The Crimes of Bulgaria in Macedonia: An Authentic Document, Based on Facts...1914
Όλο το βιβλίο στα αγγλικά
CONTENTS
Pages.
Chapter I
Iktroduction 1
Chapter II
Dispatches of King Constantine 2
Chapter III
Period Prior to the Hostilities 4
Atrocities committed against the Turks and the Greeks; protest of
the foreign correspondents at Salonica to the "Ligue pour la
defense des droits de rhomme." Atrocities against the Servians.
The reports from Sofia.
Chapter IV
Districts Occupied by the Bulgarians at the Beginning of the War
(Nigrita and Gevgheli) 9
Chapter V
Atrocities Committed on the Western Bank of the River Strymon.. 12
The District of Kilkis. The Districts of Doiran and Strumnitza.
Chapter VI
The Pillage and Burning of Serres 17
The reports of the Austrian consul-general at Salonica and the vice-
consul at Serres. The investigation of the consul-general of
Italy at Salonica. Report of the Jewish delegation of Salonica.
Other testimony.
The Slaughter at Demir-Hissar 24
Report of the Commander of the 7th Division. Report of the Com-
mission composed of members of the Chamber of Deputies.
Testimony of Mr. L. Leune and Mr. George Bourdon.
The Massacres and the Destruction of Doxato 29
The testimony of Messrs. Rene Puaux, Lucien Magrini, Commander
Hubert Cardale, Vladimir Tordoff, etc.
Kavala and Drama 36
Chapter VII
The Attacks Against the Clergy and Teachers 37
The destruction of the schools and historical monuments.
Chapter VIII
Who is Responsible ? 40
Documents establishing the participation of official Bulgaria in the
atrocities committed in Macedonia.
Conclusion 42
FOREWORD
This is a story of rapine and death. It is a history of crimes
committed under the mask of civilized warfare, of outrages perpe-
trated under the guise of military necessity, of murdered children
and outraged women sent to their deaths amid scenes of cruelty
and torture such as are almost beyond credulity in this twentieth
century.
The offenders were Bulgarians wearing the uniforms and the
epaulets of their national army. The victims were Greeks, Mo-
hamtmedans and any individuals who incited the wrath or stirred
the cupidity of the merciless invaders.
Every instance cited in this document is indisputable. Names,
facts and dates are given with such frequency and with such
authority that not one chapter in this astounding history can be
denied. It is, simply and frankly, the true narrative of the mon-
strous criminology of men who fought as savages, beyond the pale
of civilized laws. All the facts come from officials and private
individuals impartial in their statements, unbiased by their nation-
ality and uninfluenced by the thought of either fear or favor. They
were consuls of foreign governments, correspondents for the
greatest newspapers of the world, and, in at least one instance, an
officer in the Bulgarian army itself.
The Universities of Athens, actuated by a love of truth and desir-
ous of awaking the consciousness of civilization to the enormity of
the Bulgarian atrocities, have issued and transmitted this authentic
document to the universities and journalists of the world.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
My Dear Sir and Colleague:
Three weeks ago, in conformity to a joint resolution of the two
Universities of Athens, we called your attention by cable to the
atrocities committed by the Bulgarians in Macedonia, and announced
to you that we should have the honor, at a later date, of forwarding
to you a report relative thereto.
If the report was not sent to you at an earlier date, it was due
to the fact that the list of the frightful crimes that were to be
related, was daily becoming longer by other acts surpassing in
horror those previously committed.
Unfortunately the list has not yet been dosed. The atrocities
that will be enumerated below will, however, suffice to enlighten
you as to the situation and to place the responsibilities.
The great powfcrs were shocked by such horrors. They com-
missioned their consuls, and appointed special committees to make
investigations on the spot. Their reports have not yet been all
made public, and some have not been completed. We quote those
that have been published. The rest not being available, we have
based this statement on the official reports of His Hellenic Majesty
and of his staff, on the testimony of foreign diplomatic and ecclesi-
astical persons, and on that of the special representatives of the
principal foreign newspapers that were present.
We regret to say that these representatives were not so numerous
at the beginning of the war as we would have wished. We have
preferred, however, to repeat the testimony of the same persons,
rather than to quote the statements of the regular correspondents
of those papers, who, residing in Greece, might be suspected of
pro-Hellenic sympathies.
Desiring to restrict ourselves to a report purely objective, we
have discarded every personal opinion and confined our statement
to the documentary evidence which we have selected after the
closest examination, and which, it can be readily ascertained, ema-
nates from authorities whose veracity cannot be questioned, and
as far as it was possible foreign authorities.
CHAPTER II
DISPATCHES OF KING CONSTANTINE
The impression which the dispatch sent by King Constantine to
his government on July 12, 1913, created throughout official circles
and the general public has not been forgotten.
After exposing the atrocities committed by the fleeing Bulgarian
army, King Constantine was compelled to add:
"Protest in my name to the representatives of the civilized
powers against the acts of these monsters in human form.
Protest also to the entire civilized world and say that, to my
great regret, I shall be compelled to proceed to reprisals, in
order to inspire the perpetrators with a salutary fear, and make
them reflect before committing outrages of this sort.
The Bulgarians have surpassed all the horrors of barbaric
times, and have proved that they no longer have a right to be
reckoned among civilized people. ,,
A few days later the New York Times asked His Majesty's
opinion on the atrocities committed, and the King caused the follow-
ing reply to be sent:
"Without going over the motives which have led Greece,
Servia and Montenegro to repulse by force of arms the un-
expected but well-prepared attacks of the Bulgarians on their
allies of yesterday, which attacks have dictated to the allied
governments their actual attitude, the atrocities committed
every day by the Bulgarian armies and the outrages, long con-
cealed, committed by the Bulgarians on the Turkish and Greek
peoples since the first days of the Balkan war, impose on the
allies an energetic attitude and the obligation to exact and to
obtain for the future all necessary guarantees.
As the Greek army advances crimes qf unthinkable cruelty
are discovered. The Bulgarian authorities have silenced the
voice of thousands of innocents who perished under horrors
such as human history has never before recorded. There is
not a village which has been occupied by the Bulgarians that
has not had its men, women and children massacred, its young
women outraged, its houses robbed and burned.
At the first invasion of Demir-Hissar, last October, the
Bulgarians massacred all the men of the village of Petrovo,
and, after having outraged women and young girls, locked
them in the mosque and set fire to it. They played on the
bagpipes while the victims were dying.
At Petritch, they made the wives and daughters of the
victims dance before the bodies of the Mussulmans. At Doiran
many thousands of Mussulmans were slaughtered and all their
goods were plundered. At Nevrokop it was the same. At
Meleniko, Drama, Serres, Dede-Agatch, Strumnitza — every-
where the Bulgarian has passed — one sees only blood, dishonor
and ruin.
To the tortures endured yesterday by the Mussulmans come
now those of the Christians. Even before the new war began
the Bulgarians were oppressing all the Greek population of
the territories occupied by them, and at the time of their
sudden attack at Pangheon, they did not hesitate to quench
their thirst for blood on the inoffensive Greek villagers.
After their first defeats the Bulgarians turned upon the
Greek population with unspeakable acts. By order of the
officers hundreds of men, women and children were horribly
mutilated, their houses were burned, and their goods were
stolen.
At Doiran the Greek Bishop and thirty notables were dragged
away. 1
At Kavala the Archbishop and twenty-eight Greek notables
were forcibly taken away by the Bulgarians before they aban-
doned the village.
At Pravi the Bishop and more notables had the same fate.
At Demir-Hissar the Bishop and three priests, with many
notables and some women, were tortured and put to death.
Serres, a flourishing and rich city, was almost completely
destroyed by fire. The vice-consuls of Austria and Italy tried
officially in vain to protect their consulates. The Bulgarians
did not even respect the persons of the consuls, but carried
them to the mountains and only released them on the payment
of heavy ransoms.
The national flags of foreign countries were raised on Euro-
pean and American buildings, but had no effect. On the con-
trary, the Bulgars concentrated their fire on the foreign houses
because they knew that these houses sheltered numerous
refugees. They cannonaded the city. The defenseless citizens
1 The Bishop of Doiran was forcibly taken away by the Bulgarians to-
gether with a number of other notables, and sent under guard to Sofia
amidst the jeers and hoots of the Bulgarian soldiers and the inhabitants of
the Bulgarian cities and villages through which he was carried. From
Sofia he was sent, always under guard, to Mesdra covering the distance
that separated the two cities mostly on foot. From this latter city he was
taken to the deserted and secluded village of Etrepol, where according to his
guards he was to be executed.
The Roumanian army, however, which was marching through Bulgarian
territory, reached the village of Etrepol where the Bishop was imprisoned,
and saved him from further suffering and certain death. He was imme-
diately released and sent to Bucharest in safety. Later His Holiness returned
to his See.
abandoned all their possessions, and in many cases their infirm
relatives, to flee from the rain of shot which pitilessly pursued
them.
The great warehouses of the American Tobacco Company
were burned, causing in all a loss of more than one million
dollars. The managers, Messrs Harrington and Moore, escaped
to Salonica during the conflagration.
Bombs and shells raked the city, wiped out thousands of
families, and left hundreds of victims.
The Bulgarians cried "Hurrah" at the sight of the de-
struction they wrought, and took away with them all that
they could carry.
Banks, business houses and stores, and all the residences
were sacked. Neither the many churches, the mosques, the
synagogues, nor the hospitals were spared. Before the de-
struction of the city the distinguished Greek residents were
massacred in cold blood.
