Romanian Campaign of 1916.The Invasion

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But what exasperated the most the Romanian population ,was the astonishing difference of treatment between the indigenous population and th eone of the servants of the states with which we were in War.As the Romanians were subjected to the regime of starvation ,refussing to them even the strict necessary for existance ,as the sick ,pregnant women and children were dying because the lack of food ,the germanns have created a privileged category :"die Angehorige der Zenztralmachte",the sevants of the Central Powers.For the germans ,hungarians,bulgarians and turks ,living in Romania ,there have been opened shops for special consume,in which they received with small prices ,everything that to Romanians was forbidden,whatever they would have payed.Rafinated spirits of tirans ,the germans have reborn for Romanians the suplice of Tantal.Daily ,the hungry population ,tormended by sufferings and privations ,have to look as it passes in fron of their eyes ,not only the waggons loaded with cattle meat ,with bread of the best quality and with other provissions ,but also to see all the germanians ,hungarians,bulgarians living in great style in our country doing the most modest jobs ,of servants ,enjoying all the goods refused to the sons of the country .

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The police regime

A regime of opprssion and tirany has to be supported by a formidable police aparatus.That is why ,in the german military administration ,the police services were multiple ,well organized and made of a great number of clerks and agents of all kinds ,united in a "Zentralpolizeistelle"[3].The nine sections of this big organization separated the most variated attributions,as:supervising the desertors and of the prisoners;of the public gatherings and of different societies and professional asociations and cultural ones;the recruting of the sfety brigades ;organizing the couterespionaje ;the restrictive masures of the free traffic and of free being of the inhabitants and of the foreigners in the occupied territory ;the control of the borders ,of the communication ways and of contraband by mail ;giving passports ;giving identity cards ("Personal-Ausweiss"),which evry individual had to have it with him/her;of the circulation permits ("Pass-Verkehr"),whitout which no on could go by train ,and in some epochs nor with the carriage or waggon,even inside the cities ;Supervising the Population Bureau ("Melde-Amt"),to which every inhabitant is obliged to enlist ;supervising the moravs etc.

One of the most characteristic activity was the one of the IXth Section ,supervising the Romanian population ,which had the mission to follow "in the most discrete way" the activity of the Romanian Police organs ,in the occupied territory ,after the retreat of the Romanian Armies ,which were now under the orders of german authorities.

All ordonances of the police were executed under the sanction of punishments vey severe ,applied to the contravenient:prisson and fine.A special Section ,the VIIIth ,was dealing with cashing of the incoms from fines ,for some of the smallest guilts.In this way,the police of Bucharest pronounced from 1st of April to 31st of December 1917;280 fines for not cleaning the sidewalks,260 forfinding persons without ausweiss ,943 for forbidden selling of aliments ;1 507 for finding unatended dogs,2 942 for not making declarations etc.The fines applied in these nine months have been of 8 008 ,in amount of 306 000 Lei(Romanian currency);of these ,4332 applied based on denounces coming from persons outside police !The political police ,lead by the cavalry captain Horstmann,one of the most important members of the military government ,had many missions.Firstly,was tasked with spying the attitude of the population towards occupant powers.It did not had much to do with the country side population ,where it noticed only tha t"the peasants look with untrusty eyes to the agents of the central powers and are spirited by hatred towards the bulgarians and hungarians ",but that"they are not capable of organizing a political resistance",much less plots.

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The hostages

The principal activity of the political Section has been the spying of the population of the cities ,and especially of the intelectuals.Considering that the Romanian intelectuals "are in their majority under the influence of French culture" and that ,as such ,are spirited by Francofile sympathies or Entent-ofile,the german police reach to the conclusion that their freedom would constitute a danger for the safety of the occupant troops and that they need to be "put to shelter",either by forced home(forced to not live your house) in localities assigned by the police ,or by their arresting as hostages and intern them in certain localities.It will be obtained with this face ,also an indirect effect :the rest of the ones remained free will be terrorised under the threat of arresting,hanging over their heads ,and thus will be maintained an attitude of reserve and of fraid.

The pretext has been found with the hypocrisy characteristic of the germans:the arrestations are made as retaliation against the Romanian Government which,at the outbreak of the War ,has gathered the servants of the central powers and interned them in the villages in Ialomita County.When the War started to become unfavorable to us and was foreseen the necessity of a retreat to Moldavia ,have been freed al the old internees ,as well as the families which followed of free will their interned relatives,and the young ones ,at the age when they were capable of carrying weapons ,have been evacuated to Moldavia and installed in camps.It was a harsh measure,ofcourse,for these people ,but permitted by the right of nationalities ,practiced by all nations in the War ,in the interest of defending of our own territory against the enemy from inside.The germans have risen violent protests against these internations and of the so called bad treatment ,to which would have been subjected the interned ;now the pretext of "retaliations" was found,to mask the action of terrorising enterprised by them in the occupied territory.

