Na straně monarchie, se sympatiemi k „srbskému nepříteli“. O čem také vyprávějí válečné deníky
| Title in English | On the Side of the Monarchy with Sympathy for the “Serbian Enemy”. What War Diaries can tell us |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
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| Description | The memoirs of participants in the First World War were very common after the First World War. Naturally, due to the political demands of the postwar period, the facts within them were modified to varying degrees. However, many of the original war diaries which were written by their authors directly in the trenches or during a campaign often did not survive. This related in particular to those who remained 'loyal to the emperor' throughout the war, even though they had their own ideas about the war. One good example of this is the diary of Hynek Doležal, a lieutenant in the 20th mountain brigade of the 3rd Austro-Hungarian army. As it is made up mainly of photographic material, his diary is naturally quite unique. Throughout the Balkan campaign the author, working in the brigade headquarters, had the opportunity to both take and develop photographs. This diary, therefore, comprehensively documents the field campaigns which the brigade began in the winter months of 1914 in Bosnia, continuing into Serbia in 1915 and then the next year into Montenegro, Albania and Macedonia, from where in 1918 the brigade retreated back to the disintegrating monarchy. Despite the fact that Doležal was in the Austrian army, his Czechness is evident from the descriptions accompanying his photographs as well as his sympathy for the 'Serb and Montenegrin enemy'. He also stuck photographs of the Serb and Montenegrin royal families into his diary, took note of what happened to them as well as the lives of the ordinary Balkan villagers. From the photographs of Serbian and Montenegrin prisoners and the accompanying descriptions it is possible to see his sympathy for the 'defeated enemy'. The author also chose to stay with Serbian families whom he could protect with his authority. Therefore, the diary is not only a record of military operations, but also an important ethnographic source and document of the ideas of a highly placed Czech officer in the Austro-Hungarian army. |