The scenes in the country are even more shocking. Every-
where are the mutilated bodies of peaceful peasants, every-
where are ashes and ruins where were joyous villages — a
poignant desolation.
Ordinary massacres and outrages on women no longer satisfy
the Bulgarians, and they have invented refinements of cruelty
which the imagination refuses to comprehend. Girls are out-
raged before their parents, wives before their husbands, young
men and old men are mutilated. Before the work is done
their limbs are broken, their eyes are torn from the sockets.
They disembowel one, burn another, cut off the noses and ears
of others. At first it seemed that these crimes had been com-
mitted by comitadjis or irregulars, but investigation has un-
mistakably shown that all was done by regular soldiers under
the orders of their chiefs.
The Bulgarian authorities prepared everything. A Bulgarian
Captain, Dimitri Botsanoff Angnet, was seen presiding at the
massacres of Demir-Hissar. Elsewhere there were officers of
the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Regiments.
It is unbelievable that a civilized people could be so primitive
as to commit such monstrosities, and one shudders to think of
what may happen in the future to the Mussulman and Greek
populations that may remain under Bulgarian domination."
CHAPTER III
PERIOD PRIOR TO THE HOSTILITIES
Desirous of confining this report to the incidents of the last
four weeks, we shall not dwell on the sufferings of the Greeks
Turkish and Jewish populations during the past eight months.
We shall be content, however, to quote the words of Mr. Rene
Puaux, representative of the Paris Temps, who was with the
Bulgarians in the campaign of Thrace, regarding the general massa-
cres, and for the following weeks immediately preceding the war,
the protest of all the foreign newspaper correspondents in Salonica.
Here is what the author of "Sofia to Chataldja" wrote to his
paper on July 15, 1913:
"The Bulgarian army, through its conduct, has placed itself
beyond the pale of civilized laws. It has massacred everywhere
the civil populations.
From a report which I held, it appeared that its victims in
Macedonia and Thrace were from 220,000 to 250,00a 1 It
seems almost incredible, yet I only give these figures, because
they were furnished to me in corroboration by another foreign
very reliable personality, who recently returned from Con-
stantinople.
A Bulgarian officer whose name I am not at liberty to dis-
close, confessed to me that the order to exterminate the women
and children was a formal one, and was issued in order to
definitely wipe out any possibility of subsequent claims of
property in the territory captured by the Bulgarians."
The joint protest of the foreign correspondents addressed to the
President of the "Ligue pour la Defense des Droits de VHomme,"
reads as follows:
"It appears to us advisable at a moment when the conflict
among the Balkan powers has reached the present acute stage
and war seems to be inevitable, that Europe be exactly in-
formed of the conduct of the different allies, that the responsi-
bilities be well fixed, and that the whole truth about certain
acts particularly .odious be given. The 'Ligue pour la Defense
des Droits de I'Homme/ cannot remain unmoved in the face of
the outrages committed by the Bulgarians in the regions under
their occupation. At the outbreak of the war the press of
Europe kept almost systematically silent regarding the reported
horrors, but reports coming in every day both from the Greek
J Mr. L. Magrini gives the same figures after a careful investigation of
several months. (See Milan Secolo, July 18, 1913.) These figures are also
confirmed by Captain Trappman who, after an investigation on the spot
places the number of persons massacred in the two districts of Serres and
' Demir-Hissar alone at 50,000. (See the London Daily Telegraph, July
21, 1913.)
N. B. The above figures do not include the victims of the recent
massacres.
and Mohammedan populations, contain the most horrible details
concerning the treatment inflicted upon them by the Bulgarians.
Thousands of refugees arriving here daily are confirming'
these reports. We are, therefore, convinced, Mr. President,
that it would be to the interest of justice and humanity that
an impartial investigation be made at once, in order that the
world may know the whole truth regarding these acts, which
are a shame and a disgrace in this twentieth century.
We hope, Mr. President, that you will use your great au-
thority and the great influence of the league to call the attention
of Europe to these acts, and help to create a spirit of protest
which to us appears to be necessary. ,,
Signed. Crawford Price,
of the London Times,
Emil Thomas,
of the Paris Temps,
P. Tiano,
of the Paris Journal,
Luciano Magrini,
of the Milan Secolo,
P. Donaldson,
of the Reuter Agency,
G. Turbe,
of the Havas Agency,
Capt. T. A. Trappman,
of the London Daily Telegraph,
A. Grohmann,
of the ' Franfurter Zeituntf'
and the "Neue Freie PressJ' of
Vienna,
M. Bessantchi,
of the Vienna Zeit.
Although we have been compelled to make this statement longer
than intended, we are, nevertheless, unable to give a full account of
the terrible atrocities committed by the Bulgarians, even if we
were to confine this report to the incidents of the last four weeks.
The list of the villages that were set on fire and pillaged, the num-
ber of persons that were killed, those whose properties have been
confiscated, and those who were outraged in their honor, is too
long to recount.
We will first draw your attention to the fate which met the
very few Greek prisoners that fell into the hands of the Bulgarians, 1
*We refer to the fate of the nine Greek evzones who were taken pris-
oners at Kallinovon the first day of the war. They were all tortured first
and then mercilessly butchered.
and the terrible ordeal of Lieutenant Marcandonakis. 1 We will
then enumerate the events that occurred in the most important
centers which will be easier for foreigners to verify.
To facilitate this, we shall divide the present work into three
parts corresponding to the three principal districts where the sangui-
nary events took place.
1 — The Districts of Gevgheli and Doiran;
2 — The other Districts west of the river Strymon, and,
3 — The provinces of Serres and Drama.
We must at first remind you, however, that the Servian army
and population in Northern Thrace have likewise suffered greatly,
and that the Servian government repeatedly drew the attention of
the civilized world to those atrocities, some of which were verified
by the Russian and French consuls at Uskub.
An international commission comprising among its members Dr.
Albert Perron of Paris, Dr. Ludwig Schlieb of Berlin, and Dr.
Sieber Moller of the Royal Norwegian J^Javy, made an investi-
gation in the Servian district of Knagevatz, which the Bulgarians
occupied for a few days.
The report of that commission was published on July 16, 1913,
and contains a long series of horrible misdeeds. Murders, con-
flagrations, rapines and outrages on women are cited. It gives the
names of the victims and certifies that these crimes were committed
by the regular Bulgarian army.
We shall not waste any time on the reports that emanated from
officious sources in Sofia and from certain correspondents residing
in the Bulgarian capital, through which an attempt was at first
made to deny the barbarities committed by the Bulgars in Mace-
donia, and subsequently, when the impudence of this assertion
was brought to light, to cause the impression that the Bulgarians
wfere not the only ones that were given to massacre, pillage and
incendiarism.
In order to trample into the dust such calumnies, it will suffice to
recite simply that throughout the entire territory occupied by the
1 Sub-lieutenant Marcandonakis, who was mortally wounded during the
assault of Saraghiol, had his eyes gouged out and his body was frightfully
mutilated. Other Greek soldiers that were wounded in the same battle, were,
according to an eye witness "cowardly butchered." (See article by J. Leune
in the Paris L' Illustration, July 26, 1913.)
At Radovichta a Servian officer had his nose and lips cut and his eyes
torn out of the sockets by the Bulgarians. His comrades found him still
living.
Greek armies there was a large number of foreigners, many of
them subjects of nations which have actively shown their sympathy
for Bulgaria; that among the special correspondents, whose names
we cite, a number of them represented newspapers that have judged
Greek politics without indulgence. Yet not one foreign subject
and not one newspaper correspondent could be found to assert that
the Greek army has committed one single act of those of which the
dispatches from Sofia speak.
These reports, therefore, can deceive only those who wish to
be deceived.
Here is the text of a note communicated to the great powers
by the representatives of Greece on July 19, 1913:
"His Hellenic Majesty has taken cognizance of a telegram
addressed to the London Evening News, by which His Majesty
King Ferdinand requested an international investigation on the
atrocities committed in Macedonia by the Bulgarian army.
His Hellenic Majesty desires first to remark that he person-
ally witnessed the acts which King Ferdinand denies without
being on the spot and relying solely on the statements of his
ministers.
In protesting to the whole of Europe against the Bulgarian
horrors, and in denouncing the crimes which have been com-
mitted, by citing dates, places, and exact facts, King Constan-
tine personally invited the entire civilized world to ascertain
the acts of savagery which have forever placed Bulgaria-
beyond all civilization and human laws.
Greece asks that representatives of the civilized world be
sent to investigate without delay. Because although the ruins of
the cities of Serres, Nigrita, Doxato and of all the villages
that were destroyed, although no battle took place in their
proximity, will for a long time remain in their place as the
living proof that the armies of King Ferdinand have passed
that way, the bodies of thousands of Greeks that were
slaughtered, mutilated and burned alive, and the frightful re-
mains of old men, women and children that were massacred,
cannot forever remain without burial.
As a first urgent measure the Hellenic government has
requested that all the consuls-general residing in Salonica be
ordered by their respective governments to visit at once the
districts of Kilkis, Doiran, Strumnitza, Demir-Hissar, Meleni-
ko and Nevrokop through which the Greek divisions have
passed, to ascertain whether even a single Bulgarian has been
mistreated by the Greek armies.
The inhabitants of all the Bulgarian villages in the afore-
said districts, their families and property are protected by the
Greek army in the same degree as are the Greeks and their
property.
