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    Diary of a Prisoner in World War I
    Diary of a Prisoner in World War I
    Diary of a Prisoner in World War I
    Ebook106 pages1 hour

    Diary of a Prisoner in World War I

    By Josef Sramek

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    About this ebook

    An authentic diary of Josef Sramek, a Czech soldier drafted to the Hungaro-Austrian army to fight from the beginning of World War 1.

    An ordinary Czech boy, twenty-two-year-old Josef Sramek was working at Kohn & Kornfeld, a textile distribution company, before he was forced to go to war in 1914. Having no respect for individual, national, or ethnic opinions, the Austrian military drafted thousands of unwilling youths like Josef, a process that wasn't too different from an unjust prison system.

    He was captured by Serbs. He survived and describes a series of death marches through Serbia and Albania. Throughout his ordeal, Josef suffered from cold, caught terrible diseases, and witnessed soldiers and civilians turning into either brutal predators or helpless prey. He was confined in a concentration camp at the italian island of Asinara which comprises an important part of his story. Later he was transfered to a more humanly captivity in France where his diary ends.

    Hopefully this compelling reminder of what really happened will make many realize the futility of war and also serve as a tribute to all the innocent victims that died so needlessly.

    In Diary of a Prisoner in World War I, Tomas Svoboda presents every record his grandfather, Josef Šrámek, kept from the time he joined the army and was subsequently captured by the enemy, to the death marches and concentration camps he entered in Serbia, Albania, Italy, and France before finally returning home to resume his life.

    "Clarion Foreword Reviews" have given the book four stars and commented: "Šrámek's diary is both informative and eye-opening. His grandson has done a masterful job putting it into a format accessible to a broad audience." and continue "... is a mustread for any student or aficionado of twentieth-century history. No historian could have written a more poignant tale."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJosef Sramek
    Release dateDec 13, 2014
    ISBN9781311043795
    Diary of a Prisoner in World War I

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      Book preview

      Diary of a Prisoner in World War I - Josef Sramek

      Austrian Army - 1914

      September 26, 1914 

      Having passed a four-week training [military boot-camp], we are leaving [probably by train] Plzeň [Pilsen] for Budějovice [Budweiss - still Within the Czech homeland a.k.a. Bohemia] , Gmund, and Vienna [In Austria – for the author a foreign colonizing state] to the Serb front. We are going to kill people who have done us no wrong. It is God’s will, said the army chaplain in his sermon!

      Passing through Salzburg, Semmering, I am leaving this charming sight of a foreign country unnoticed. It is hard for me to part with our beautiful homeland. I am thinking of my parents and feeling sad. Shall we ever see each other again? Will I come back alive?

      Photo of Josef Šrámek : 

      September 30

      We passed Slovenia, then Bosnia, and now we are getting off in Doleni Tuzla. Two days’ rest, then we marched to Zvornik. We walked to the mountains in terrible heat for 2 days. When we approached Zvornik we heard the guns’ salutes. We crossed the Drina River.

      October 2 

      Now we are in Serbia. It’s a sea of mud — that Serb mud I’ve gotten to know so well while lying in it. We are walking forward. We see burnt kutchas [cottages], the initial signs of raging war.

      October 5

      Having wandered hopelessly without food and bread for 3 days, we found our battalion today. It is located 6 hours from Zvornik, and it took us a full 3 days to get here! Warm welcome — everybody found somebody they knew — but I am alone here! Met Capt. Jupa, he’s from somewhere near Unhost. A nice man. He’s bringing in bread at a time of shortage and hunger. Snow and rain, and we do exercises.

      October 8

      Building deckung [shelter] in mud and water; I sleep in water pools. The water has flooded our living area. We are building a new one on a hill. It rains hard every day.

      October 10 

      We patrolled, walking for 4 hours; we could barely get there, and now we must get back. I stayed behind. I got back in the morning, and the battalion was about to move, so I followed slowly behind. I cannot go any farther. I am out of strength. I follow my battalion for 3 days, eating and sleeping with the regiments I meet.

