The Zug quarter was set up in one of the larger farmsteads, situated closest to the sector assigned to the unit. It was a farm somewhat above average size, consisting of a single-storey main house, a large outbuilding, and three or four small sheds, squeezed into a jumble of other buildings from neighbouring farms.
On the first floor were the living quarters, and below were the threshing barn, rooms for the wine press, storage for maize cobs, etc. <\/p>\n
The family consisted of husband and wife, a daughter-in-law and her four-year-old son, as well as an elderly day labourer. All of them were extremely kind and amiable people, and they generously placed the best room of the house at our disposal. <\/p>\n
\u201cQuite royal, considering the circumstances,\u201d said B\u2026, \u201cthe best quarters to be had in the whole area.\u201d<\/p>\n
A couple of quite neat beds, a double wardrobe, a table and a few chairs made up the essentials. On the whitewashed walls hung two coloured pictures from a magazine, as well as a box with a carved figure of Christ\u2014but the greatest luxury was the wooden floor, something rarely found in Croatian peasant houses.
Besides this room, which was arranged as a sleeping room for the son and daughter-in-law, the family had a couple of miserable small rooms, just large enough to accommodate a couple of beds and a chest of drawers.
The kitchen was a smoke-blackened room with a clay floor\u2014a roughly nailed-together table and a wooden bench along one wall, and a couple of rickety chairs on the other side. Here the family members took their frugal meals and enjoyed themselves over a cup of grain coffee and a piece of maize bread when the day\u2019s work was done.
In one corner of this combined kitchen and living room, a few hens with chicks had their place; in the other corner stood a cage with pigeons. The hens lived mainly on crumbs and scraps from meals, and when these were served they created an infernal racket\u2014cackling and scratching in the clay floor so that clouds of dust rose, all while\u2014in the kitchen [several words illegible].
The pigeons cooed from their corner and helped ensure that things did not become too monotonous; their droppings smelled in the heat and filled the room with a sweetish stench. But through it all another odour permeated everything\u2014an unmistakable smell that suggested a latrine must be nearby.
\u201cHave you tried the toilet?\u201d B\u2026 shouted from inside the room. \u201cYou should try it, it\u2019s funny\u2014just follow the smell.\u201d<\/p>\n
Using this infallible compass, I found a small leaky door in the outer wall, but instead of stepping out from the kitchen into open air, I found myself in a cramped toilet.
Like a swallow\u2019s nest stuck onto the edge of a wall, this extension jutted out beneath the eaves. There was no bucket and no bottom in the WC. Far below, a large hollow had been dug into the ground\u2014a light and practical toilet, but not one to be recommended.
It would undoubtedly take quite some time before the manure reached up to this birdhouse. A cleaning every fifty years would probably be necessary, but it was an event not likely to occur within the lifetime of any peasant. <\/p>\n
Darkness lay heavy and velvety over Rastovichza\u2014midnight.
Mists rolled across the fields and stood like a wall in the hollows and low-lying ground. In the meadows the crickets played their music\u2014thousands of piercing, rasping tones that seemed to merge into a single shrill voice at the highest pitch. <\/p>\n
The air in the cramped room where we slept was stifling\u2014the walls gave off the heat they had absorbed during the day, making the room as hot as an oven.
The beds were filled with quilts, clumsy heavy things that pressed down on the body with a leaden weight and quite literally made breathing difficult. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re full of stones,\u201d B\u2026 thought. \u201cIt\u2019s a good thing there\u2019s no girl in the bed\u2014there\u2019s no freedom of movement in here at all!\u201d<\/p>\n
Before long we were lying on top of the mountain of quilts\u2014naked and sweating. <\/p>\n
Suddenly the air was torn by a couple of shots\u2014a pause\u2014then a whole series. Machine guns began to rattle, and the firing spread across our entire sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the hell is that?\u201d B\u2026 shouted. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to get dressed fast\u2014there\u2019s a fight out there!\u201d<\/p>\n
It took only seconds to pull on trousers and boots, insert a magazine into the submachine gun\u2014and then off we went.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2792,"template":"","personer":[115],"class_list":["post-2803","litteratur_og_kilder","type-litteratur_og_kilder","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","personer-marius-soerensen"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/litteratur_og_kilder\/2803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/litteratur_og_kilder"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/litteratur_og_kilder"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"personer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/personer?post=2803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}