The politic police started to make the list of the suspects .At this work have come to help it also the declarations of some unproud Romanians ,which were finding the wellcomed occassion ,to satisfy their revenges or personal interests ,or to recomend themselves to the masters ,in which service they have entered.Some Jewish people were the auxilliary of the secret pepolice ,in the arrestations and interwied operated .The goal followed was in part acomplished.Evey man that meant something in the public life ,intelectual or social of the country,especially the ones known for their actions or only for their anty german feelings ,were trembling because of the proscription tableaus.The revenge against the persons suspected that they might have made nationalist politic police,,or woud sympathise with it ,has been the only criteria in choosing the hostages.There haven't been speared not even the persons defended by th right of nationality .Such have been taken:the Mayor of the Capital ,the medics members of the Red Cross ,a diplomat,magistrates in service.On the tableau of nominal appeal in the hostages camp were written ,next to the name of the persons ,the qualificative of:liberal or tachist.

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The arrestation begun in December 1916 and went on in chain,until the summer of 1917.High magistrates or clerks ,professors of university or of highschool,newspaper staff,poliiticians ,lawyers ,medics/doctors,agricultural owners ,industry owners were ripped with brutality from their homes or offices ,or even on the street ,by the german n police ,accompanied by the unavoidable Jewish translator ,and incarcerated in the basement of the german commandature-in the building of the Ministry of Public Works-in the mansards of the Military Circle or,especially ,at the Imperial Hotel,which got ,because of this a sinistre celebrity.All winter the hostages have been held in the arrest locals ,under a cellular detention regime.At 27th of February begins their transportation in in Saveni Village ,in Ialomita County.Some,considered as political prisoners ,are transported to germania to be closed in fortresses.Others ,have had forced domicile (forced to not live the house) in the villages or cities ,where they could be easier supervised and where they came into contact to no one.This kind of arrestations have been operated also in other cities of the occupied territory,especially in Ploiesti and Craiova;the hostages from Oltenia County have been interned in Tismana.In total have been arrested civilians 209 persons from Muntenia(or Valahia or the Romanian Country).Much bigger -few thousands -has been the number of those arrested and detained in te arrests,prissons and camps from different localities of the occupied territory ,without any kind of formality or justification ,legal,but a simple presumption that they might be dangerous for the safety of the occupation,or because of the simple desire of the local authorities of occupation.After a few months of internation in the country ,it has been choosen from the hostages a number of 87 ,which have been surrendered to bulgarians ,to be transported at Troian ,mountain city at the foot of the Balkans ,South of Plevna .At the passing through train stations ,the ROmanian hostages have been mocked ,maltratated and mugged by the bulgarian soldiers and population. Some"political detainees" have been send further ,at Etropol ,in Rumelia .The internation held till December when,in the wake of the truce ,of the freeing of the enemy internees from Moldavia ,but especially in the wake of the fact that the germans believed that the action have had the effect desired,the hostages have been freed and repatriated.The most part of them ,after a year of detention and brutal treatment ,have found their homes devastated ,mugged and occupied by the german militars and their concubines.

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Red terror

The cinical and systematic exploitation of the population,the mockerry and its terrorising ,would have not been alone enaugh to characterise the oppression regime tiranic of the occupant.The individual murder and the collective masacre had to complete the sinistre tableau .None of the five camarads went "lower" than the others.The germans,austrians,hungarians,turks,bulgarians ,have murdered some times with forms,most of the times without any legal form ,the missfortuned inhabitants of the enslaved country.The numerous murders are provoked by all kinds of pretextes.Sometimes is the "espionaj" or "treason on war time".Other times,for the motive that the human is simply "suspect" ,is send to death without any trial.Simple peasants ,but with hones heart ,refuse to give the informations asked from them-most of the times because they know nothing-or to serve the cause of the enemy ,or to help to the installation of cannons ,to the transport of munitions ;they are shot.Old men,women,children,tired of strengths ,cannot work as quick as they are asked to ,or fall,with exhaust ;if the whip or the rifle bed has no effect whatsoever ,the bayonet or the bullet gives to the stubborn one the eternal rest.Other times the human hides one of the las goods he has left ,unrequisitioned ,and it is murdered because she/he doesen't want to starv ,by free will.The drunk soldiers kill left and right the passers by ,or they attack them on the main road or in their homes ,to mug them.Most of the times ,the victims of homucides are fathers or mothers ,husbands or brothers ,which oppose to the raping of their daughters,sisters ,wives.The bands of beasts savage kill them on the spot ,the defenders and also the victims themselves ,when these ones try to resist ,with the fury of disperation.

