29 Nisan 2019 Pazartesi

TNT Matchbox Diary: A Turkish POW in Russian Prison Camp (1915-1918)/Part LV

//Ed. Note:  Fuad Bey is keeping busy with German lessons
given by an Austrian private named Franz, despite some 
heated objections by housemate Çerkes Mehmet. In the
meantime, word comes that Karl Franz Joseph has become
the Austrian Emperor.//

 Karl Franz Joseph Habsburg, I


26 November 1916 Sunday
The weather is completely clear today. Sunny. It’s hot, too. The Russian 
newspapers write that Karl Franz Joseph has become the Austrian 
Emperor. Franz gave us a German lesson tonight. We chatted…went 
to bed.

27 November 1916 Monday
The weather is somewhat overcast. Not very cold though. Another 
incident in our house: Çerkes Mehmet was talking loudly in his room. 
I was curious so I went there. The problem: the servant giving the 
lessons in the evening and lessons being taken in the house. There 
was quite a discussion. Çerkes Mehmet was completely wrong and 
he proved it but since he’s a stupid bigot, a worthless haughty fool, 
he always thinks he’s in the right. And he’s threatening to tell the 
worthless little Command about it. Anyway, without listening to 
much more we came back to our room. I summoned Franz to come 
for the lesson but he excused himself, saying he couldn’t come. I 
pressed him on this and understood that Çerkes Mehmet had warned 
them and that if they didn’t heed the warning he would send them to 
the main barracks. This made me very angry. I won’t have anything 
to do with this fool. Who are he and Salah to scream and shout and 
prevent me from learning! No! Impertinence! I couldn’t work on 
lessons at night because of this annoyance.

28 November 1916 Tuesday
The weather is still overcast. The cold increased toward evening. We
drank morning tea. We heard that Lieutenant Colonel Saffet from the 
other house would come to visit someone. We gathered, he came and 
entered our room. After greetings we began to talk. He recommended 
this to us: we must always get along with each other pleasantly and 
harmoniously in captivity and in the country of a foreign enemy. Even 
if so inclined, we must not allow a tumult to erupt. We understood that
Çerkes Mehmet had told him about yesterday’s incident, what kind of 
man Çerkes Mehmet is and how he had overstepped his boundaries in
 dealing with us. Even though Çerkes objected to this no one agreed 
with him. In the end it was decided that Çerkes will not interfere with 
anything, that he will say whatever he has to say directly to all of us or 
individually and that everything will be explained in a pleasant way. 
The Lieutenant Colonel left. We couldn’t work on German today.
Conversation, bed.

29 November 2011 Wednesday
The weather is cloudy. But the bitter cold is gone. The dense snow 
cover is melting, none of it is left. Our army has come to within three 
hours of Van. They’re attacking from the Kifi side. The Romanians are 
being crushed. Our allies have come to a point ten kilometers from 
Bucharest. The Romanians’ situation is grave…today Salah spoke to 
Çerkes about the servants with measured language. He agreed. At night 
we were busy with German. Harun and Salah were appointed to 
represent us to the Lieutenant Colonel.

30 November 2011 Thursday
Our forces are on the attack. Van is in our hands and fighting continues 
at Manastir. The Russians are under pressure. The weather is overcast. 
Not very cold. We worked on German a bit at night. We got our laundry 
today and changed it. Again today I thought about the future, my 
situation. A lot of things became clear to me. I felt a bit down.

1 December 2011 Friday
The weather is cloudy but it’s not all that cold outside. News: our army 
is on the attack in Van. We worked on German at night. Franz wrote a 
letter to the German committee here asking that a German grammar 
book be sent to us. This was written only for us. We chatted a bit and
went to bed.

2 December 1916 Saturday
The weather is overcast but it’s not cold. In the afternoon ten of us 
went to the other houses. I went to the Avilfinski house with three other 
fellows. We stayed for more than an hour. I translated two short 
German stories using a German dictionary until the evening and I had
Hakkı correct them.  Then we visited another room. We chatted a bit 
with Cavalryman Tevfik and we got a German containing short 
sentences and a notebook from Yusuf. We then went to the Malaşova 
house and after staying there a while we returned. We heard some 
news when we got back: the Russians are discharging fifth-class 
soldiers. Peace is being talked about in the municipal council. A 
Russian policeman confirmed this to us. Van is in Turkish hands.
Russian soldiers are deserting, saying ‘we don’t want war’. We 
worked a little on German at night because Franz was giving a lesson 
to Süleyman. We chatted at night, then we went to bed. The Vetluga 
River is completely frozen. Carts and other things are passing over it.

//END of PART LV//


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