Hello, fellow Czech users! Greetings from Bulgaria!!

Today I was scavenging at a local flea market, when I came across this old bible. Inside it there were a few attached photos of man in his 20s, wearing a soldier uniform, of his relatives, and of (presumably) him and his wife/fianceé. On the front page there was a text saying, that it belonged to Karel Ce____ (I couldn't read out the rest of his surname) from Krčín (i think it's a town in Czechia) and below it the year of 1914 was written.

Despite its age, I didn't think that this book possessed any particular value. That was, until I looked at the last pages, and discovered 4 pages, entirely written by the guy. With my insignificant knowledge of Czech, I managed to understand that this bible has been with him during December 1914 until 1919 – the end of WW1 (the first paragraph, on the 4th picture).

I got quite intrigued, so I bought and I started working on making out the rest of Karel's notes. However his handwriting is very cursive and unintelligible (plus Google translate sucks ass at translating 100y/o texts 😔)

That why I asking you for some help! If any of you Czechs out there, can understand any of the texts, that are shown on these pictures I've attached, feel free to write the English translation (and the original version) in the comments!

It's kinda interesting to see what a normal person thought about an event, so important to our modern history and world, as a whole!

Thanks in advance for any help! Dêkuju!

P.S. Does anyone know the meaning of the badge he's wearing on the last picture? Is it an emblem of the Czech army (or a certain Czech troop)?

by Somethingis_here

10 comments

  2. Contrary to popular belief, Czechs don’t do highly specialised work for free

  3. I am not expert, but last photo is not from ww1 time

  4. That badge is Sokol- P.E.organization. And that uniform looks like first republic uniform aka Czechoslovakia.
    But that is all I can tell you.

  5. I believe the name of the guy is Karel Červinka. Krčín seems to been a village which is currently part of the city Nové město nad Metují. I wasn’t able to find anything on the guy by doing some quick googling but I’m on the phone now. I’ll try on the PC later. Also the text is somehow readable and I can understand quite a lot from the first glance.

  6. I would recommend you to try to use this program: Transkribus, [Transkribus – Unlocking the past with AI](https://www.transkribus.org/), which could be helpful in answering your curiosity.

    For now I try to rewrite first page of the source:

    In czech: Tato Bible prošla se mnou celou první světovou vojnu od prosince 1915 do 1919 opět domů do Krčína. Z České Lípy “vložku na shledanou” jsem dostal od moji Marušky Smolové před odjezdem na vojnu a druhou “vložku nezabiješ” jsem obdržel v dopise na východní frontě a dle toho jsem se řídil. Nejprve [jsme] následovali do Vladimiru-Volinskýho a potom pěšky do Lutsku a Rovna, tam byly vesnice Ostročce a Malín, české ale vypálené vesnice. Po 3 měsíce zpět pěšky na nejbližší železnici a po 8 denní cestě přes Vídeň do Branzollu v Tyrolích a potom dolů Levko a Caldenco[?] Grubsoli[?] Roana, 11.,12.,13 června nám bylo moc horko, za 8 měsíců jsme zase přes Alpy k nejbližší [?] a pak přes celé Rakousko-Uhersko až do Brestu-Litevského a [?]

    In english: This Bible went through the whole of World War I with me from December 1915 to 1919 back home to Krčín. From Česká Lípa I received a “goodbye insert” from my Maruška Smolová before leaving for the army and I received the second “you won’t kill me insert” in a letter on the Eastern Front and I followed that. First I carried it to Vladimir-Volynsky and then on foot to Lutsk and Rovno, there were the villages of Ostročce and Malín, Czech villages but burned down. After 3 months I returned on foot to the nearest railway and after an 8-day journey through Vienna to Branzoll in the Tyrol and then down to Levko and Caldenco[?] Grubsol[?] Roana, on 11th, 12th, 13th June we were very hot, in 8 months we went again across the Alps to the nearest [?] and then through the whole of Austria-Hungary to Brest-Litovsk and [?]

    [?] by this mark, I do not understand the writing or the specific name of the geographic place (town).

    Good luck in the your further research.

  7. The front page:

    Dárkem od milované matinky obdržel Karel Červinka Krčín, Léta Páně, 1914.

    As a gift from his beloved mother it (this Bible) received Karel Červinka from Krčín (today part of the town Nové Město nad Metují) in year of the Lord 1914.

  8. The postcard:

    Slečně Mařence Smolové, Jílla 229 Kolín, Krásné Čechy! Hradec Králové 26. 6. 1919. V upomínku na rok 1919 zasílá Karel.

    To Miss Mařence Smolová, Jílla 229 Kolín, Beautiful Bohemia! Hradec Králové 26. 6. 1919. In memory of the year 1919, Karel sends.

    BTW. I am currently writing from the city of Hradec Králové, so nice, but little, connection with Your interest.

  9. I leave the translation for other volunteers, I’ll just add a note on places mentioned in the text, as I love searching maps:

    Česká Lípa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%8Cesk%C3%A1_L%C3%ADpa

    Vladimir Volinskij https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volodymyr,_Ukraine

    Luck https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutsk

    Rovno https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivne

    Malín https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malyn,_Rivne_Oblast

    Ostrožec https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrozhets

    Vídeň https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna

    Branzol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronzolo

    Leviko https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levico_Terme

    Caldonco https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caldonazzo

    Grubach ??

    Roana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roana

    Brest Litevský https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brest,_Belarus

    Baranoviči https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baranavichy

    Tarnopol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ternopil

  10. **It’s probably worth pointing out that since he talks about the First World War, a term that didn’t really catch on in Czech until around the 1950s,it’s more likely a memory than an actual diary but still amazing find**

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