St. Nicholas in the Trenches—World War I
from Václav Gayer's memoirs—a Czech soldier from Jezerany-Maršovice near Znojmo
 St Nicholas Center collection |
The regiment from Znojmo was serving on the Eastern Front in Poland near the village of Czerkovice and the Nida River, when they were surprised on the 8th of December.
The officials and citizens of Znojmo sent St. Nicholas Day presents to us, their local regiment.
Everybody inspected the parcels carefully from the outside, trying to secure the best and most valuable gift. The parcels contained cigarettes, notebooks, postcards, chocolate, needles, confectionery, gloves, and even a small bottle of slivovitz.
Our joy over these St. Nicholas gifts was no less than childish. We would look at our presents again and again.
The highlight of the day was when our friend Cepera arrived with his choice St. Nicholas presents: bacon, zwieback and a bottle full of rum. He had managed to steal those items from the supply company. As he had had enough, he gave the rest to us, his compatriots and neighbors in our humble field abodes.
Of course, we weren’t cross with him and dug into those glorious St. Nicholas presents straight away. In exchange for his largess, we took Cepera's guard duty.
Adapted from "Christmas in the Trenches—Czech Soldiers in WWW1," Radio CZ.