Page:Diary of a Prisoner in World War I by Josef Šrámek.pdf/45

 are European in style. There are oranges, cypresses, and olives. Unfortunately it started to freeze on the third day after our arrival, and it kept snowing for 3 days. The oranges were gone immediately.

So far more than 2000 prisoners have arrived. They tell us about how many of our fellows froze and died in the Bitolye mountains. They each got a cup of flour after five or six days and, having no timber to make fire, they ate it as it was.

My colleague Vlček arrived. I was happy to have money so I could buy him bread and give him my meals for a couple of days. Reportedly, the Bulgarians won Debro and Bitolye, and we cannot go to Dratch—we will have to go to Valona and then to France! Oh, God, let me withstand it all!

A disease has spread among us. They say it's typhus but I think it's from hunger.

We left Elbasan yesterday. The town is packed with prisoners and civilians. 400 men left with Roubík to repair a road. We had to wade through a river right beyond the town. We met convoys with American flour on their way from Dratch. We stayed in an Arnaut kutcha; my colleagues built deckungs. No meals and no bread for 2 days now. Not knowing what to do out of hunger, Roubík and I caught a little goat, slaughtered it, and boiled it at night. The