      October 13

      I found my battalion in new trenches at the verge of a forest today. Hunger every day, too little bread available. Dysentery is spreading is among us. A portion of bread costs 3 crowns. Jupa furnishes me with bread from the kitchen. I am expecting packages from home - in vain - feldwebels [sergeants] stole them. The same happens to rum and wine! Officers are drunk. They push us around and beat us with sticks.

      October 15

      We exercise Marsch einz [March] daily while our stomachs rumble. We are still in reserve. What will it be like when we are at the front? I write letters home and to Ústí [Ústí nad Labem – author’s city of residence] often, but I seldom get a letter.

      Being in the army is getting tougher day by day. One is hungry so he eats a canned meal — so they tie him to a post for twelve hours, and he has to pay a 3 crown fine. The officers are drunk every day! We even lack water.

      October 19

      We were in the middle of our march when shrapnel started to hit us, so we ran away. Dysentery is on its way. So are the first lice. Patrols are getting tougher - we are expecting Serbs. My deckung [trench] is safe, but what if I have to go out?

      October 24

      Serbs killed our corporal while he was on patrol. Beautiful weather. Jupa went shopping to Zvornik so we are now bargaining with tobacco, chocolate, etc.

      November 2

      We were attacked at night. Serbs assaulted us - but failed. Our officers were hidden like rats. I was lucky - a bullet went in through the loophole [opening in fortification to shoot through] just by my head. The next night there was another attack, a heavier one. It is getting tough. A control wire leads from my trench to a bomb. Patrolling in the forest at night, the enemy was some 300 meters away from us!

      November 5

      Forward! This morning at 5 we put our bayonets on and started to attack. At 8 we hit the Serbs, and there was a scramble. They are well-hidden in corn and blow us away with their machine guns. 32 people out of my platoon of 56 men are hurt or dead. My hat caught a bullet when I raised my head carelessly. At last the Serbs retreated in the afternoon, but their artillery played some music for us. I’m spending the night in a hole dug just so-so. My friend Šimeček was hit by a bullet in his neck.

      November 6

      Getting up all freezing, marching on, having a meal in the forest, and shrapnel hit us. The major and the captain are hurt. Marching on, we got into a real bullet rain. A bullet missed my head but hit my coat. I counted 23 holes in it. We stay in Serb deckungs.

      November 7

      We entered Krupanja and patrolled the entrance to the town. We cooked hens. The artillery is going toward Valyevo, which still endures. With great enthusiasm we think we have now won the war; there are even some prophets saying we will be home by Christmas [Meaning that the whole war would end soon and conscripts would return to their homes within weeks]. After all that’s what Wilhelm the Almighty said ! [Wilhelm II, German emperor, ally of the Hungaro-Austrian empire]

      November 13

      Going to Zavlaka, doing a parade in front of the corps leader at night. Me and cadet Brejnik go to patrol in the hills. We are covered with snow by the morning. It’s freezing. We find half of a pig and cabbage — we are cooking. We stay in the kutchas and eat dried plums.

      November 16

      Back to the camp. There are many prisoners in there — we are taking 1300 of them to Lozhnica. It was terribly muddy on the way back so I stayed in a kutcha overnight. I went to Zavlaka the next morning and found the village covered by water. The hard rain, and maybe the Serbs too, caused the flood. Our train and the bakeries are underwater. The battalion is gone, and I am in the water, which reaches up to my waist, for an hour-long journey. I am looking for the battalion. I have plenty of time.

      November 21

      After 3 days I finally caught my battalion in Valyevo. I didn’t have a bad time on my way there. When the night was about to come, we [the batallion] found a kutcha [cottage], killed a sheep, and roasted it. When we left Valyevo, it was freezing and snowing. We slept in the fields — hungry, freezing, exhausted. Going on patrol, I was caught in a rain of grenades.

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