FRANTIŠEK JOSEF GEISLER A daily account of the journey he made from his home city of Brno Czechoslovakia to France and thence his time in Agde and La Palme Covering the period 18th December 1939 to 16th April 1940 Transcribed and translated into English from the original hand written text by Matúš Ličko The photographs are additional for illustrative purposes
You, who have chosen this way, do not expect any reward; -freedom of the motherland will be the biggest reward to you. A garden France 8th of April 1940 Whoever will find this diary please give it to: Mrs. Anna Holčíková Olomouc VIII Sibířská 2 Czechoslovakia!
The morning is covered up in the mist, a short leave taking with my parents, I have to leave, the motherland is calling me. I am running to the train station. The monotonous sound of the wheels and whistle of the locomotive – Farewell ..farewell…. Before 9am I get to Veselí na Moravě. No one is waiting here; suddenly there comes a man saying: “Engineer?” I answer: “Brno”. I follow him to room number 10, Deputy Laušman – Liška is waiting there. I was introduced as Střecha (the Roof). At 8pm in the evening I am leaving the station with the deputy as a stoker to Slovakia, my fund of 400 crowns has decreased significantly. Finally I am in Skalica. Even though I had to go through the customs inspection twice, I stayed unrecognized. I jumped off from driving the locomotive, I made it, the deputy falls directly onto ice that has broken under him. Finally I managed to get him out. U. H. helped us a lot. I will never forget how the deputy was loading into the boiler, how he was snuffling. Hey, there will come the time we will retribute. Tuesday, 19th of December 1939 Morning, 6.30, we are sitting in a car. My name is Šterba Ivan. I have his documents. We are having lunch in Švancbach. In the evening I exchanged my spare crowns for pengó I got 17 pengó which is 119 Czechoslovak crowns. I destroy the documents but the attempt to cross the border was unsuccessful. Maybe tomorrow. I received a sketch of the border. One more Hungarian will go with us.
I am spending the whole day on a farm. In the afternoon I am reviewing terrain of the border from the roof! At 18.00 I am ready to leave. I would like to know, what stupid man drew the sketch. We are walking safely being sure that the guards booth is on the right side whilst I almost hit it on the left side. “Stop or I shoot!!!” Yes I will wait, 1,2,3,4 shots – well, our Slovak brothers really can shoot! We keep running watching out for the dog, my pistol is jammed, poor Hungarian I will remember him for a long time. Finally a second shot. The dog just whined. And now we are wading through a stream. How pleasant it was. Another shot. He may have a crooked barrel, I am throwing everything away and lying down, I can’t feel my legs, rattle of the teeth merges together. Instead of politics the deputy should better learn how to climb over the fences. Pay attention: do not trust the automatic pistols, Colt is better. It took us 4 hours to walk 4 kilometers. It was really pleasant to lie down in the ditch in wet clothes. Well done we are in Szenc, Hungary. We stay over night in a house of a Slovak man. Thursday, 21st of December 1939 In the morning we are leaving by car to Galanta and it costs 9 pengó. From there by train to Budapest, it costs 16 pengó, that means I don’t have enough money for that. I am lucky that the deputy pays for it. We arrived in Budapest at 11.30. They caught me just before the goal. A little talk and they wanted to transport me back to Slovak borders but I managed to run away to the consulate. Here I get to a known captain who testifies that he knows me and that I am Czech – he only minds my name. Only here do I see how many obstacles there are on our way. A morose dealing, I stay calm. We call each other brother but where is the brotherhood. I am led to a small apartment if I can call
correspondence. The deputy leaves in the morning. Everything is expensive here. Except for wine, it is tasty and cheap. Friday, 22nd of December 1939 We are spending the day between four walls only an electric light is shining. We get 2 pengó every day, breakfast costs 90 fillers. I will never forget the view of Budapest. I wrote to Ludka to come I don’t know but I hope she will. I am sending her 200 Slovak crowns. No one wants to sell me anything for them. I am without money now. There is a little celebration in the evening. People here think we are Polish refugees. About the food, we eat as Germans in our country. The wine is really good. So much fun while buying it. One’s arms could hurt from it. I am falling asleep in hope to leave soon. Saturday, 23rd of December 1939 Bazděch is leaving this morning. According to local tradition he left here the rest of his money. I wash my clothes later. We only eat one warm meal a day. I decided to buy a cooker. Afternoon we sleep to reduce a little hunger. How simple it was to lose the motherland but how much of danger and fight there will be to regain it. We are cleaning up our shed. Finally this night everybody is going to sleep alone. We cook wine in the evening and create a budget for Christmas Eve. We decided not to eat for the whole day so that we can buy a Christmas tree, only a little one much smaller that the one I brought home and it costs 14 crowns. I hope we can afford it.