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An official statistic shows that 1448 of murders ,fully identified with names,given the special circumstance of each case individually.It is much greater the number ,though,of the victims which perished ,not known by anyone,in the trenches of the roads ,in the hidings they thought they may find sheltter ,or in the deportation places within th country or in the enemy countries ,from where they never returned.

The description of the circumstances in which have produced the numerous individual assasinations would be a very tireing task and too cruel one;we will talk about some of the collective executions cases .

In Braila County,in the summer of 1917 ,have been shot by german the Commissary of the harbour ,Alexandru Popovici ,five inhabitants and five boys ,accused of spying .At Tirgu Jiu ,three inhabitants have bee shot ,behind the Orthodox Cemetery,for the "the crime made against a hunhgarian soldier".In Comuna Valari ,near Tirgu Jiu ,four villagers have been executed by germans ,because they refused to give their cattles and to serve to the troops as guides ;then there were arsoned 43 houses in the village.In Comuna(which has several villages) Militari ,six inhabitants have been shot without any reason,during the passing of a german column through the village.Five inhabitants of Putna County ,of Comunes Paulesti and Tichirisi ,next to the fighting Front ,accused that they helped some Romanian prisoners to cross the Front line to Romanians,they have been shot on the training firing range of Focsani and buried on the spot.In Corabia City a military commission german,has condemned to death five boys of Dabuleni Comuna,also for motive of spying ;executed in Dasova Cemetery ,have been buried in a common grave .In Letca Noua ,Vlasca County ,the turks soldiers have shot seven inhabitants ,which could not give them the sum of money they pretended.In Conduratu Comuna ,Prahova County ,an entire family have been murdered in their home,by the grenades thrown through the windows by drunk soldierrs.

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An emotional drama took place in Mehedinti County.The Reserve Sub-Lieutenant ,teacher ,Victor Popescu of the 18th Gorj Regiment ,has lost himself during the retreat from Jiu by his Detachment and has remained in the occupied territory .Hidden in his village ,Farcasesti ,he has shot three hungarian soldiers ,which raped his sister.After this,he launched a proclamation by which he appealed to all the Romanian soldiers which have remained in Mehedinti and Gorj Counties to not surrender to the enemy the weapons ,and to take the "road of the woods" and run in the miountains ,in the middle of the forests;then he gathered a group of soldiers ,Romanians,Russians and Italians ,which evaded fromm captivity ,starting then to attack the enemy patrools and their transports.Numerous detachments send in the pursue of Popescu and of his mates could not acomplish anything.A monk from Tismana Monastery ,which was spying for the germans ,has been lifted by Popesu's men from Bolbos Village ,taken to the woods and shot.Popescu ,together with some ranks ,has managed then to cross the occupied territory to Moldavia.The germans and austrians thinking that the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages help Popescu and his goup ,gave themselves against these ones to the most horible tortures and terrifying murders.At 10th of July 1917 ,they have executed by shooting,at Turnu Severin ,a group of 10 persons ,accused that they would have given asylum to Popescu ,amongst which tthe great owner ,the old man, of Horasti,Mihail Cernaianu ,aged 72 .The old man has been tortured ,then taken to the execution place.The wife and his daughters have been also tortured ,threatened with the shooting,put to dig their own grave and then,in front of them it has been set fire to their home and entire wealth.None of the arrested ones and tortured has given any information .Numerous other villagers of Mehedinti County and Gorj County have been arrested ,tortured and shot.Forteen villages have been spill with the blood of the innocents.

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(Marshal Alexandru Averescu in campaign uniform on the Front of the II-nd Romanian Army)

General of Army Corps Alexandru Averescu ,Commander of the II-nd Romanian Army (1916-1918) and Commander of the III-rd Romanian Army (August ,September 1916)

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The martyrdom of Dobrogea

One of the cruelest fates has been reserved to our TransDanubian province(Dobrogea).Dobrogea fall in the pray lot of bulgarians.They formed the most numerous element in the invasion army in Dobrogea ,and which they were revendicating as price of the beligerant colaboration with germany.That is why,together with the occupation of Dobrogea ,the bulgarian army has just started the masterpiece of "bulgarization" of the lust territory.This bulgarization has been made with the well known Balkanic method.The goal followed by the bulgarian officialities was the destruction of the Romanian element ,for that the pretentions to anexing of Dobrogea to be supported by a pretended bulgarian character of the province.Intention,as criminal as naive.It did not acomplish anything elese but to decimate the Romanian population of Dobrogea , mock it and bring it to poverty.

