Page:Diary of a Prisoner in World War I by Josef Šrámek.pdf/41

 the entire kitchen. We are going to Elbasan. As we descended to lower ground, it got warmer. At about 9 [sic]in the morning, the commander noticed that several people had thrown away their tools on the way. He ordered [the guards] to stop, separate those with no tools, and give them 25 blows. A terrible sight. There were more than 80 people, and most of them never had any tools. All of their pleas were in vain, though; a stone would have been more merciful than the commander. I was one of them without tools but managed to get away. Those who were proven to have thrown away their crowbars received 50 blows and never got up again.

We went past a cornfield in the afternoon. Being hungry, some men grabbed a few ears. When we stopped in the evening, the commander summoned all six zugskommandants  (including Roubík and Salomon) and ordered them to lie down on the road, and each received ten blows as a punishment. Thereafter he forgave them and said there would be no meal tonight, also as a punishment. We are sleeping in a shed.

Cabbage soup was our breakfast, then we set out at 6. the river Shkomba lay in front of us. We had to wade through. It took us almost fifteen minutes; the water reached up to our waists and even our chests, and the current was very strong. Several men got carried away