We sleep over the breakfast and lunch. The deputy came back from the border. They return them all back from the border. The Consulate is short with money. What now? We have paid for the apartment until Wednesday and for food for two people we have 160 pengó. We are selling everything we have. I only keep my watches. But never lose hope. The Captain, who testified for me is Šeda, husband of Hela Buzdová, he has left on his own. Hungarians give us to the Germans, we have to pretend to be Polish. In the afternoon I went to French military attaché Donis with the deputy. I found out nice things for example: There came a colonel with his mistress here, another one ordered to bring his children and wife; that is how they spend the money for soldiers. Behavior of Czech people will never change, will it?! English transmitter is bribed by Germans and so on. After I returned home I can see the Christmas tree with 9 candles on it and next to it on the table there is an invitation for a Christmas dinner to one French family. Even there they think we are Polacks. After a long debate we found out how badly the locals think of Czechs even this family is against them. When I heard them saying that Czechs are not soldiers that they are cowards I stood up and left the room. That is how I celebrated Christmas Eve. After I came back to the shed I lit 9 candles prepared some tea and ate bread. I am falling asleep hoping that there will come a day when we pay everything back. I am planning how to cross the border into Yugoslavia. I will try it on Thursday. Monday, 25th of December 1939 I was awakened by the coldness. We bought breakfast with our remaining money, what will be tomorrow? The day is gloomy, fog from the Danube covers the city. Day as created for murder, thinking about it
come after us do it knowing it is for the motherland then you get through the problems easily. I wash my clothes in the morning. Poor deputy he is totally destroyed. He came to us to have lunch. Oh God if we can call it a lunch. Perhaps. The day is going slowly. In the shed you don’t even know if it is day the electric light is shining all the time. Bread for dinner, oh how tasty. The last letter to Ludka, I received a telegraph from her. A letter to Věra, to deliver it to our house. It is written between the lines with lemon. I hope they will understand it at home. There are 46 fillers on the table in front of me. Not even enough for the breakfast. We don’t have anything to smoke either. Well, we will go to sleep so that we are not hungry. Tuesday, 26th of December 1939 I am having breakfast at 12.00, breakfast replaces lunch. Láďa went to look for some money. Laušman came to visit us poor guy he is so destroyed. Finally Láďa came back and brought some pengó. We can’t use it anyway everything is closed. With the help of God I bought some bread in taverns. Time goes slowly. After all, it is evening now. We are playing cards. I visit room number 33. There are only Bolsheviks there. I am going to the consulate tomorrow. They must do something with us. The mood is terrible. Wednesday, 27th of December 1939 The chambermaid wakes me up. She gives me a letter from Ludka. She can’t come. Her parents. The old saying: ‘You will know your friend in need’. I am running to the consulate curious of what I will arrange. Nothing probably.
photographed. Maybe I will get a Polish passport. I am looking for it all afternoon. They made me the commander of 5 dormitories that means I will stay here for a long time. I hope I will run away from there. We have got money for 2 days. In the evening I am going back home tired. For lunch we had bread with greaves. For dinner we had the same. What glory. I managed to find a half of pocket novel. It starts on the 17th page, never mind. Good night. Thursday, 28th of December 1939 Bad times are here I have to write with a pencil. It is Thursday I have to write the dates here otherwise I wouldn’t know what day it is. Our daily ration was reduced. Food stays unchanged. Bread with greaves. I am in a hurry since the morning. No sign of leaving the place. I met Láďa Prchala in the consulate. So many legionnaires at the last minute. What can we do. It seems we will arrive to France just after the war. This can be named the funny resistance. Ladies gathered here in the evening. I am trying to change money from Czechoslovak crowns to pengó I hope I’ll succeed. The French girls speak perfect Hungarian, so she will try it. There is a terrible mess here. Around 20 people come here every day but no one leaves the place. Friday, 29th of December 1939 Sending to the police office begins. It looks like this: One goes to fight for his country, full of enthusiasm and they welcome him with words: “What do you want here why didn’t you stay at home? Well, you have to be imprisoned.” And your enthusiasm is gone. When they said this to one of the old legionnaires he blanched the consulate. People here are treated as dogs. Once again after one week I had a warm lunch. After lunch I get my boots fixed, I am not going to eat for two days
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