The campaign of plunder ,mockery and extermination was made by the bulgarian soldiers ,in accompliceness with the bulgarian inhabitants ,locals,many of them having family connections with the invasioneers.The mixt committes ,civilo-military ,have organized in a methodic way the devastations.The Northern part of Tulcea County ,which was a zone of operations and stage,bulgarian,has suffered outstandingly.All the Romanian monuments have been destroyed to the bone:the monument of Dobrogea anexation ,the statue of Mircea cel Batrin(Mircea the Old Voievod) ,the statue of Nenitescu in Tulcea ;public edifices and homes ,Romanian,even the churches ,have been first completely robbed ,then destroyed.Whole villages have been almost erazed from their bases .From the flourishing Casimcea Village have remained only 15 houses ,small.Isaccea,Casimcea and Topolog have been destroyed.After the reinstalation of the Romanian authorities ,it has been noticed tha the Romanian population of Tulcea County ,which before the War was of 86 605 inhabitants ,has been almost halved.

A mixt enquiry ,of the delegates of the Allied Powers ,has established a list of the atrocities commited by bulgarians in Tulcea County which,no mater how far of being complete ,enumerates ,in nominal way ,cases of rapings ,of tortures and murders ,of executed and tortured ,deportees in bulgaria ,of which many never returned.And next to these ,how many have perished,men,old men,women and children,being transported in convoys from one end to the other of the county ,through blizzard ,without food ,to be put to work in the trenches ,without any use whatsoever but to make them die .

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From the administrative point of view ,the Cadrilater -meaning Caliacra and Durostor Counties -has been directly incorporated to bulgaria .The rest has only been given in bulgarian administration .As the governor of the province has been named the former prefect of police of Sofia ,which has installed in Constanta.It have been instituted all over ,bulgarian administrative organs ,it has been introduced the system of imposits and bulgarian postal marks ,and the bulgarian language has been declared the official language for authorities and tribunals(courts).Even the inscriptions of the authorities have been changed :such ,in Constanta City Hall has been applied the inscription : "The Kingdom of Bulgaria ,the Urban Commune of Constanta".

The bulgarian administration has manifested by a total incapacity and rapacity/greed.Unfinishing convoys of wggons were transporting from Dobrogea ,towards South ,in bulgaria,everything that could be transported ."From general to soldier ,all have stolen whatever they could " says the official report of the Allied Committe.After two years of occupation ,almost it did not exist in Dobrogea a Romanian house anymore ."From the villages has been lifted and transported in bulgaria all the agricol tools and machines ;have been arsoned the Romanian sheds ,after their insides have been stolen.The yards have remained empty ,and the houses only with the walls".These robberies have alarmed even their allies and the camarads of bulgarians and determined the german commandment -of which program was the exploataion methodical and refined -to take over the control of Dobrogea.The bulgarians heve been taken out ,with much difficulty ,after long tratatives and with many displeasures ,which made to tension the relations between camarads and bittered the bulgrian spirits against their allies.In numerous occassions ,the bulgarians showed their unhappyness ,they went to threats against the germans and wanted to make belief that,if they have not broken the relations with the Americans ,after the entering of these ones in to the War,they have made it as retaliation against the germans and as an expression of their uncontent.

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At the end of February 1917 ,the entire Dobrogea has passed under "german administration of stage, from Dobrogea".Only the piece of land in the North of Dobrogea ,at the limit with Danube ,has remained under bulgarian mastering ,as zone of operations of the III-rd bulgarian army.The economic exploatation of Dobrogea has been made after the same plan with the rest of the country;its randament was weaker because of the depopulation of the country ,of the fact that it did not rain and of the bulgarian plunderings.

It has been found,though,during its occupation by the enemy ,imense quantities of petrol in Constanta Harbour and of wheat from the crops of the last three years ;in the same way through train stations and particular farms or houses ,abandoned by the owners , refugees.All these have been lifted by bulgarians and transported to their country.

The occupation of two years of Dobrogea ,have taken it behind with many years ,our flourishing province ,seeding it all over with desert and poverty.It has been an episode of the epoch of barbarian invasions ,taken from the medieval times to be transported in full 20th century.

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The "civil" administration under occupation

Next to the military administration,german,it has been constituted under the imediate authority and control of "Verwaltungsstab" ,a government of Romanian guarants ,which would administrate the resorts which were not in the imediate spheres of interest of the german occupation army.This government of guarants -real "ministers under occupation"-have taken away the legitime clerks leading the authorities ,by stepping over the International Law,which does not permit the replacement of the clerks of the state /country ,as long as there is no incident between them and the occupant authority.The germans needed though "people of trust";that is why they have replaced the general secretaries ,left by the Romanian Government ,with these guarants ,ellected amongst the personalities with germano-fil ideeas and namely from the adepts of Petre Carp.

The new guarants were:Lupu-Costaki,guarant of the Internal Ministry;D.Nenitescu at the Finances;magistrate Hinna at Justice ;Gr.Antipa at Domains and professor C.Litzica at Instruction.After a few months ,the last one has been replaced by Virgil Arion,the former president of the Cultural League ,which became over night ,during the neutrality,the most fiercy and suspect germano-fil.

