WEBVTT - Konstantin_Forestier file: forestier_konstantin_30.txt

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Now I can tell you  another strange
story now:

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At the beginning of the First World War

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my father was cavalry captain and
squadron commander of a dragoon
regiment.

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And they were given the order to cross
the border to Russia,

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at the beginning of the war, to
establish

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the location of enemy troops.

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As a result of that,

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my father was gone the first day of the
war.

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The Austrian military administration

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00:00:51.170 --> 00:00:54.250 align:middle line:90%
- right at the beginning of the war -

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issued the order:  "All family members

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who are not from the Ukraine or

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from Galicia,  have to go back

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immediately to where they came from."

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My mother was from a family  who lived
in Vienna.

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This is why we drove    – right in the
first days of the war -

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from Jaroslaw to Vienna,  to live in my
grandparent's flat.

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The unfortunate thing was that the
entire contents

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of our flat got left behind in Jaroslaw.

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00:01:54.220 --> 00:01:59.140 align:middle line:90%
And then my father suffered a severe
injury

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00:01:59.270 --> 00:02:02.280 align:middle line:90%
in the first month of the war

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00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:07.280 align:middle line:90%
and he came to Vienna

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in an empty train carriage

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which had been unloaded near the Russian
border.

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00:02:17.170 --> 00:02:21.250 align:middle line:90%
He was brought to the general hospital

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00:02:22.070 --> 00:02:25.230 align:middle line:90%
and was treated very well there.

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The strange thing was, that he had to
pay for his operation.

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And then the professor said -

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the thing was that my father had been
shot through the thigh,

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and the big blood vessels there got
shredded.

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The first surgeon said:

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"I have to advise you to have a second
operation."