A large number of Bulgarian peasants, believing that the
Greek army was capable of imitating the conduct of their
own, tried to follow the Bulgarian troops in their flight. They
were soon, however, compelled to give up, as the Bulgarians
were fleeing too fast, and they attempted to regain their homes.
All these unfortunate persons are cared for by our military
authorities. Rations are regularly distributed to them exactly
as to the Greek and Turkish populations.
The consuls-general will no doubt notice this to be a fact.
The districts of Gevgheli, Doiran, Nigrita, Serres, Demir-
Hissar, Zichna and Drama, must then be visited by them to
ascertain that the accusations we have formulated against the
Bulgarian armies were far below the truth.
The special correspondents of the Paris Temps, the London
Times, the Milan Secolo, the Figaro, the London Daily Tele-
graph, the Tribuna of Rome, the Pall-Mail Gazette, the Cor-
riere della Serra, etc., are already on the spot. Others are
arriving daily. All these authorized witnesses are in a position
to see, and could relate what they saw.
The consuls-general of Austria-Hungary and Italy in Salo-
. nica, who visited Serres recently, stated to His Majesty the
King that the atrocities committed there by the Bulgarians
exceeded in horror those that were at first reported.
They learned the names of the Bulgarian officers who took
an active part."
CHAPTER IV
NIGRITA AND GEVGHELI
Districts Occupied by the Bulgarians at the Beginning
of the War
It is well known that the present war was caused by the Bul-
garians, who, bent upon taking Salonica by surprise, broke the
neutral zone and occupied Nigrita, the key to the Salonica-Serres
route on one side, and Gevgheli, the junction point of the Greco-
Servian forces on the other.
This is how the French Academician, Mr. Francis Charmes, de-
scribes the Bulgarian action in the "Revue des deux Mondesi" of
July 15, 1913, page 470:
"We have seen a number of flagrant violations of the law
of nations. None can equal, however, the treacherous attack
10
made against the Servians and the Greeks. The coup was
not spontaneous. Of this we have no doubt. It was carefully
planned and audaciously carried out * * * . The evident
purpose of the Bulgarian attack was to separate the Servian
and Greek armies exactly on the spot where later they joined
forces."
Although proper precautions were taken, the* scheme was not
as successful as the Bulgarians anticipated. They were compelled
in three days to evacuate Nigrita and Gevgheli. Years, however,
will elapse before the traces left by them during their short stay
can disappear.
Here is how, Mr. de Jessen, the well known Danish publicist and
correspondent of the Paris L' Illustration and Temps, 1 describes the
scene in Nigrita the day following the evacuation of that town
by the Bulgarians :
"Thursday evening a telegram from King Constantine an-
nounced to the authorities in Salonica, that the Greek armies
advancing through the valley of Strouma in a north-north-
easterly direction, found the city of Nigrita which had a popu-
lation of 7,000, along with several other villages that were
pillaged and burnt, destroyed by fire, and its population includ-
ing old men, women and children massacred.
The King requested that Mr. Albert Trappman of the
London Doily Telegraph and myself, start at once for Nigrita
to personally verify these acts.
We left at dawn the following morning on horseback, and
covered the distance of more than one hundred miles in two
days, cutting through a region overrun by Bulgarian comitadjis
who kept the population of certain sections so frightened that
they did not dare to leave their homes and go to the fields.
At about one o'clock in the afternoon we discerned at last
the outlines of the unfortunate city which we hastened to reach
as quickly as our tired horses would allow. Wednesday last
it stood intact under its plane and mulberry trees vibrating
with a life of industry. To-day it is but a pyre whose corpses
cover the frightful ruins. Out of the 1,450 houses we found
x See the Paris Temps of July 11, 1913. Mr. de Jessen forwarded numer-
ous photographs to L' Illustration. The negatives, however, were unfortu-
nately received in Paris in a damaged condition. In this connection L'lllus-
tration wrote on July 19, 1913: "a precious and irrefutable evidence has dis-
appeared." Several photographs of the city of Nigrita in ruins appeared in
the Illustrated London News July 27, 1913. Numerous photographs were
taken of all the Macedonian centers that have suffered in the hands of the
Bulgarians. A collection is now being prepared of this unexceptionable
evidence of Bulgarian atrocities.
/
11
only 49 standing and among those the church, whose bells
were silenced after a night of fire and blood. One walking
through the streets treads on stones blackened and still hot
from the conflagration. The air was charged with heavy odors
of human and animal flesh half burnt. The leaves of the
vines and trees in the courtyards were shriveled up and black-
ened. A grayish dust raised by the wind disturbed the waters
of the stream which traversed the mass of ruins where three
days ago stood the city of Nigrita.
Among the smouldering debris very few bodies were to be
seen. When the Greek army entered the place, most of the
bodies were hastily buried on account of the terrible heat, but
a number of them still remained unburied.
Old men in pools of blood on whom the flies were swarm-
ing; young men with faces distorted and hands twisted in a
last gesture of agony and despair. The mayor and the military
officer estimated that 470 people were burned alive. Besides
these victims, others were suffering from moral injuries.
Women were outraged before their children; girls ravished
before their parents; children were slaughtered and old men
roughly treated. We have seen and heard enough to under-
stand that this city, so flourishing three days ago, became the
city of woe, la cittd dolente, as Dante says, of whom one
naturally thinks before these visions of horror."
Captain Trappman in a communication dated July 10, 1913, wrote
to his paper, the London Daily Telegraph, in part as follows :
"I will never forget what I saw in Nigrita, a Greek city
of 8,000 inhabitants and about 1,500 houses. To-day it is a
heap of smoking debris from which comes the odor of burned
human flesh. From a distance the roofs of the remaining
forty-nine houses appeared to be red, owing to the contrast
with the blackened ruins. Search parties were working here
and there, trying to locate the bodies of those who perished.
Four hundred and seventy were burned alive or killed by the
Bulgarians in the city alone. King Constantine invited us to
continue our investigations in the other towns of this district,
where an entire regiment is detailed in the work of disposing
of the bodies of the murdered peasants. In Nigrita the Bul-
garians massacred more than 1,500 Greeks, and outraged many
women. Their condition is pitiable. All the houses were
sacked. One can hardly find in the history of war a record
of greater savagery than that displayed by the Bulgars in the
District of Nigrita."
If the Gevgheli district was not made the theater of those horri-
ble scenes that attract the foreign correspondent, it has had its
12
share of the atrocities. Almost the entire Greek population of
the town bearing the same name escaped from the Bulgarians
and took refuge in Goumentsa. Among the notables that remained
behind, six were murdered, one a woman, and eight others includ-
ing the Bishop's Vicar were arrested and their lives saved only
by a miracle. 1
At Bogdantsa seven notables, including the priest Papastamataki,
were murdered on the spot. Seventeen others were slaughtered at
Doiran where they were taken. Similar crimes were committed
in the other Greek sections of the district, at Negotsi, Selovon,
Moine, etc. Stoyakovon was set on fire and totally destroyed and
most of its population massacred. 2
CHAPTER V
ATROCITIES COMMITTED ON THE WESTERN BANK OF THE
RIVER STRYMON
The District of Kilkis
Beaten and fleeing, the Bulgarian army adopted the system of
setting on fire all the cities and villages which it was compelled
to abandon, in order to deprive the Greek army of provisions and
to retard its progress. According to an expression used by an
eye witness, Mr. Lucien Magrini, the Bulgars placed between them-
selves and the Greeks a "zone of fire. ,, (See the Milan Secolo
July 7, 1913.) This method was followed throughout the entire
campaign. Another witness, Mr. George Bourdon, whose testi-
mony we regret that we cannot use as often as we would have
wished, because the present work was almost completed when his
correspondence began to appear in the Paris Figaro, made the
same remark three weeks later and in the following terms :
A smoke rising from afar is a sign that the Bulgarians are
retreating. Their retreat is always marked by fire." (See
Figaro, July 25, 1913).
The special correspondent of the Daily Telegraph cabled to his
paper on July 17, 1913, as follows:
*For the names of the victims see the official report of the Greek army
staff dated July 18, 1913.
2 For full details see the official report above cited.
13
"I have been advancing the last 48 hours as fast as my
horse could carry me. Everywhere the Bulgarians in full re-
treat are burning the villages. 5
ft
These tactics were, however, more strictly followed at the begin-
ning of the hostilities, and it may be said that from Salonica to
Doiran, and from Salonica to Serres, there is not one single village
that was not burned by the Bulgarians. When the Greeks entered
the town of Kilkis, which had a population of 5,000, only the resi-
dence of the governor and a French convent where a large number
of women and children sought refuge was left standing.
The superior of the convent, Father Gustave Michel, made
certain statements regarding the atrocities committed by the Bulga-
rians worthy to be preserved. They were made the object of
interpellation in the House of Commons. Here is what he said:
"Most shocking crimes have been perpetrated around Kilkis
by the Bulgarians, the majority of which I have seen with
my own eyes. In the village of Kurkut a band of Bulgarians,
headed by a man named Dontchieff, locked all the male popu-
lation of the place in the mosque, and then compelled the
women to surround it and witness the frightful spectacle.
First they attempted to blow up the mosque by throwing bombs
against its walls which, however, failed to explode. Then they
set the place on fire and burned alive more than 700 men.
Those who tried to escape were shot down as they ran. I
saw in the streets of Kurkut the calcined human remains. I
offered assistance to some starving women and was accused
by a Bulgarian soldier of collecting human heads to send as
curiosities to France.