To go around the stepping over the International Law and to not give the impression of naming by the occupant of Romanian clerks ,the official paper of the military administration announces that :"with the aproval of the military administration in Romania ,the leadership of the ministries ,has been taken ,as guarants by the following gentlemen.....".

Next to each guarant has been delegated an "liaison officer",real tutore of th eguarant.The signiature of the officer was indispensable for the validity of each document of administration ,written in german an Romanian .On the official papers has been imposed the deleting of the inscription "Romania",and of the blazon of the country.The initials M.V.R.-"Militar -Verwaltung in Rumanien",was applied everywhere :in the antet of the writings ,on stamps ,on postal marks.

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There were named prefects of counties and mayors from the "people of trust" and of political personalities germanofil,doubled all over by the overpowerful liaison officer.It have been kept the indispensable clerks of services;the rest ,have been put to disponibility ,paying to them the so called rest wage.The only Romanian services which increased as number of clerks ,some till considerable figures,were those in the service of the german occupation or of its people;the services of administrative -incartiruire and technical,of replenishments,of requisitions,of paying the covers for the servants of the central powers.The counties and communes(several villages in one commune),especially,had to support the enormuous expenses of the maintainance of the occupation army,very exigent under the rapport of the confort of installations ,alimentation and parties.To be able to face these expensses ,the counties and the communes have been forced to contract big loans ,which meant the ruin and slavery of their economy for a long time.

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The justice

After enslaving the administration ,came the turn of the justice system.In January 1917 opened ,with great solemnity ,in front of a numerous military assistance ,the german military tribunal:"Deutsche Gericht in Rumanien".Two other similar tribunals ,one in Craiova ,the other in Constanta ,followed soon.These tribunals constituted one of the most characteristic manifestations of the spirit of the occupied country.Formed up of german magistrtes in military uniforms ,they were destined to give to the servants of the central powers from Romania ,in their trials with the Romanians ,the guarantee of a unjust justice and of a prompt execution ,simple and brutal.

According to the decission organizing this german justice ,a Romanian,which had to make an action to a servant of one of the central powers states,could only make it in front of the german justice.If ,on the contrary,the latter one was starting the action ,could make it either in front of th egerman ribunals or the romanian ones but,in this case,at the trial assisted a german commissary,"which watched over the interests of the allied servant",taking part in the meeting and to deliberations.The judgement was made according with the german code ,with the modifications of procedure necessitated by the circumstances.The most important derogation ,not only by the Romanian procedure or german one ,but from a principle universally admitted,was the impossibility to appeal.The enemy judges ,judging either in the council ,or as unique judge ,after the case,pronounced the sentince in first and last instance ,and the sentence was imediately to be executed.Also ,was surpressed the right to appeal in penal matters and to the trials in front of Romanian tribunals.The decissions,of any kind were to be given not in the name of the Head of state ,but in the name of the law.

Instituting the arbitrating jurisdiction was stepping over the Constitution and the laws of the country,which just the magistrates were obliged to gouard,imposing to the others their respect.It also violated the International Law of Haga,accepted by germany -another ptch of paper-which proclaimed that"the occupant has no wright to modify the laws of the country occupied ,but only if this modification would be necessary in leading the war or to its safety(of the occupant)."Our Judging Corps has brought a protest ,but in vain.marshal Mackensen refused to receive the delegates of the magistrature and did not revoke any of the taken measures.In his name ,Welser replayed to the magistrates that"during the occupation the supreme commander is the souvereign and the leguitor power, and that he is reserved to leave any power of decission to the indigeneous law".

The magistrates believed that ,in the interest of justice ,it is their duty to continue their activity ,even in circumstances as these ,protesting.Some magistrates refused to judge ,with all the threats .The majority of Romanian lawyers did not recognize the siege tribunal and did not plead in front of it.There have been however a number of lawyers who pleaded ,mostly Jews ,to which the knowledge of the german language ease to acomplish this task ,an the lack of national scrupules allowed them to.An entire band of intermediaries ,samsars ,translators and improvised lawyers ,many of them even members of the occupation tribunals ,interposed betwene the tribunal and Romanians at trial,dragged in front of it.Speculating the unknowing of german language of the poor people and the terror inspired by this tribunal dictatorial,these parasites were making fat proffit in the wake of the interventions in the troubles which,many times were set by themselves in the first place in understanding with the members of the "tribunals".

