the army in 1913 for the sake of thus obtaining the naturalization
that was promised them as a reward; but these promises were frequently
not kept. A good deal of injustice occurred during the Great War: the
_Moniteur Officiel_, No. 261 (of February 2, 1918), printed a decree
relating to one Kaufman, who together with two Christian soldiers had
been away from his corps for twelve days in the previous September.
Kaufman was condemned to death, and the others to five years' hard
labour. When the King was asked to deal more equitably with the three
men, Kaufman's sentence was commuted to "hard labour without limit,"
_i.e._ for life. It is superfluous to give many illustrations: at
Falticeni seventy-two Jews were imprisoned without a trial for four
months, though twelve of them were Roumanian citizens and veterans of
1877, while most of the others had sons at the front; at the village of
Frumusica a major caused the Jews to come out of their synagogue in
order to listen to a speech in which he advised the Christian soldiers
to watch them well, as they were worse than the Germans. No doubt there
were Jews in the Roumanian army whose patriotism was less than
ardent--and who can blame them? In the 69th Regiment a special corps of
Jews was clothed in the discarded, dark uniform that was more visible to
the enemy. In the 65th Regiment Jon Dumitru was paid 14 francs a month
for spying on his Jewish comrades. At the battle of Savarat, to cover
the retreat of three battalions, a special corps of Jews was formed--one
hundred and twenty-two men under a Jewish second lieutenant; all but
three of them were killed or wounded. After this retreat the General,
who lost his head, commanded that the survivors should be killed
wholesale on account of self-inflicted wounds; but seeing that they were
so numerous (and innocent) he pardoned them, and only executed two Jews,
Lubis Strul and Hascal Simha, _pour encourager les autres_. A young
doctor, 2nd Lieutenant Cohn, who came back from Paris, contracted typhus
at the hospital where he was serving; afterwards he was sent to the 26th
Regiment and kept under observation; it was most suspicious, said the
authorities, that a Jew should return from France for his military
service. A reward of 2000 francs was offered to anyone who could supply
incriminating evidence against the doctor, but this was offered in vain.
The Jews, by the way, were told that while they would be removed from
menial positions in