At Plantza the same band of marauders carried their atrocious
work to still greater lengths. They first drove the male in-
habitants into the mosque, which they burned, compelling as
before the women to witness the horrible spectacle, and im-
mediately after stacked the women together and burned them
alive in the public square.
In Rainovo men and women were slain and the bodies
thrown into the wells.
At Kilkis the Bulgarian inhabitants destroyed the mosque
and massacred their fellow-townsmen of the Moslem faith.
On several occasions I have held conversations with Bul-
garian "comitadjis." With unbelievable callousness they
boasted of the atrocities they have committed. Among them
I was surprised to find merchants of Sofia, students from the
Bulgarian Universities, even professional men. One man. a
14
student of literature, assured me that he had killed with his
own hand not less than one hundred and forty Greeks.
I was called to the bedside of a dying man. He had been
beaten to death for resisting a 'comitadji' who had seized upon
his daughter. I applied to the French consul at Salonica beg-
ging him to exert his power to put an end to these massacres.
99
Father Michel's statement was corroborated by Mr. Magrini, cor-
respondent of the Milan Secolo, by the Catholic sisters at Kilkis,
and by the three missionaries of the Evangelical Churches in Sa-
lonica whose testimony is very valuable as it covers not only the
atrocities committed at Kilkis, but at Doiran, Strumnitza, Serres,
etc.
Their protest cabled to the press of Europe and America on
July 23, 1913, reads as follows:
"After their first defeat the Bulgarians began, in revenge,
a series of most horrible crimes against the Greek noncom-
batants, who were entirely unprotected. Defeated at Nigrita
by the Greek army, they turned in fury to the burning and
pillaging of the towns along the line of their retreat and the
massacre of the defenceless peasants. In Nigrita over seven
hundred persons were slaughtered, many of the victims being
women and children. The atrocity was perpetrated by orders
of the Bulgarian army officers.
Two days before the evacuation of Doiran the Bulgarians
called a counsel, sending a summons to the Greek Bishop and
thirty of the foremost citizens to attend. They were all
detained by the Bulgarian authorities and for many days
nothing further was learned of their fate. Later the mutilated
bodies of the unfortunate hostages were found. Not one had
been spared. 1
In Strumnitza the Bulgarians paused in their flight long
enough to kill three Greek peasants, a woman and sixteen Mo-
hammedans. They sacked the stores and threatened a general
massacre. Fortunately the Greek Bishop was able to prevent
further butchery by declaring that he would not be responsible
for the lives of the Bulgarian citizens of the town should the
Greek troops see the shambles.
At Demir-Hissar the destruction of life and property was
fiendish. A hundred and four men and women were killed,
among them a Bishop and a priest. The Bulgarians resorted
to the most revolting forms of torture. The body of the
1 The Bishop of Doiran was found imprisoned in Etrepol, a deserted and
secluded village in Bulgaria, and was released by the Roumanian army.
15
Bishop was found horribly mutilated, his beard and hair torn
from his head. Many of the victims were frightfully' dis-
membered and all of the corpses showed unmistakable signs
of hideous torture. The women and young girls were delivered
over to the soldiery.
It was at Serres, however, that Bulgarian savagery reached
its height. After its evacuation a detachment was sent back to
bombard the town. The inhabitants fled panic-stricken. A
party of Bulgarian officers and soldiers, assisted by the local
Bulgarian authorities and a band of 'irregulars/ entered and
looted the city, subsequently setting fire to the houses, which
they drenched with petroleum. The fleeing inhabitants were
shelled by the artillery. In the town itself nothing was spared.
The Austrian consul, together with the women and children
who had sought refuge in the Consulate, were dragged to the
mountains. The Italian consulate also suffered destruction.
The flags of foreign powers were ignored. The American
flag, flying over the stores of the American Tobacco Company,
availed nothing. The managers escaped to Salonica, reporting
a loss of nearly a million dollars. Every man, woman and
child caught in the streets or hiding within the looted houses
was mercilessly slain. About four thousand houses, a thousand
stores, eighteen mosques and churches, all the schools, syna-
gogues and hospitals are crumbling ruins to-day. The loss
exceeds $3,000,000. Twenty thousand people are destitute.
In the town of Doxato, with a population of about three
thousand, two thousand five hundred were killed and the village
reduced to ashes. The farms all over the district are wiped
out and no one can determine the number of the murdered
peasants. The Bulgarian army has left behind it a trail of
utter devastation and misery.
Signed. Rev. M. Brunau,
of the German Evangelical Mission,
Rev. P. Toekhuvanian,
of the Armenian Evangelical Mission,
Rev. A. Mitsopoulos,
of the Greek Evangelical Mission.
Doiran and Strum nitza
The startling advance of the Greek army from Kilkis to Strum-
nitza prevented the fleeing and closely pursued Bulgarians from
engaging in any systematic destruction of property. Persons,
however, were attacked, and we may note among other crimes the
forcible abduction and disappearance of the Bishop of Doiran and
twenty-seven other prominent citizens of that city.
The entrance of King Constantine and his army into the city of
Doiran was marked by the following characteristic incident :
16
"The Mufti (an official expounder of Mohammedan law),
says the official report under date of July 10, 1913, greeted the
King in the name of the Mussulman community, and offered
to him as a sign of homage according to Turkish custom a
pot of basil. He then asked the King's protection for the 600
victims of Doiran, women and children, whose husbands and
fathers were slain last October by the Bulgarians. The Mufti
then related that all the mosques except one, which was used
as a church, were burned to the ground by the Bulgarians, and
he asked that the remaining one be returned to his people.
The King at once gave orders that food be regularly dis-
tributed to the widows and the orphans at the expense of the
Greek government, and that the mosque be returned to its
original owners. The Mufti stated that there were more than
5,000 widows and orphans in the neighborhood who needed
protection and assistance. In fact the Turkish population in
the surrounding country was almost completely exterminated
by the Bulgarians. One meets everywhere victims whose prop-
erty has been destroyed and who lost their sole support.
The Greek government is confronted to-day with the neces-
sity of giving relief to these unfortunate Mussulmans whose
destitution and distress the Bulgarians have wrought. In
certain Turkish villages near Doiran, the Bulgarians forcibly
Converted* the Mussulman population and assigned them
priests who afterwards fled with the Bulgarian troops. 15
L»
If Strumnitza suffered less than Doiran, it was due to the courage
of its Archbishop whose manly attitude nearly cost him his life.
Here is how the correspondent of the Paris Temps at Salonica
(see issue of July 14) describes what occurred in Strumnitza:
"Before evacuating the city, the Bulgarian soldiers sacked
several Greek and Turkish houses. They killed the priest
Constantine and wounded his wife. They slew another Greek
on his way from Gevgheli and massacred sixteen Turks includ-
ing children. They placed under arrest a number of notable
citizens with the intention of murdering them, and released
them only when the Greek Bishop declared that he would not
be responsible for the lives of the Bulgarian citizens of the
town and the surrounding country should the Greek troops
see the shambles.
iThe Turkish community of Doiran has submitted a long memoire de-
scribing in all its details the outrages committed by the Bulgarians in the
district of Doiran. This report was authenticated by the Bulgarian priests
Telatinof, Nakof and Yanoff, who voluntarily vouched for the statements
of the victims.
The memoire was published in a large number of European newspapers,
notably the Paris- Temps.
17
Two were, however, killed in the interim, and, alleging an
epidemic, the Bulgarians tried to lock the Bishop in a pavilion
where the cholera victims were kept. He managed to escape
during the night to a nearby village. The Greek army occupied
the city on Wednesday at seven in the evening."
CHAPTER VI
THE PILLAGE AND BURNING OF SERRES
The Province of Serres and Drama
However terrible were the atrocities committed on the left bank
of the river Strymon, they cannot be compared, in the extent of
destruction, with those committed by the Bulgars on the right bank
of said river. The difference is due to two reasons: First, in
that the province of Serres is richer than those of Doiran and
Kilkis, and, second, because the bridges spanning the river Strymon
were all destroyed and the Greek armies could not arrive in time to
prevent the catastrophe.
Unable to give a full list of the heinous crimes committed, as
all the villages in the valley of Serres were burned ; we will confine
this account as we have done up to now to the principal centers.
The Burning and Plunder of Serres
. Serres is one of the very few cities in the interior of Macedonia
where foreign consular authorities are located. Moreover, it was
visited by the consuls-general of Austria and Italy at Salonica.
We have, therefore, in our possession foreign official documents,
and, faithful to our method, we shall quote them in preference to
the more detailed reports of the Greek authorities.
The text of the official dispatch sent by the Austro-Hungarian
consul to his government, as per translation forwarded to the Paris
Temp^ by its Vienna correspondent, reads as follows:
"To-day I proceeded to Serres in company with my Italian
colleague. The three-fourths of the city formerly so rich and
flourishing is now a mass of smouldering ruins. The Bul-
garians had already abandoned Serres on July 5. On the 11th
troops and comitadjis led by officers and officials made their
appearance. They bombarded the defenceless town with four
guns, pillaged from top to bottom and burned its finest quar-
!See Temps, July 23 ; 1913.
18
ters, as well as several houses belonging to Austrian subjects
and our consulate. The loss amounts to about 45,000,000
francs (about 9 million dollars).
Fifty notables were massacred, among them the Hungarian
subject, Albert Biro. Several persons perished in the flames.
The five new tobacco warehouses of the Austrian firm of Her-
zog & Co. were set on fire and they are still burning. The
estimated loss is about 2,500,000 francs (about $500,000).
