On a photograph he gave his fiancée Leopoldina in January 1921, twenty‑six‑year‑old Ivan wrote in German: “In memory of 25 October 1914; world war; from your loving Jochan Scherak, Kamnica …”
The photograph had been taken at the J. Massak photo studio in Maribor just before nineteen‑year‑old Ivan Jochann Scherak left for the front. In the winter of 1915, somewhere in the Carpathians, he suffered severe frostbite and lost all his toes. His disability spared him the fate of his comrades, who were transferred to the Isonzo Front in the summer of 1915. After lengthy treatment in various military hospitals, Ivan returned to Maribor and found employment in the Southern Railway workshops even before the war ended. His route to work took him along Koroška cesta, past Leopoldina’s house.
