A Recently Discovered Testimony Regarding the Refugees in Moldavia, on the Romanian Front of The Great War: The Memoirs of Ioana Perticari

FILIP-LUCIAN IORGA
Abstract
The fate of the civilians on the Romanian Front of the Great War is reflected in a document hitherto unpublished in its entirety, the memoirs of Ioana Perticari. The text was found by Filip-Lucian Iorga in a private family archive in Paris, belonging to the author’s daughter, Princess Irina Ghica-Cantacuzino. Ioana Perticari (1908–2004) was the daughter of General Ion Perticari and Elena Davila (the daughter of Dr. Carol Davila, one of the main builders of the Romanian medical system). Ioana Perticari fled communist Romania and settled in Canada, where she wrote her memoirs, in 1950. The text is written in English and consists of 15 chapters, spanning 62 typewritten pages and 9 more manuscript pages. The author has a privileged perspective, as the daughter of a senior officer of the Romanian army, sent by King Ferdinand on a military mission to Italy and of a lady-in-waiting to Queen Marie of Romania. The experience described is that of the refuge in Moldavia (the north-eastern part of Romania), provoked by the advance of the troops of the Central Powers, that occupied the capital of Romania, Bucharest, at the end of 1916. Ioana Perticari spent her refuge at the mansion of her uncle and aunt, Grigore Perticari and Maria Mavrogheni Perticari, from Stoişeşti, near Bârlad and in Iaşi, the historical capital of Moldavia.
Keywords: Romanian aristocracy, World War I, war refugees, unpublished memoirs, private archives.