Our flag was not respected. The vice-consul, Mr. Zlatko,
who was holding the flag, was carried off to the mountain with
150 other persons who sought refuge in the consulate and was
released only after paying a heavy ransom.
It is essential that help should be sent for the persons under
our protection, who belong to the best and heretofore wealthiest
Jewish families.
Please send without delay large sums for the purchase of
food and raiment.
Drama h^s been occupied. At Doxato several hundred
women and young girls were found to have been massacred
by the Bulgarians.
One hundred and forty massacred persons were found at
Demir-Hissar.
Twenty Greeks of Serres were first robbed and then put to
death by the Bulgarians in the estate of Pierre Pantza.
The loss sustained by the Greeks of Serres exceeds 2,000,000
francs (about $400,000). The losses of the Austrian tobacco
firm of Herzog & Co., and the American Tobacco Co., are
enormous."
Mr. Zlatko, the Austrian vice-consul at Serres, sent the follow-
ing telegraphic report to the consul-general at Salonica:
"A Bulgarian detachment of cavalry and infantry bombarded
the town pf Serres on Friday morning. After a few shells
fell in different directions, the infantry marched into the city,
setting all the houses and stores on fire and massacring the
inhabitants. Serres was almost totally destroyed. The num-
ber of victims is numerous. About 20,000 persons are with-
out shelter. All the food, clothing and stores have been de-
stroyed. The town faces a famine. The situation is desperate.
Please send help.
On Friday toward noon, soldiers of the regular army at-
tacked my house and drove me into the street with my family
and a large number of persons who had fled from the massacre
and the fire and had taken refuge with me. We were im-
mediately led up to the mountain. All the women and chil-
dren that accompanied me were threatened with death, and it
19
was only by paying large ransoms that we were released. I am
safe and well, but my house was burnt. I am, with my family,
without shelter or clothing. All our subjects who live here
are in the same situation as myself.
The Greek army occupied the city on Friday evening. A
police service was at once organized and order was main-
tained. Everything is quiet now. 3
V
The reports of the Italian authorities have not yet been made
public. An idea may, however, be gained in advance of what they
contain, by reading a long article which Mr. Magrini forwarded
to his paper the Milan Secolo and published in that paper on July
18, 1913. Mr. Magrini interviewed not only the Italian vice-consul
at Serres, but in company with the Italian consul-general at Salonica
assisted in the investigation made by the latter, and reported the
speech he made before leaving the destroyed city.
The main parts of Mr. Magrini's article, confirmed also by
Mr. P. Lafco in the Corriere delta Serra July 17, 1913, which, as he
himself formally declared was based on information obtained from
the Italian consular authorities, 1 read as follows :
"The public is not aware, wrote Mr, Magrini, of the volumi-
nous and detailed record of evidence collected by the foreign
consuls at Salonica and kept secret, regarding the massacres
of the Moslem population in Macedonia and Thrace by the
Bulgarians.
From a personal investigation made, I am able to say
that about 200,000 Turks, including defenceless men, women,
old men and children, were put to death by the Bulgarians
during the first few months of the Balkan war. The entire
eastern part of Macedonia and Thrace, oppressed in an in-
credible manner, was plundered and terrorized. The silence
kept by the great powers about the massacre of the Mussul-
man population, encouraged the Bulgarians to continue their
work and led them to the present massacre and pillage of the
Greek population. Europe can no longer doubt. Two of the
great powers caused, on account of these horrible crimes, an
investigation to be made by their consuls who came to the con-
1 The testimony of Mr. Munchausen, professor of languages at Serres,
must also be taken into consideration. Professor Munchausen was among
the Austrian subjects taken with the vice-consul to the mountains by the
Bulgarians. His testimony was obtained by the special correspondent of the
London Daily Telegraph and published in that paper on July 21, 1913. It
confirms Mr. Magrini's statement and adds certain supplementary details.
The dispatch sent to the New York Herald by its special correspondent on
July 17, is also interesting.
20
elusion that the Greek version regarding these crimes, was
much below the actual truth.
An Eventful Week
When it became known that the Italian consul-general,
Mr. Macchioro Vivalba, and his Austrian colleague, Mr.
Auguste Krel, were going to Serres, I thought that it was my
duty to follow them. I assisted and participated with them
in the examination of numerous witnesses, and I am therefore
in a position to make known the result of the consular investi-
gation from which it appears that the Bulgarian government
planned the destruction of Serres beforehand, and is directly
responsible for it.
We were able to reconstruct the eventful week through
which the Macedonian city passed. On Friday, July 4, the
Bulgarian advocate adviser of the Italian consul reported to
him that the following order was received:
'If it appears that Serres is lost to the Bulgarians, let
it be destroyed.'
On the evening of the same day General Ivanoff, who was
beaten at Lahana, passed through the station of Serres on his
way to Demir-Hissar. On Saturday, July 5, the stores and
houses were sacked and seventeen notables were massacred;
four other notables, among them the principal of the gym-
nasium, the director of the hospital and the manager of the
Orient Bank, were led outside of the city and killed with
bayonet thrusts. Thereafter General Voulkof, Governor of
Macedonia, and all the Bulgarian functionaries, soldiers, and
gendarmes left the city hurriedly. On Saturday and Monday
the town was quiet in expectation of the arrival of the Greek
army. The inhabitants, however, were arming themselves in
order to repel a probable attack by the comitadjis. On Tues-
day and Wednesday some skirmishes took place between a
number of the inhabitants and groups of soldiers who tried
to enter the town and set it on fire. On Thursday the in-
habitants, foreseeing the catastrophe, dispatched messengers
to Nigrita to demand help, but it was too late.
I questioned the Moslem Ahmed-Hafiz formerly attached
to the Bulgarian police together with the Austrian consul-
general. Here is his statement:
On Thursday evening the Bulgarian officer Monef called
at my house and told me that the Bulgarians were going to burn
Serres the following day. He invited me to join in the pillage
and the burning with a band of Moslems. I refused. Then
Monef asked me for petroleum ; I replied that I had none.
21
On Thursday, during the night, four field guns were placed on
the hill Dulti, which commands the city, and the following
morning at eight o'clock the bombardment began and created a
terrible panic. Later more than 500 infantry, several groups
of cavalry, numbering ten each, and about 50 comitadjis entered
the city armed with bombs, and the atrocities began. I recog-
nized several officers among the soldiers, including Dr. Yankof,
secretary to General Voulkof and government councilor, the
late chief of police Karagiosof and Orpanief, chief of the
gendarmerie of Serres. It looked like a well organized plan.
The doors of the houses and stores were broken open with
sticks tipped with iron, which the soldiers carried. The build-
ings were entered and pillaged. The booty was loaded on some
hundred wagons, specially got together for this purpose. Then
the houses were emptied, one by one, sprinkled with petroleum
and other inflammable substances and set on fire. Using the
least possible effort, in a row of three houses they would set
on fire the one in the middle, relying on the violent wind which
was blowing to complete the work of destruction. The sol-
diers fired on the people who attempted to save the burning
houses, consulates, and foreign buildings.
The Attack on the Italian Consulate
In the quarter Kamenikia, twenty-eight persons, including
the Hungarian subject, Albert Biro, were massacred. The
Austrian vice-consul with the people who had sought refuge
in the consulate were carried off to the mountain. His mag-
nificent residence was sacked and then burned. All the build-
ings that were protected by foreign flags, were treated in the
same manner. At the Orient Bank an attempt was made to
open the safe by means of a bomb, but it failed, and the build-
ing was set on fire and destroyed.
The Italian consular agency, located in a well constructed
building, surrounded by a vast garden, was miraculously saved
from destruction. It is the only house saved in a whole square
which was burnt down.
The Italian consular agent, Mr. Menahem Simantow, ex-
plained to us that at noon on Friday a number of infantry
soldiers ordered him to open his house, where 600 persons,
mainly women and children, had taken refuge. Mr. Simantow
showed himself at a window, and the soldiers demanded
400 Turkish pounds, abouts $200. Mr. Simantow, who
could speak Bulgarian, persuaded them to be satisfied with
only four pounds (about $20.00) and to withdraw. The pres-
ence of a young Bulgarian, Mavrodief, says Mr. Simantow,
saved the agency from catastrophe. However, it became neces-
sary in the course of the day to buy off other soldiers with
22
fresh ransoms. The consulate, full of refugees, was surrounded
by flames, and it was with difficulty that we managed to protect
ourselves. The consul then continued his narrative in relation
to the massacre of the Moslem element and the persecution
which the entire population had to undergo since the occupa-
tion of the town by the Bulgarians. He gave us details un-
heard of before. The authorities seized upon the best articles :
furniture, carpets, silverware and clothing. Everything was
stolen and sent to Sofia. He related that when Czar Ferdinand
visited Serres, the prefect asked him to loan a silver service
on which, according to custom, bread and salt was to be offered
to the Bulgarian Sovereign. The consul readily consented,
but when the Czar departed, the service was not returned to
him. He made repeated demands for it, but without avail. He
then threatened to create a scandal and to have the Italian
Legation at Sofia intervene for the return of the service. He
finally succeeded in obtaining an indemnity which hardly
amounted to one-fourth of the value of the stolen articles.
As Mr. Simantow is a wealthy merchant, the Bulgarian au-
thorities obtained from his stores merchandise to the value of
50,000 francs (about $10,000) and left with him worthless re-
ceipts in lieu of payment. Such receipts were to be found
everywhere in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace; very often,
especially when Greeks were concerned, the receipts contained
instead of the value and nature of the merchandise received,
insulting expressions in the Bulgarian language.