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Instituting the tribunals has also been a mean of revenge of all foreigners which had "something to share" with a Romanian.Tradesmen from germany or from austro- ungaria ,which had bussinesses ,as sellers or as buyers ,with the ones in the country or with the Romanian state ,servants which were quarelling with their masters,or have been,the owner with the workers ,the tenants with the landlord ,or viceversa ,the tradsemen with the clients ,the creditors with the debitors ,or viceversa ,all these ,as they were germans ,hungariansorbulgarians or turkish servants ,found in the german tribunals the means to judge and execute imediatelly their Romanian adversary.In this way,the german judgement,based under the hipocrit pretext of defending ,by a simple procedure and quick one,the servants of the enemy countries ,has been in reality ,a new means of terrorising and stealing the missfortuned population of the defeated country ,in the favour of the foreigner.No wonder why the activity of these tribunals increased .In June 1917 have been,at the german tribunals of Bucharest 152 trials ,and at Craiova 123.In April 1918 ,their number has been of 656 at Bucharest and 325 at Craiova.In total ,have been trialed at the two tribunals ,in one year ,7000 trials!

Together with offensing the justice ,their servants were maltratated.A great number of high magistrates have been arrested and detained as hostages .Old men in their seventies ,forced to carry their luggage in the back.The general prosecutor of the Bucharest Appeal Court and the decane of the lawyers of the Capital have been send to germania and encarcerated in a fortress.

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The school

The school enjoyed also the attention of the occupation government.Even from February 1917 ,the german schools of the evangelic communities ,in reality focars of propagation of german influence ,reopened with increased privileges.After two months ,in April ,it was also permitted the reopening of the Romanian schools ,in conditions of great material tightness and spiritual ones.The greatest part of school locals were requisitioned for military uses or administrative ones;barracks ,hospitals,bureaus,prissons ,when they were not simply transformed into stables;the majority of teachers were missing ,either called on the Front by military duty,or refugees in Moldavia ;the wealth of the schools wasted,smashed or stolen.In this way,it could be opened a restricted number of schools ,with less classes ,concentrated two three in the same local ,with didactic corps completed however it was possible.The occupation government has been preoccupied by the ideea ,very natural,to use the school in his masterpiece of german propaganda.THe secondary schools had to increase the number of hours in german language ;next to this it has been opened new complementary courses in german language at highschools and primary schools ,and especially courses for adults ,in the cities and also at villages.An ctive service of control was stimulating and recompensating the zel of the teachers and students.The schools in Oltenia County have been subjected to the authority of a "school council" lead by a german professor ,established in Romania ,which insisted to manifest as a tyrant and a satir.It has been ordered the elimination of the chapters in literature,history and geography of the country,which did not pleased the occupant.At Craiova it has been tried even the elimination entirely of the Romanian History from programs .A pressuring atmosphere was dominating the schools ;the free exprimation of oppinions and of feelings was obstacled by the fraid of not being told by your coleague ,the improvised teacher ,or even by some germanophil pupils,by their foreign origin or contacts.

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The University,badly seen by the germans ,because of the attitude antygerman from the neutrality period(before the War),has remained closed.Latter,in December 1917,it reopened the Faculty of Medicine ,of which laboratories and part of the personnel had to serve also the necessiies of the medical learning of the occupant ,and after her it was also reopened the Comerce Academy ,the language faculties ,theology and sciences reopened in April 1918 ,with a very restricted professoral and students staff.

The germans opened in the Pallace of University Fundation "King Carol the I-st" ,military courses for germans militars from the occupation army and from the fighting Front ,which belonged to the universities or academic schools.The courses were held by professors brought from germania ,some of them ,celebrities in their specialities .These courses ,frequented by hundreds of students ,were also after,together with the theatres ,libraies ,german press , impressing the Romanian public.Maybe the imposant aspect of the unfolding of this culture to manage to attract ,in the favour of the cause of the german poltics ,a simpathy and admiration ,which the fist strokes did not succeed,with all the maestrosity of their brutality!

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The theatre and publicistics

The political police had also a section for the press and censure -incorporated latter directly in "Verwaltugsstab",which was tasked with the technical conduct of the press services and tipography ,with installing and leading the news shops for the military in campaign etc.A special section had as aim"reviving the Romanian press" ,and another was tasked with censure of the theatre plays of tthe movies in cinematographs ,of books and imprimmeries ,in other words ,with directing of the intelectual way of life of the country in a favorable direction and simpathetic to germania.The activity of this section did not give the expected results pretaining the influence of the Romanian spirit and earning it.The Romanian theatre ,in the occupied territory ,has reduced at inferior forms of the amussement spectacles :opereta and revista(like cabaret).It was small the number of Romanian artists with whatever reputation which,pushed by the need of existence ,received to play in front of the germano-Romanian public during the occupation.The germans ,however,have brought bands of drama and opera ,made up many times also by artistic elements of value.The unknowing of the german language by the great masses of the population ,the bitterness and sense of dignity of the intelectual blankets ,the poverty in general,on the other hand,have kept the Romanian public far and away by the german theatre.It has remained the show of the militars and clerks of the government of occupation ,of the population of origin or with foreign feelings and of a smalll minority ,Romanian, of both sexes ,without conscience and dignity whatsoever.

