Postcard of a German soldier guarding French POWs, most of them colonial troops, the colorful uniforms of a Zouave, Spahi, Senegalese, and metropolitan French soldier contrasting with the field gray German uniform. A 1915 postcard by Emil Huber.
Emil Huber 1915Reverse:Unsere FeldgrauenSerie II? preussischer Infanterie-SoldatPrussian Infantry SoldierLogo: K.E.B.
"To improve our routine in the trenches a little bit, they gave us hardly anything to eat, back in the rear. Try working or marching all night, and keeping your spirits up, on an empty stomach!And meanwhile, nice and warm, with full bellies, our officers drank, sang, enjoyed themselves in the village. It was revolting—and it ended up leading the men to revolt.. . .Refusing to work, now that was serious. Prison for sure; perhaps a court-martial. Only one, Private X, persisted in claiming to be ill, and went to bed. The rest left, but in a sign of protest they crossed the village singing the 'Internationale,' which will always be the hymn of the oppressed, the unfortunate ones for whom it is an expression of discontent and of hope."
Extract from the notebooks of French Corporal Louis Barthas, a socialist whose unit was stationed in Artois in November 1915. In Barthas writings, many of the officers are indifferent to their men, and some of the medical officers are among the worst. On the day, to protest their treatment, the men claim to be sick. Furious that his supper has been interrupted, the medical officer found all of the men fit for duty. Fearful of a court-martial and a punishment that could be death, the men return to their posts, singing in protest.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, pp. 134, 135, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
1915-11-15, 1915, November, protest, Internationale
