This the next part of my Grandfather’s memoir. From what he writes below he must have written it just before the beginning of the Second World War. He seems to have had lots of official documents and papers which he actually numbers within his text, but al lthe attachments as far as I know have been lost. I am having difficulty identifying some of the place names, as they all changed their spellings countless times before the end of the First World War.

I have just found the following, however, on Wikipedia

n Romanian	In Hungarian	In German	In Czech	In Serbian
Berzasca	Berszászka	Bersaska	Berzáska	Берзаска
Bigăr	Bigér	Schnellersruhe	Bígr Bygr	Бигар
Cozla	Kozlatelep		Kozla	Козла
Drencova	Drenkova			Дренкова
Liubcova	Alsólupkó		Libková Lubková	Љупкова

Today, after almost 60 years, I have to say that my father did the right thing by leaving me in the care of the woodsman Guhs. All my mother’s accusations against him and his wife and against woodcutter Dusch were untrue, my father had absolutely loyal servants in the Guhs and Armaek families.
Further attempts by my mother and her sisters to get me out of the Guhs family came to nothing, thanks to the vigilance of the Guhs. I remember three ladies who came to Schnellersruhe and took me for a walk. I remember the long trains of their dresses swirling on the dirty ground, and I followed them, trying to jump on their trains.
Then I was told they were my mother’s sisters. In fact it was my mother and her two sisters, and so they dragged me towards the Cozla mine. Mr Guhs caught up with us on horseback and took me away from my mother, threatening to use his gun. My mother never returned to Schnellersruhe. (Bigar)

At that time the Austro-Hungarian Empire was in dire need of forestry workers for the occupied territories of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and my father, who was rather tired of all the intrigues in Berzasca and the surrounding area, decided to take up the post of forestry worker in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In the meantime, on 18 September 1880 (Z28697), the courts decided that my father was obliged to pay my mother 10 guldens (Austrian value) per month. The first payment was made to my mother in Swinitza on 4 October 1880.
The receipt says “from K. Forester”., but in two other receipts, for November and December, it says “from the K.K. Forester”, which suggests that my father had been promoted and that he had received some information from the government /1/. The receipts were given to Mikolaj Petrevich and Mikolaj Gruis. The original receipts for the first instalment are attached. (unfortunately not)

On 3 October 1880, the Government Minister of Finance (Joint Ministry) No. 6727 IV appointed my father as the Forester of Rogatica.

On 4 December 1880, the Royal Forestry Office in  Weisskirchen  informed my father by notice No. 2928 that the Directorate of the Royal and State Forests, by its decree of 10 November 1880, by notice No. 10768, had relieved him of his previous duties and recommended that he take up his newly appointed post (Rogatica) immediately.

The Imperial Forestry Commission in  Weisskirchen  has on this occasion expressed its full appreciation of my father’s work to date, his diligence and his exemplary performance of his duties / signed by Emrich Feueregger. K(“Captain”?) Forest Warden. From the above it would appear that my father had left his post in Sarajevo on 18 December 1880. That is why he left us on 10 December 1880 for Rogatica, where he took up his new post before Christmas.

Now my father was far away in Bosnia, and my mother and her friends (Capt. Reis and the forester Dusch) did not leave Mr and Mrs Guhs alone, declaring that they were not taking good enough care of me.

Their next attempt to kidnap me did not work. Peace followed. My father’s former faithful and devoted servants (Fileis Armanka and Jozef Guhs) made sure that I was convinced that my mother was not alive – that she had died. To make it even more convincing, they made a grave in the Berzasca cemetery and told me that my mother was buried there. From time to time I went to my mother’s grave to lay flowers. I believed this until, after my father’s death, I came across some documents in which I learned the truth. I spent my formative years convinced that my father was far away in Bosnia and that my mother was dead. The forest ranger Jozef Guhs and his wife Teresa took care of me as if I were their own child, secretly hoping that my father would leave me with them forever. They gradually integrated me into their household, telling me that if I stayed, everything would be mine.
Schnellersruhe was a Czech colony, so I learned Czech and gradually forgot my German.
Schnellersruhe was situated in a mainly Romanian area, so I learnt some Romanian and Hungarian.

The above is I think the most shocking part of of the memoir. Yet my grandfather seems to have forgiven the couple entirely. The thing about his languages is interesting too. What language did he speak as a child?