Stories where people from warring/hostile groups got along/fraternized/etc.

I just got to thinking about the "Christmas Truce " between the Germans and the English during WWI (the basis for the movie “Joyeux Noel”).

I’ve also seen a documentary about Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said’s Israeli-Palestinian youth symphony (it was just by chance that Arte had that up today, I was looking for a documentary I had seen on the project).

I’m wondering if there are other instances, organizations, projects, etc. that exemplify people of traditionally conflicting backgrounds getting together and just being people for a little while.

I’m interested in stories, but I’m especially interested in organizations or projects that strive to bring these people together to actually do something (like play music) together as a means to start some sort of dialogue.

Several instances in the American Civil War. Apparently, a lot of trading of
goods went on between opposing forces.

Well, the English and the French were mortal enemies for over 500 years, but now they’re pretty good buddies (especially since the world wars).

During the Quasi War with France, American naval forces fought alongside the Royal Navy in the Carribean against the French, with the British going so far as to let the American ships draw supplies from British ports, give the Americans access to British naval codes so their ships could communciate with eachother, and coordinated patrols with eachother.

All this during a period in history where the official stance was that the Americans did NOT like the British at all (with all the appropriate winking and nudging where the realiities of international warfare and politics intervened). 20 years earlier, the Americans and the British had been fighting in the American Revolution, and 12-15 years later, they would be fighting again during the War of 1812 (with officers on opposing ships personally knowing eachother by name and having dined together in the recent past in some cases).

Well, Northern Ireland has it’s Education for Mutual Understanding and Cultural Heritage programmes, to try and get Protestant and Catholic kids together. I vaguely remember school trips my school co-organised with a Catholic girls’ school ( to the zoo, the beach, the planetarium, that kind of thing). Apparently cross-community was fine, but co-ed was out.

Here is a paper discussing the impact of these Cross-Community projects (Warning PDF)

Actually, my Naval History professor and the Wikipedia article about the Quasi War are in disagreement about coordination of British and American naval forces. Both sources suggest that the Americans and British used a common set of codes for recognizing and communicating with eachother (and their merchant ships), and the British Navy sold the US Navy supplies and munitions, but Wikipedia says they did not coordinate patrols or force deployments.

The End of the Road by John Barth has a chapter where the narrator recalls an incident in the Great War where he was in a foxhole with a German soldier. They were giddy with relief at not fighting one another, although the narrator wound up bayonetting the guy’s throat.

Probably not what you’re looking for.

No cite here, but I remember a story from the 1970s where a very idealistic Israeli woman tried to put together a women’s interfaith group where Jewish and Palestinian women could relate on a “what we have in common as women” level. It kind of derailed when the Palestinian women wanted to talk about how they, as women, were put off by having their houses shelled and sons arrested by Israeli troops.

I can recommend one book about it, God Rest ye Merry Soldiers: A True Civil War Christmas Story . Having done that I will note that this is really a book about the evolution of Christmas traditions in the United States. Further despite the title and my post here - there are really only ~two pages about an event that had a “Christmas-Trucey’* type feel to it.

[*Even though most histories record it as Christmas Eve - the book shows this incident took place on December 30, 1862, outside Murfreesboro Tennessee].

The bands on each side played an evening concert for their respective armies. Each side would hear the other. The two concerts continued, when both began to play “Home, Sweet Home.” The men on both sides soon joined together in singing the song - both sides could hear the other singing. It was a “moment” for all who were there.

The next day they fought what is the almost forgotten Battle of Stones River (Three thousand men died- fifteen thousand were wounded _ roughly the Coalition Casualties in Iraq so far in a single day - said because it was a more or less unremarkable or remembered battle in the Civil War common memory anthology)

You may be interested in the work of Marshall Rosenberg. He writes about non-violent communication, and much of his work involves gang members, but I believe he has also worked with conflicting political groups.

I’m not sure if this is what the OP is looking for, but there were instances in Vietnam where South / American / Australian forces would be patrolling the jungle, and the Viet Cong would be doing likewise. The enemy scouts would be the first to see one another, sometimes by arriving in a clearing at the same time. With weapons raised, and no common language, there would be a stand-off for a little while, then one of them would gesture by jerking his head to one side, and the other would resond likewise, as if to say “Let’s get outta here. You go that way and I’ll go this way”, and the’y retreat, and report back to their superiors that they’d seen nothing, and to try a different path.