December 28
At sunrise I was at the raft in vain. The night was very freezing; more than 200died, about half of them frozen. At 3:00 p.m. suddenly the order came: "Embark!" And in less than an hour we crossed the river. Thank God, we are saved! Farewell damned Serbia!
Inserted is a cutout from Samostatnost dated 15.II.1918:
Then came Albania, those terrible alleys of death where the Czech man opted for death in its strictest form—from hunger—rather than be returned to the Austrian army. We went through deserted Albania. Corpses marked our path to the unknown through forbidding mountains. Barefoot, hungry, naked, half alive, we dragged not like humans but like frightening, miserable human resemblances through those valleys and swamps between the rivers Skumpi, Semeni and Vojusa, feeding on grass, tree bark, worms—even (responsibly, without exaggeration) human meat. Bitter remembrances.
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