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The efforts for "riviving the Romanian press" have had a first realization ,one week after the occupation of the Capital.At 12th of December appeared the first number of the official newspaper of the occupant authority ,written half in german half in Romanian,with the title "Bukarester Tageblatt" or "The Gazet of Bucharest".The newspaper had in the beginning a very heavy facture ,with gramatic and style influenced by the germano-jewish slang.It appears ,the newspaper,from the intention to speculate the need to read of the public and to serve ,on this only allowed way ,informations from origins and with german tendencies.They will continue the masterpiece of intimidation and demoralization of the Romanian population ,seeding in her soul the faith in the overpowerful german invincibility and of the faliment,politic and military of the Entente.The newspaper has also an imediate practical goal :to bring to the knowledge of the public the numerous ordonances which mean just as many restrictions and privations of the freedoms.

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The gazet(magazine) has taken a campaign of untruths ,calomnies,intrigue and insults towards Romania ,its Government and Army,towards the Sovereigns and political men partizans of the War and of the resistance.Latter,next to the scrupules of some of the professional Romanian newspapermen ,to colaborate to a gazete purely police-one,the two halves of the newspaper separated.Tageblatt became a german gazete ,well redacted f.t.p.o.w. technical ,the Romanian part which became "Bucharest Gazete" entered on the hands of some mercenaries of the pencil,worthy followers of "Ziua"(the Day) and "Seara"(the Evening) from the time of neutrality ,which descended the last steps of newspaper abjection.

What could not be "Gazeta" ,because of the moral inferiority of its redactors,meaning a correct informator of the Romanian population in the occupied territory ,proposed herself to be "Lumina"(the Light),newspaper appeared in September 1917 under the direction of C.Stere.Published under the censure of the occupation authorities ,it was excluded that the new organ to have the freedom of expression needed by a true and honest informator of the population .The director,on the other hand, declared in his program article the followings:"in these circumstances ,not always will I be able to write down my entire thought";in exchange,he engaged" to not say a word ,to not be the expression of his ideas".Unfortunately ,these ideeas were knowwn to the Romanian nation,since during the neutrality.By the critics brought to our actions ,by condemning our entire attitue in the Great War,by describing the abyss in which we threw ourselves,the campaign of "Lumina" would be a depressing and of disencourage ment of the Romanian spirit.The talent and culture of the director of the newspaper will have a demoralizing influence more effective that one of the scribes from "Gazeta".The informative part is as tendentious as it is pesimist the political part.Under the influence of german censure ,are published only unfavorable informations for Romania and Entente and is surpressed ,or harassed ,falsificating the truth ,the favorable ones.

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"Gazeta" and "Lumina" become in this way organs of undermining of the national conscience ,of weakening the resistance ,of demolising the belief in a happy result of the War.They talk the kneeling in front of the german overpowerfulness ,the only one capable to save as individuals ,rennauncing at the acomplishing of the ideal for which we entered the War.With the sacrifice of the dignity of the country and even of the independence of her,we have to give up the politic brought till now,to "condemn the aberations of foolish politicians ,crazy or criminals",which brought the country to dezastre ,to erase from the big book of the European War our bloody sacrifice.

These ideeas corresponded so well to the goals of the enemy ,such that the german army on the Front ,took the task to throw in the Romanian trenches entire packages with these newspapers ,meant to seed also within the ranks of the Romanian soldiers the discouragement and rennaunciation at the War.Marasti,Marasesti ,Oituz and the brave attitude ,which did not hesitated for one moment ,of the Romanian soldier ,have been the talking expression of the influence of which this literature of defetism and treason ,have had over the healthy spirit of the peasant soldier.

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Other two publications came to contribute to german propaganda.The magazine"Rumanien in Wort und Bild",very well redacted and richly ilustrated ,publishes in german articles about the state of things in Romania,seen ,ofcourse ,by the prism of german interests."The Ilustrated Week"(Saptamina Ilustrata) publishes in Romanian informations from the german world,in the same note and with the same tendency.They complete one another ,addressing especially to the intelectual public ,of which converssion to germanism follows.

The publicistic campaign of the gemans was as much odious ,as the one of plundering and starvation.It aimed to moral breaking of Romania ,as the other was aiming at the anihilation of her physical strengths."It must-writes a known german writer-which accompanies te armies-that the will ,pride,ambition ,conscience ,the national sense of the population ,to loose its power ,as the capacity of fighting back of the Romanian Army.The politicians and publicists,germans, concur in showing hrough newspapers ,magazines and books that we are a nation of corrupt people ,rotten lacking intelligence and moral sense ;in short,a nation which deserves the worst of fates.There would be only a chance of escape :to receive the german domination ;in this way it would be helped to reborn and live."Rumanien Wort und Bild" publishes on the first page a head of a cretin ,with the explanation :"Studie-Moldaue Bauer"(Sketch-Moldavian Peasant).A german writer prints an antology ,under the name :"The Rottenning of Romania showed by her own writers",in which are choosen pieces from Romanian authors which describe social states ,or whip habits ,with the usual exagerations .The Romanian society would be formed only by verous magistrates ,drunk priests ,bad clerks ,adultery women.

