liberated for over a year,

5:19 Speaker 1: but the nation was still recovering emotionally and physically. Still,

5:23 Speaker 1: the French did what the French do best. They held

5:26 Speaker 1: spectacular holiday feasts, or at least spectacular feeling feasts, because

5:32 Speaker 1: even if the goose was scrawny and the vegetables were questionable,

5:35 Speaker 1: it was served on real plates in a world no

5:38 Speaker 1: longer under Nazi occupation. In Paris, cafes reopened with Christmas menus,

5:44 Speaker 1: proudly advertising food items they didn't actually have yet but

5:48 Speaker 1: felt morally confident they would acquire somehow, and the French

5:53 Speaker 1: wine industry, ravaged by years of confiscation, still managed to

5:58 Speaker 1: supply enough to ensure the country remain festive. One French

6:02 Speaker 1: woman wrote, we drank to freedom, we drank to Christmas.

6:06 Speaker 1: We drank because we could. True story. In the small

6:10 Speaker 1: town of Amian, a baker baked the first Gallet des

6:14 Speaker 1: rois kingcake the village had seen in six years. She

6:19 Speaker 1: did not have enough ingredients, so she secretly substituted mashed

6:23 Speaker 1: potatoes for half the flower. No one noticed, people declared

6:27 Speaker 1: it magnificent. That is the power of French morale.

6:31 Speaker 2: Italy a Christmas of rebuilding and reunion.

6:35 Speaker 1: Italy's Christmas came in the wake of deep political upheaval,

6:39 Speaker 1: widespread destruction, and food shortages, but Italians, being Italians, they

6:45 Speaker 1: still found ways to make Christmas as warm and communal

6:48 Speaker 1: as possible. Families crowded into kitchens making improvised versions of

6:53 Speaker 1: classic dishes, panitone made from stale bread, pasta stretched impossibly thin,

7:00 Speaker 1: chestnuts roasted over fires fueled by scavenged wood. In Rome,

7:05 Speaker 1: the Vatican held a massive Christmas Eve service that drew

7:08 Speaker 1: over twenty thousand people, many walking miles because gasoline was scarce.

7:14 Speaker 1: Pope Pious the twelfth delivered a message of hope that

7:17 Speaker 1: echoed across a nation trying to redefine itself. One soldier

7:21 Speaker 1: returning to Florence wrote, the city was broken, but the

7:25 Speaker 1: people were not. They lit candles in windows that had

7:28 Speaker 1: no glass, and perhaps the most charming true story in

7:33 Speaker 1: Naples American soldiers helped local families decorate a massive community

7:38 Speaker 1: Christmas tree, placing US military rations beneath it as gifts.

7:43 Speaker 1: Children unwrapped cans of spam like they were treasures from

7:47 Speaker 1: the sea. They probably deserved metals for their enthusiasm alone.

7:51 Speaker 2: Japan and the Pacific, a Christmas in transition.

7:56 Speaker 1: For Allied soldiers still stationed across the Pacific. Chrismus nineteen

8:00 Speaker 1: forty five was strange, hot, and emotionally complicated. Some were

8:06 Speaker 1: waiting to come home, some were overseeing occupation duties. Some

8:10 Speaker 1: were still processing battles fought only months earlier, but they

8:14 Speaker 1: celebrated in Okinawa. Gis decorated palm trees with makeshift ornaments,

8:21 Speaker 1: canteen caps, mess kit lids, and string lights powered by

8:25 Speaker 1: generators that sounded like angry lawnmowers. True story. A chaplain

8:30 Speaker 1: in Guam wrote that Christmas Eve services were so crowded

8:34 Speaker 1: that men stood outside in tropical rain, listening through open windows.

8:39 Speaker 1: On ships, sailors received special Christmas dinners with turkey, fruit, cocktail,

8:44 Speaker 1: and pie foods they hadn't seen since leaving home. One

8:48 Speaker 1: sailor wrote it tasted like home, even though the ocean

8:52 Speaker 1: was trying to kill us. The entire time, Japan itself

8:56 Speaker 1: was in ruins, grieving, starving, and processing surrender. While Christmas

9:01 Speaker 1: is not a traditional Japanese holiday, some families quietly celebrated

9:05 Speaker 1: peace more than Christmas, lighting small lanterns, sharing rice, and

9:10 Speaker 1: praying for the future. It was not a festive Christmas,

9:14 Speaker 1: but it was a peaceful one, and after everything that

9:17 Speaker 1: mattered more.

9:18 Speaker 3: Island breeze holiday fan. Too hot for Christmas spirit, palm tree,

9:23 Speaker 3: drooping turkey, sweating under tropical humidity, You need island breeze

9:28 Speaker 3: holiday fan, the only fan capable of creating winter vibes

9:32 Speaker 3: on a tropical island. Settings include North Pole k mild snowstorm,

9:38 Speaker 3: aggressive January, and Nebraska Island breeze holiday fan. Because even

9:43 Speaker 3: Santa hates humidity.

9:45 Speaker 2: Refugee camps DP camps and the displaced millions.

9:51 Speaker 1: One of the most overlooked parts of Christmas nineteen forty

9:54 Speaker 1: five was that millions of people around the world were

9:57 Speaker 1: still displaced, living in refuse camps, displaced persons camps, temporary housing,

10:04 Speaker 1: or with relatives. And yet even there, Christmas found a

10:08 Speaker 1: way in. In DP camps across Europe filled with Holocaust

10:12 Speaker 1: survivors POW's former forced laborers aid workers organized holiday events.

10:19 Speaker 1: In one camp in Bavaria, children decorated a tree with

10:23 Speaker 1: cut up pieces of their ration wrappers. One little girl,

10:26 Speaker 1: who had lost her entire family in the war, hung

10:29 Speaker 1: a single white ribbon on the tree. When asked why,

10:32 Speaker 1: she said, so Christmas will know where to find me.

10:36 Speaker 1: In a camp in Austria, a US army band played

10:39 Speaker 1: carols for hundreds of displaced families. One survivor later said

10:43 Speaker 1: it was the first time she had heard music that

10:46 Speaker 1: wasn't filled with fear. These were not festive Christmases, They

10:50 Speaker 1: were hopeful ones, and sometimes hope is stronger than celebration.

10:56 Speaker 2: The world breathes out.

10:59 Speaker 1: Christmas nine, eighteen forty five was not one story. It

11:02 Speaker 1: was millions. It was the UK joking through rationing, Germany

11:07 Speaker 1: singing carols and ruins, France toasting liberation with questionable wine,

11:13 Speaker 1: Italy rebuilding joy one candle at a time, Japan navigating

11:17 Speaker 1: unimaginable transition, Allied soldiers far from home, refugees searching for

11:24 Speaker 1: light in the ashes. It was a world bruised, grieving

11:28 Speaker 1: but alive, and somehow impossibly, Christmas still came It came

11:34 Speaker 1: with faltering joy and broken voices, with rubble beneath its

11:38 Speaker 1: feet and hope in its hands. It came not as

11:41 Speaker 1: a celebration of perfection, but as proof that the human

11:44 Speaker 1: spirit insists on singing, even when the roof is gone

11:48 Speaker 1: and the windows are shattered. Thank you for joining me

11:51 Speaker 1: on this journey across a world trying to find Christmas again.

11:56 Speaker 1: Until next time, dear listeners, keep your history strange, keep

12:02 Speaker 1: your hopes stubborn, and remember, even in the darkest years,

12:06 Speaker 1: someone somewhere is hanging a ribbon on a tree, so

12:09 Speaker 1: the world knows where to find them.