All storekeepers were also compelled to put up signs in the
Bulgarian language, and even the Italian consular agent had
to obey the order. In fact, he was fined because he failed to
comply with it when first requested."
Four Thousand Houses Destroyed
Mr. Magrini then publishes an interview he had with the Austrian
vice-consul, whose statement we quoted above, and continues :
"In company with Mr. Vivalba and Consul Krai, I visited
and inspected repeatedly all parts of the city. What an im-
mense desolation ! It is figured that more than four thousand
houses have been destroyed. The consuls-general declared that
they have never witnessed such a spectacle. Our views coin-
cide. We are facing a resurrection of Tamerlan and Gengis
Khan. The horror of the destruction is beyond all imagination.
It is impossible to estimate the full damage. The losses alone
of the three large tobacco comp'anies, the Herzog Company
and the two American companies, amount to $2,000,000.
23
The Promises of the Italian Consul
On July 14 Commander Mazarakis of the Greek army re-
turned to the Mussulmans the great mosque which the Bul-
garians confiscated and converted into an exarchistic church.
The ceremony attending the restitution was very touching.
The Mussulmans wept with joy and praised Greece for their
deliverance. The Bishop and the orthodox clergy were present.
The Italian consul-general, who was also present, made a speech
and declared that he would communicate to his government the
nameless horrors of Bui gar barbarity verified by him, and he
added, that the manifestation of harmony and brotherly feel-
ing existing between the Mussulmans and the Greeks was a
happy omen for the resurrection of the city of Serres now re- f
stored to peace and order by the Greek authorities. ,,
It may be observed that the Greeks and the Turks were not the
only ones that suffered. The Jewish community in Serres also had
a terrible experience. Here is the essential part of the report drawn
up by the Jewish delegation from Salonica: 1
"It is under the painful and melancholy impression that we
have felt when visiting the still smouldering ruins of what once
was the flourishing city of Serres that we are making this re-
port. The city of Serres, with a population of about 30,000
people, composed of 16,000 Greeks, 12,000 Mussulmans and
1,300 Israelites, was until recently, notwithstanding the un-
fortunate Balkan war, full of life and relatively prosperous.
A vandal hand heavily laid upon it caused a deathly silence
to succeed the beneficent hum and bustle of its commercial
activities. Out of 6,000 houses in Serres, 4,000, the very best,
were reduced to ashes. More than 4,000 shops were first pil-
laged and then burned. The disaster is enormous. All the
inhabitants, without distinction, suffered more or less. Over
one-half of the population is without food or shelter. Out of
200 Jewish families living in the city, 131 lost their real and
personal properties, stock in trade, etc.; 112 saw their belong-
ings completely destroyed, and among these 29 families lost
also their houses. The shops of 32 others were burned. The
material losses sustained by the Jewish population alone ex-
ceed 41,035 Turkish pounds (about $205,000).
The community lost the synagogue, one school for the erec-
tion of which 50,000 francs ($10,000) were expended, and
two houses.
1 For the losses sustained by the Jewish community see the Paris Temps
of July 21, 1913, the Echo (TAthenes of July 24, and the report of Mr.
Schinas of the Salonica press bureau published in the Liberie de Salonique
July 15, 1913.
24
The indirect losses of the Jewish merchants arising from
moneys due them by non-Jewish business men who saw, like-
wise, their fortunes swept away in the common disaster, must
be also included. These losses can not be estimated at present.
During our visit in Serres we had occasion to talk to Major
Mazarakis, commander of the place, and thank him for his
kindness to our co-religionists. Major Majarakis is imbued
with the best intentions, but as he will have to rejoin his regi-
ment sooner or later, he has appointed several committees com-
posed of prominent citizens, without distinction of race or re-
ligion, to look after the work of assistance and public health."
We may end by remarking that the Bulgarians, like the "high-
waymen" and the other associations of malefactors of the early
part of the nineteenth century, committed part of their crimes under
disguise. More privileged, however, than the bandits of the past,
the Bulgarians had as their headquarters the very offices of the
Tiighest local authorities. This clearly appears from the following
official dispatch dated July 17, 1913:
"The Austrian and Italian consuls, who arrived here, were
horror-stricken before the Bulgarian crimes and at the sight
of their victims shown to them in my presence and in the pres-
ence of the Archbishop. * * * We visited the offices of
General Voulkoff in company with the consuls, and we dis-
covered there a large number of false beards and wigs used
by the comitadjis for a disguise, also a quantity of stolen arti-
cles, including carpets and ladies' clothing. A similar dis-
covery was made by me in the palace of the Governor at Kilkis."
Mazarakis,
Commander of the Place of Serres.
The Slaughter at Demir-Hissar
The first news of the massacres committed at Demir-Hissar were
made known by the following report of the commanding officer of
the Sixth Division dated July 12, 1913, and published in the Paris '
Temps on July 14:
"I have the honor to report to Your Majesty that an officer
of my staff, sent to Demir-Hissar, ascertained that Captain
Meligof, of the Bulgarian gendarmerie, arrested, at the instance
of three pro-Bulgarian persons, the Bishop, Monseigneur
Constantine, the priest Papastravou, Mr. Papazacharizanou,
a prominent citizen, and more than 100 Greeks who were im-
prisoned in the confines of the Bulgarian school. On July 7
and 8, Bulgarian soldiers and gendarmes massacred them and
25
requisitioned Turkish peasants to bury them within the school
property outside the enclosure on the east side.
An officer of my staff caused the grave to be opened in
order to verify the facts. He found in a depth of about six
feet the bodies of the victims all in a pile.
Further, the Bulgarian officers and soldiers outraged sev-
eral young girls and killed one named Agatha Thomas, daugh-
ter of a gardener, who resisted their attacks. The shops were
either ransacked or destroyed, and the house furniture of the
Greeks carried away. The lives of many were saved by the
Turks who sheltered them in their homes.
The city in general presents a mournful spectacle of destruc-
tion."
A commission composed of Greek ex-members of the Chamber
of Deputies at Constantinople from Macedonia, and members of
the Chamber of Deputies in Athens, visited the place and forwarded
to His Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch at Constantinople and to
the President of the Greek Chamber of Deputies, a report con-
taining the following details:
"The line of the Bulgarian retreat from Lahana led through
Demir-Hissar where 104 prominent citizens were at once ar-
rested, including the Bishop and three priests. Eighty were
immediately put to death and the remaining twenty- four, feign-
ing death, although covered with serious bayonet thrusts, man-
aged to escape. Two women were among the victims and two
children, aged two and three years, respectively; two of the
survivors, very old men, were covered with bayonet thrusts.
One of them had been buried alive, but the earth being thrown
lightly over him he managed to free himself sufficiently to at-
tract attention and was saved. His condition is critical.
A very great number of women and girls suffered at the
hands of the retreating troops, all stores and houses were
looted, but the height of Bulgar barbarity was attained when
the Bishop and three priests were killed by the very hand of
Captain Anghel Dimitrieff Bostanof of the 12th Regiment, who
first cut their hands and gouged their eyes out. 1
All these atrocities were committed by officers and soldiers
of the regular Bulgarian army belonging to the 12th and 21st
Regiments. The consuls of Austria and Italy interviewed and
took the depositions of the survivors. The bodies of the dead,
some of which have been frightfully mutilated, are now being
buried.
1 This was confirmed by the correspondent of the New York Herald.
See issue July 17, 1913.
\
26
On the morning of July 7, toward nine o'clock, a score of
Bulgarian soldiers, carrying arms with bayonets fixed and hav-
ing an officer in command, went to the residence of the Bishop
where the Great Logothetis of the Diocese, Mr. Thomas Papa-
charizakis, was visiting at the time, and knocked at the door.
As the Bishop refused to open, they broke it down. An
officer with a detail of six men placed the immates under
arrest and ransacked the house from garret to cellar. They
took among other things forty Turkish pounds ($200) which
they found in a drawer of the Bishop's desk. After treating
the prisoners with every imaginable indignity they conducted
them near the Bulgarian school and forced them to kneel.
The Bishop was repeatedly stabbed by bayonet thrusts, and his
skull crushed by a blow. Mr. Papacharizakis died of apoplexy,
due to fright, but his corpse was, nevertheless, bayoneted.
The sufferings of the Bishop lasted longer. The Bulgarians
kicked and insulted him, and tore the hair and beard from his
head. Afterwards they stripped the bodies of their victims
even to their undergarments.
Having accomplished their inhuman work, the soldiers re-
turned to the residence of the Bishop seeking for his sister, who
had escaped, and who remained in hiding on the roof of a
neighboring house. The aged mother of the Bishop died from
shock. The looters secured all the vestments of the church be-
longing to the Bishop, including two mitres, a cross set in
diamonds, and a gold bound Bible. They took all secular valu-
ables and 240 Turkish pounds (about $1,200), belonging to the
Bishop's sister.
Until noon of the following day the corpses of the victims
remained exposed on the roadside. Then, with the bodies of
many others, they were tied by the feet and dragged to a pit
which they dug in the yard of the half-finished Bulgarian school
house and there thrown in. We exhumed some of the remains
and, although decomposition had set in, we could see unmis-
takable signs of the dreadful tortures which had been inflicted.
An examination of all of the corpses was impossible, as many
were far gone in decay. The body of the Bishop was thrown
in head down. The faces of the martyred victims bore the
traces of ineffable sufferings.
The exhumation took place amidst the sobs of the widows,
the orphans and the entire community."
