Page:Diary of a Prisoner in World War I by Josef Šrámek.pdf/5



My grandfather, Josef Šrámek, was born on October 26.1892 and died on February 3.1984. During his life he experienced situations most of us cannot even begin to imagine.

At the age of 22 he was drafted to fight in the First World War. At that age most of us care only about entertainment; we're just barely beginning to understand history and society. Even a brief, peaceful military service would be considered harmful, any reduction of our current undeserved lifestyle an injustice.

Soon after he was forced to enter the military, my grandfather became acquainted with
 * hunger, cold, and death
 * people who upon encounter with death turned into animals. Some of them turned into predators, some into cattle to be slaughtered
 * situations where sheer chance made the difference between life and death
 * disease which meant death in absence of any help
 * hundreds of days his chances of survival were near zero
 * throwing away all he believed in, escaping his duty and accepting enemy imprisonment as the only rational lifesaving solution