Fără soţ şi fără tată, jertfe de război. Văduve, orfani şi invalizi în Transilvania după „Marele Război” (Studiu de caz: Valea Someşului Mare)
Without a Husband and Without a Father, War Sacrifices. Widowers, Orphans and Cripples in Transylvania after the “Great War”. Case Study: The Someşu Mare Valey)

Summary/Abstract: The First World War had a series of negative consequences expressed in human loses and material sacrifices; research estimate about 8 to 10 millions of victims amongst the combatants, approximately 20 millions of wounded and millions of widowers and orphans. Transylvania, a part until 1918 of the Hungarian half of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy had also suffered the consequences of the war, the sad balance of the four years of war counting approximately 41739 deceased on the battle field, 11275 deceased in prisons and hospitals, 25406 invalids, 79226 orphans and 38630 widowers amongst the Romanian population. Beyond this ill-fated statistics, the real consequences of the war on the lives of the soldiers and of their families are still to be known. That is why the present research intends to analyze the social and demographic consequences of the First World War in Transylvania. The research is concentrated on three categories of victims: the invalids, the orphans and the widowers and. The paper is a case study on the localities from Someşul Mare Valley. The analyse of the 500 dossiers of invalids, orphans and widowers, kept in the Archives of Bistriţa-Năsăud highlighted an average age of only 30,9 years old for the demobilized soldiers as a result of injuries suffered on the battle field. Most of those who disappeared or lost their lives in the war were over 30 years old and they left behind widowers and a lot of orphans. The average age of women at the time of the disappearance/death of their husbands was 31,6 years old while for the orphans, the average age at the time of the disappearance of their father was approximately 5,6 years old. The present research also followed up the concrete ways of supporting those who were affected by the war through the laws, the decrees and the regulations issued by the laic authorities. The highest point of the actions undertaken in favour of the victims was the law of September 1920 which established the National Agency for The Invalids, Orphans and Widowers of the War (Oficiul Naţional al Invalizilor, Orfanilor şi Văduvelor de Război - IOVR).

• Details
• Contents