The competent local authorities drew up a list of the victims,
among whom were the Bishop of Meleniko, Monseigneur Constan-
tine, the Archpriest Stavros, the great Logothetis Thomas Papa-
charizakis, Constantine Harizano and other notables. 1
1 For a full list of those that were killed and those that disappeared or
were wounded, see the official report of the Greek staff supra cited.
27
The Paris U Illustration of August 2, 1913, contains numerous
photographs of Demir-Hissar and of the survivors. Also the pic-
tures of four of the forty-two young girls that were outraged by the
Bulgarians.
The following account signed by L. Leune accompanied these
pictures :
"We are passing through the pretty town of Demir-Hissar
built on a hill, with its picturesque bridge set on the rocks and
its cypress trees. Women and children come and go, shadows
of human beings with faces full of suffering and despair. A
wounded man crosses the street. He has had a strange experi-
ence. Before their precipitate departure, the Bulgarians caused
the drum to beat, a sign which means, in nearly every country,
that some important communication is about to be announced
by the authorities. The people of Demir-Hissar rushed out
of their houses in masses. The Bulgarian soldiers seized the
Bishop, the priests and the notables, 110 people in all, and
conducted them to the courtyard of the Bulgarian school house,
where an immense pit had been freshly dug. The prisoners
were forced to sit around it. Poor fellows, they well under-
stood that this great yawning hole was going to be their grave.
They looked at it and smiled like martyrs. They were about
to depart for the great beyond to commence that great life
which time can not destroy. They will watch from above the
victorious Hellenic army take possession of the land which
they have so bravely defended during their short stay on earth
and preserved for their mother country. It would be their
work.
The Bulgarian bayonet is doing its terrible work. A thrust
carries the beard of the Bishop away with the jaw. Another
digs his eyes out. A third stops the beating of the heart.
Fingers, hands and other limbs are torn away from the victims
and thrown pell-mell. It can hack, that Bulgarian bayonet!
Their work, that mass of mutilated bodies without form, the
Bulgars contemplate with satisfaction and a sneer. * * *
How brave they are, the soldiers of King Ferdinand, these
'Japanese of Europe/ these 'Prussians of the Balkans'! * * *
But the Greek army is approaching! * * * The corpses
remain and the murderers are fleeing. And the wounded man
continues : 'After my first wound, I feigned death. When the
Bulgarians fled, I got up. The Greek soldiers were there.' "
A small town can not so easily recover from such a disaster.
The picture which Mr. George Bourdon, who spent three entire
weeks at Demir-Hissar after the slaughter of July 7, has drawn of
the place is proof of this statement.
28
Here is the text of his dispatch to the Figaro which appeared
in that paper on August 4, 1913:
Salonica, August 2.
"On my return from the general headquarters at Livanovo,
which is the Olympus of a very busy staff, I visited the city
of the dead. I am speaking of Demir-Hissar.
Demir-Hissar, a charming little Turkish town northwest of
Serres, is built at the foot of a rocky mountain which gives it
the aspect of a thicket lying against a wall. Dominated at the
top by the ruins of an old fort, traversed by a river, which, at
this time of the year, shows its dry bed of white pebbles ; with
its pretty little coffee house standing on stilts and open to the
four winds; its murmuring springs; its mosques and trees as
old as Mahomet; its uneven pavements; its quaint little stores-
where but lately sat squatting merchants from afar picking the
glittering beads of their amber diaplets; it forms a fetching^
picture.
Turks, sitting behind their baskets rilled with fruit, vainly
await a customer. One seeks on the azure skies the blue line
of the Bosphorus or the small wave of the sea of Marmara.
I imagined myself back in Broussa where I felt to have found
again that gentle and mysterious charm of the high quarters of
Scutari.
Nothing, however, but silence reigns in this grief-stricken
city, which resembles a motionless widow, who, having cried'
her eyes out, can not shed any more tears.
The rare people we meet on our way, mostly Turks, rise and*
salute us with deference. The aids of the King and the Greek
princes are guiding me through the town. How very few peo-
ple indeed we meet! The streets are deserted of the human-
beings that gave them life ; the little neat stores are abandoned,
the big houses are without their occupants, even the courtyards
are without their inmates. What cataclysm then has so sud-
denly struck this charming town ? It is neither fire, earthquake
nor lava. Its houses are intact. The Bulgarians, however, have
passed this way.
Swords, bayonets and knives were freely used, and Demir-
Hissar realized how true was its old Turkish name : The Fort-
ress of Iron. Turks and Greeks although unequal in number
suffered alike. A large number of Greeks owe their lives to-
tenderhearted Turks and they own this with gratitude.
In many places, where the bodies of the victims were interred,
pious hands have placed a stone, a cross or a candle to burn.
There is nothing so touching as these humble signs of grief and
mourning. They bear no names. It is like a human wail which
quietly and discreetly finds vent, yet it rends the heart and fills-
the skies.
At Nigrita, at Doiran, at Strumnitza, the same atrocities.
29
Serres was barbarously destroyed. The three-fourths of the
town was reduced to ashes. Four thousand houses, churches
and mosques were systematically set on fire and burned. Forty
thousand people remained without food or shelter.
So many massacres, so much looting and destruction of prop-
erty, stirred the Greek hearts to exasperation and brought about
that wonderful transformation that carried the armies of King
Constantine forward for three weeks. The impulse was ir-
resistible as each and every man felt in him the violent desire
to conquer.
These are not the empty words frequently used to embellish
the exploits of a successful athlete. They express profound
realities, and the state of mind of an army, which made up in
heroism what it lacked in experience. It was imbued with some
of the religious and the divine. I do not think that our great
revolutionary armies were inspired with a purer faith and a
more violent willingness for self-sacrifice.
There was something of the sublime in this Greek army,
as in our own, a spectacle rare enough to compel admiration.
I know that I will not be believed or believed but par-
tially. I know also that there are people who would smile when
they hear of heroism and of wonders. It matters not. I am
but a witness who sees, hears and relates, and I am satisfied
that not one of the foreign newspaper correspondents, not one
of the witnesses who like myself have heard and seen, would
contradict me."
The Massacres and the Destruction of Doxato
Doxato, the center of production and tobacco industry, was the
-most prosperous of the Macedonian cities. Nothing but the church,
-which was saved by a miracle, and a few families hidden among the
ruins, remain.
The newspaper correspondents, Messrs. Puaux and Magrini, vis-
ited the town the day following its destruction by the Bulgarians.
Commander Cardale, of the British Royal Navy, who was at
Kavala, proceeded there at once and became also a witness of the
terrible catastrophe.
We are reproducing here below their testimony, to which we will
add that of Vladimir Tordoff, editor of Outro Rossije of Moscow,
and a few others.
Testimony of Mr. Puaux 1
"I spent the following morning in Doxato, about ten miles
south of Drama, and I had the good fortune to interview many
iSee Paris Temps, July 21, 1913.
30
impartial witnesses, including a French couple, a Mr. and Mrs.
Valette, who related to me in detail the events which culminated
in the burning of the town and the murder of thousands of
inhabitants.
The Bulgarians, for the ostensible reason that certain sharp-
shooters from the village fired in the morning and on the after-
noon, without, however, inflicting any injury, on a number of
stragglers belonging to the retreating army of Kavala, decided
to punish the inhabitants of Doxato.
On Sunday morning, July 13, they reached the town and
placed a cordon about the estate of Mr. Valette, with the evident
intention of arresting his interpreter, overseer and a family
servant, all of whom were Greeks. Mr. Valette displayed the
French flag over his doorway and protested to the commander,
who was not very far away, against the arrests. The com-
mander, after a long parley, finally accepted Mr. Valette's
view, but he detailed two sentries to guard the gate of his estate.
The order to attack was then given and the Bulgarian soldiers
opened fire on the town with four cannon ; in less than half an
hour the shattered houses began to collapse, and at noon the
artillery fire ceased. Then two Bulgarian cavalrymen came
and took away the sentries that were left to guard the estate,
and addressing the Gypsy employes who worked on Mr.
Valette's estate, over one hundred in number, urged them to go
to Doxato 'where the looting was good.'
The soldiers told Mr. Valette that they had received orders
to remove the Greek servants to Drama, and finding resistance
useless, Mr. Valette determined to accompany his employes,
ordered two of his carriages to be prepared and went with them.
At Drama he met Mr. Dobreff, the Bulgarian Governor, who
seemed greatly agitated, declaring that a great disaster had hap-
pened and that he must at once give aid to the victims and
orders for the disposal of the dead. Mr. Dobreff proceeded at
once to Doxato, together with Mr. Bachivakof, the lieutenant-
governor, the cdimacan of Doxato and the president of the
municipal council of Drama, caused the burial of some of the
bodies and returned once more to Drama. During his stay
he ordered the release of Mr. Valette's servants.
On Monday morning the town was still burning and the
Valette estate was crowded with refugees who were afraid to
leave. The Greek army arrived two days later. Mr. Valette
added that during the past week the people had been very
nervous, as the preceding Sunday the Bulgarians arrested the
prominent citizens, and on Friday and Saturday a few skir-
mishes took place in the neighborhood of the town between
Bulgarian and Greek volunteers.
If a few stragglers of the Bulgarian army were fired upon,
that was not a reason, said Mr. Valette, why a whole city should
31
be burned and pillaged and more than one thousand persons,
including women and children, murdered.
Mr. Valette's statement was corroborated by his daughter.
