Ecaterina Teodoroiu

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Ecaterina Teodoroiu (January 16, 1894 - August 22, 1917) was a Romanian woman who fought and died in World War I, and is regarded as a heroine of Romania.

In Romanian historiography, Ecaterina Teodoroiu is placed in the context of gendered experience of the Great War on the Eastern Front, on the same pedestal as Queen Maria of Romania.

She was born in the village of Vadeni, in the historical region of Oltenia, in Southern Romania. After graduating a school in Bucharest, she was to became a teacher when the Romanian kingdom entered World War I on the Entente side, in 1916. In October 1916, Ecaterina joined the Romanian army. Initially, she worked as a nurse but she subsequently decided to become a front-line soldier, being seemingly deeply impressed by the patriotism of the wounded, including her brother Nicolae. It was an unusual decision for a woman of that epoch, so she was sent to the Moldavian front rather reluctantly. However, soon she proved her worthiness as a symbol and as a soldier. In November, she was wounded and hospitalized but came back to the front where she was soon decorated, advanced in rank to Second Lieutenant and given the command of a 25-man platoon. She was taken prisoner but managed to escape by killing two, or perhaps three German soldiers.

On August 22, 1917, she fought her last battle, at the Battle of Mărăşeşti, where she was hit in the chest by German bullets. According to the legend, her last words before dying were: "Forward, men, I'm still with you!"

She was buried in the city center of Târgu Jiu, and her grave is honored by a monument erected in 1936 by Miliţa Petraşcu.

[edit] Reference

• Bucur, Maria "Between the Mother of the Wounded and the Virgin of Jiu: Romanian Women and the Gender of Heroism during the Great War" Journal of Women's History - 12, 2, (2000), pp. 30-56, The Johns Hopkins University Press