Link to Family Tree to understand family relationships.

Today we have two numbered cards from soldier Paul Zerzawy at a field post in Romania to his family in Brüx, Bohemia. We saw #4 in the November 29th post and #3 in the November 24th post.

#5                               

2. December 1917

Dear Robert!

On certain parts of the front, there has been a ceasefire since yesterday. It is not yet everywhere in our section, but it has stopped here too. Starting tomorrow, my address is:

Machine Gun Course, Captain Hladik,
Fieldpost 211

Your Paul 

#6                               

In the field, 4. December 17

Dear Robert and dear Grandmother!

Above is my new address. After finishing my service (6-8 weeks), I will probably be moved to a machine gun company. For now, I do not know anything except that there is work to be done from 6am until 8pm. The prior idyllic living is over. You don’t go fishing in the Severs without being punished! Well, it will hopefully work out!

Your Paul

I assume the sentence about fishing is a variation on an old saying. Paul assures his family that all is comfortable and calm in the letters dated December 2nd and earlier, but he is far less sanguine in today’s correspondence. Like his brother Erich writing from a POW camp in Siberia, Paul tries to sound as upbeat as possible so as not to worry his siblings and grandmother. But it’s not hard to read between the few lines to appreciate that he is nervous about what the future holds.