Page:Diary of a Prisoner in World War I by Josef Šrámek.pdf/56

 brought broja. If you have good boots they give you about 1 kilogram, but you have to be careful. Our commander left today. Thank God we got rid of that monster!

The number of people is still rising because the Italians ferry only 600 people daily. Serbian soldiers steal publicly. They beat whoever has good boots in order to steal them; they steal your coat, blanket, and anything of value. They steal the rations sent by the Italians and then sell us a biscuit for 3 cereks. No appeal is possible. What do we live on? We brew a tea from raspberry leaves, look for snails and turtles, and dig up roots. I hear in some places even human meat has been eaten. In resignation we look toward the future. We are destined to die here, looking at the other bank. There is liberation; here is slow dying. Several people have turned mad—others are unable to rise to beg for death. And it is still raining day and night. The river is rising again. The water already took tomorrow's rations.

No ferrying today because the river is flooding again. There was a terrible storm, lightning and rain. We sit in water. In the morning 300 dead lay on the riverbank. And still new thousands of captives are coming. Today we got a cup of flour for the whole day. No drinking water. I took water from a slop where several dead bodies were laying. Still raining! One was lying beside me—I saw him dying!