Unfortunately there ar also Romanians -in the intelectual blankets-which,by word or writing ,second the germans in this masterpiece of mockery ,or by deed ,tend to justify the most calomnious campigns.A membre of the diplomatic corps ,C.Braileanu ,publishes at Berlin ,under the pseudonim Vlachus,a pamflet entitled:"Rumanien Ohnmacht"=The paralizing of Romania ,in which covers in mud all public life ,social and the institutions of the country.In th country ,publicist A.de Herz ,the follower after mother,of the ilustrous Romanian family ,composes magazines for the summer theatres ,in which the sufferings of the Romanian population during the War are ridiculized ,for the amusement of the foreign spectators.

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Commonwealth War Graves In Romania

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Moral contrasts

The big crisis bring to light all things that fermented hidden in the deeps of the politico-social organisms .One of the most painful of them ,brought in evidence by our military catastrophe ,has been the lack of cohesion of the different components of the state.

A part of the Jewish population in the ocucpied territory ,unasimilated spiritualy with the Romanian people,has went at once in the service of the occupant,becoming the instrument of this one of exploatation,of impiling and mocking of the indigeneous population.

The women from the cult blankets and with conscience ,have had a conduct worthy and patriotic.Some did not fraid to assume dangers and carried the word of encouragement through the hospitals of wounnded and in the camps of prisoners,paying this Romanian attitude with arrestation and with the sending in some monastery.The majority have closed themselves into their houses ,carrying in the heart the black veil of bloodied Romania.This attitude did not escape to the german observers .A known man of letters ,german which have visited several times our country under the occupation makes it a duty to record it*:"Seen in haste,Bucharests makes today the impression of a beautiful widow ,which looks good with an easy sadness and a smile of accepting the things.The violins of the lautari(gipsy singers) sing as before;in front of the cinematographs is noise ,the dames are dressed in elegant silk dresses and beautiful eyes;the restaurants are crowded ,the theatres ,cabarets,opereta,the open parks...But all these deceive .It is noisy only the colorful surface of Bucharest.If there are cocote(easy women) which laugh through night -locals ,that does not mean that in Bucharest there are not thousands of mothers and wives which cry in the night.

It have changed ,in some ways,the exterior of the Capital also.Everything in this city has been once a river of life and a life of elegance.Hundreds of carriages have dissappeared ,in the same way the superbe horses .The famous "Sosea" (one of the main roads in Bucharest from the Exposition Park through Kisselef ,to Piata Victoriei) is now dserted.The ladies from the society and the automobiles have dissappeared ...

It is a legend that the deads at Arges would have been forgotten .The noise and the apparence without care of Bucharest cannot fool no one who looks deeper.Also there is a legend that the popualatio of Bucharest would have waited with flowers the enterance of the enemy in Capital .Bucharest endures the heavy fate with determination and dignity .Even the friends of the germans and of their allies ,....do not forget the situation and keep a reserve full of tact.The aristocratic circles of the society live completely isolated and are not seen on the street ,or very rarely...

Entirely different from the surface is the the aspect in the heart of Bucharests".

Unfortunately,the tableau has also a stain,which we must not look over.There has also been women,from different social classes ,which gave the spectacle of lack of shame.And ,because the vice is public and povokative ,the conduct of these women attracted attention and gave the occassion to precipitated generralizations,and to humiliating sceneries to our national dignity.The Romanian women which forgot her black veiled patria and the husband who left on the Front,to throw herself in the arms of the german officer and of parties ,that woman which out o perversity and interest became the camarad of the parties and orgies of the german militars ,even the one which did nothing else but to assist to the german shows ,supporting and even tasting the alussions at the address of her country ,has been ofcourse an exception,but an exception characteristic for the lack of education of a certain blanket of the society .It was the same woman without culture and with an easy painting of culture,which during peace time was elegant ,frivole ,loving the pleasures ,but not knowing or not liking to raise children ,object of luxury and of front ,which fills the sidewalks of the central streets ,the shops ,the carriages ,easy spectacles and the saloons of card games.

A painful notice and a lesson for the future .The country will be as the next generation will do it,children of today ,and these ones will be as their mothers form them.To give culture and education to the woman ,to rise her from the inferior state of a pleasure object and luxury,to call upon her to the understanding of social uses ,and national ones of the times she lives in ,is one of the chieftains problems ,which must preoccupy anyone has at heart the future of the country ,and especially the ones who have seen with pain some aspects of the life during enemy occupation.

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