They are both among the principal witnesses who will be ex-
amined by the French Commission appointed by President
Poincare to investigate, in response to a telegram of protest sent
by King Constantine, when it reaches that place.
One fact is certain, that almost all the peasants were robbed
before they were put to death. When about to photograph a
group of these unfortunate victims, 1 whom Bulgarian cavalry-
men took outside of the limits of the city to murder, I found
empty purses lying among the corpses now in a state of decom-
position. Two men, belonging to that group, managed to es-
cape and reached the estate of Mr. Valette, crawling through
the fields on their hands and knees. They told Mr. Valette
that the Bulgarians compelled their victims to give up every-
thing they had before they were put to death.
Doxato, until recently so flourishing, is now a heap of ashes.
On the central square a group of three old women attracted our
attention. One of them was sobbing violently. She had lost
everything in the world. Her whole family was killed and her
house destroyed. The other two were trying to console her.
Their husbands and sons were also massacred, but they
answered quite simply : 'They died for Greece.' "
Testimony of Mr. Magrini
Mr. Magrini conducted his own investigation in company with
the most prominent Italian citizen in the district of Kavala, Mr.
George Buffetti. He described conditions as follows in a corre-
spondence published in the Milan Secolo, July 26, 1913 :
"On Saturday evening Bulgarian soldiers placed four field
guns at a distance of 300 feet from the town, and on Sunday
morning they commenced the bombardment. The inhabitants
fled, some in the direction of Kavala, others following the dry
bed of the river toward the mountains, carrying their money
with them. A few hundred locked themselves in their homes.
The Bulgarian cavalry appeared suddenly on the scene and
pursued the fugitives, while 400 Bulgarian soldiers with bay-
onets fixed entered the town followed by two wagonloads of
cans full of petroleum. The cavalry, composed of 120 men,
was divided in two sections with Birnef and Symeonof
as commanding officers, respectively. They attacked and cut
right and left men, women and children with their swords,
1 The photos of Mr. Puaux appeared in V Illustration of August 2, 1913.
/
32
while the infantrymen robbed the victims and finished the
work of destruction.
Unheard of acts of savagery are related. A number of
Mussulmans, whom the Bulgarians requested to take part on
the assurance that Bulgaria and Turkey had formed an alliance
against Greece, also participated in the massacre which lasted
until five o'clock in the afternoon.
Besides Majors Symeonof and Birnef, many other officers
and officials took an active part in the massacre according to
the testimony of the survivors, including Athanas Priestef,
chief of police of Doxato, Jean Borof, Karakof and Vakef, a
justice of the peace.
Having completed our investigation we were about to leave
Doxato, when a man with distorted features, dashed towards
us like a madman and asked for a piece of bread. Mr. Buffetti
recognized in him a millionaire tobacco merchant, whose family
had been massacred and his properties destroyed. We took
him along in our carriage to Drama."
Testimony of Commander Cardale of the Royal British Navy
Commander Cardale made certain statements to Mr. Stevens,
special correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph (see issue of
July 24, 1913), which the latter summed up as follows:
"Commander Cardale, an active officer of the British Navy,
who happened to be at Kavala, and who, on hearing of the
horrors committed by the Bulgarian troops at Doxato, left im-
mediately for that place, gave me the following description of
what met his eyes on reaching the scene of the massacres.
At the entrance of the town the first thing that met his gaze
were bands of dogs feeding on human remains. The burnt
town appeared to be deserted, and a great deal of shouting had
to be resorted to before some women issued from the ruins.
By the time he got to the place most of the bodies lying in the
streets had been removed, but many, for want of grave-
diggers, had been temporarily deposited at the entrance of the
village, which explains the horrible sight above mentioned.
In one courtyard a large number of women and children were
massacred. The bodies of thirty of them were still there when
Commander Cardale visited the place. All the bodies had
bayonet thrusts and bore marks of unspeakable mutilations.
The walls were spattered with blood to a height of six feet
from the ground, and he » accounts for this by the narrative
given him by the surviving inhabitants, who say that the victims
were not put to death at once, but were slowly brought to their
end by bayonet thrusts.
33.
In one corner of the courtyard he saw huddled together the
bodies of six little children. Into the courtyard of a rich Turk's
house a similar flock of women and children were driven for
slaughter by the Bulgarians, but before they had time to dis-
patch them all some broke through the cordon of soldiers placed
at the entrance and ran upstairs into the house of the Turk,
seeking refuge under the carpets and divans of the place.
Commander Cardale found the cushions and carpets slashed
by sword cuts and the walls reeking with human blood and
hacked remains. In one of the rooms there was a stove pipe.
Up this pipe he saw, wedged in, a girl, 7 years of age, who had
evidently tried to escape in this way, the murderers killing her
by thrusts from bayonets from below. On the body of the little
victim he counted four such bayonet wounds. In another room
he was shown the place, still bespattered with blood, where a
woman and her child had been crucified on the wall. The im-
pressions that the bodies had left were plainly visible, as were
also the holes left by the nails driven through the outstretched
hands and feet of the victims.
Throughout the town he personally counted 600 bodies still
left unburied, mostly of women and children. He verified the
following story showing how the precepts of Christianity are
understood by the so-called Christian Bulgarians:
Thirty Greeks and one Turk sought refuge in the sanctuary
of a Greek church while the massacres were going on outside.
A squad of Bulgarian soldiers entered the church. To the
Greeks they said that if they had found them outside they
would have killed them all, but, as they were Christians in a
Christian church, they would spare their lives. But as to the
Turk, he must die, and suiting the action to the word, they
killed the Moslem on the steps of the altar.
Commander Cardale showed me several of the photographs
he took with his camera, and placed at my disposal any I
wished to send to England for publication." 1
Commander Cardale was questioned by Mr. Andreades, Professor
of Law at the University of Athens, and he declared that the cor-
respondent of the London Daily Telegraph reproduced exactly in
its principal parts the account he gave him of the atrocities. He
added that the number of dead could not be accurately fixed, but
that by counting the graves, the bodies and other human remains
that were strewn everywhere, he estimated that no less than 600
were killed.
The commander saw bodies lying six hundred yards outside of
1 They were published in the Illustrated London News, Aug. 9, 1913.
.34
the town limits. They were the bodies of those who tried to get
away and were cut to pieces by the Bulgarian cavalry. He stated
that the testimony of all the witnesses he had examined agreed that
Bulgarian officers of the highest rank participated in the massacres.
He also confirmed the story that Gypsies and Turks were induced
to take part in the work of destruction and looting of the pros-
perous town.
In the absence of arms, their auxiliaries, who were called in the
afternoon probably to help complete the work as quickly as possi-
ble, used sticks and agricultural implements to attack their victims,
whose end was thus rendered more horrible.
Testimony of Captain Trappman
Captain Trappman, after an investigation of his own, cabled to
his paper, the London Daily Telegraph, in part as follows i 1
"The French Commission appointed to investigate will find
ample evidence how the Bulgarian cavalry, followed by in-
fantry, chased the luckless villagers for miles, the cavalry
killing or wounding, whilst the infantry mutilated the corpses."
Testimony of Vladimir Tordoff
Mr. Vladimir Tordoff made a summary in French of the corre-
spondence in Russian he sent to his paper UOutro Rossije of Mos-
cow. This summary, which was published in the Liberte de
Salonique July 20, reads as follows :
"On July 2/15, toward midnight, news reached the general
headquarters of the Greek army at Hadji-Beylik, of the atroci-
ties committed by the Bulgarians at Doxato. I was returning
from the battlefield of Strumnitza which I had just visited
in a military automobile. Although exhausted with fatigue, I
asked some of my colleagues, Mr. Puaux of the Paris Temps
and Mr. Mavroudi of the Debats, to try and obtain from the
military authorities a vehicle to convey us to Doxato.
Our request was immediately granted by the military authori-
ties, and very early the following morning, after hardly three
hours rest, we were able to start for Doxato.
We first crossed the bridge of Strouma on foot and on the
way met a large number of dray-carts carrying wounded and
!See Daily Telegraph, June 24, 1913.
35
supplies. An officer, speaking Russian perfectly, met us and
placed at our disposal, in accordance with instructions received
from headquarters, an automobile with two young, brave and
very experienced chauffeurs.
Qne of them was a volunteer who came expressly from the
United States to take part in the war.
The trip to Doxato was one of the most difficult and tire-
some we had experienced. We were several times compelled
to ford streams and pull the automobile, to improvise foot
bridges from stones and branches of trees, etc.
It was about nine o'clock the following morning when we
reached Demir-Hissar. A group of prominent citizens with a
brokenhearted countenance stopped our vehicle and insisted
that we go and see the bodies of the martyred victims of Bul-
gar barbarity.
The bodies were lying in the courtyard of a house shaded by
an immense plane-tree around which two Turkish girls with
picturesque costumes were playing. We had advanced but a
few steps when a nauseating odor compelled us to stop our
nostrils. A large number of unburied corpses were already in
a decomposed state. A group of women standing nearby were
wringing their hands and crying piteously. We were pro-
foundly moved at this spectacle."
Mr. Tordoff then gives his impressions about the destroyed city
of Serres, and certain villages of that district which have had the
same fate, also about Zlakovo where he met a woman whose daugh-
ters were ravished and her husband killed by the very Bulgarian
soldiers who accepted their hospitality. Mr. Tordoff continues his
narrative as follows :
"At Drama we found the population celebrating with great
enthusiasm the arrival of the Hellenic troops which entered the
town the day before amidst general relief.
About a dozen miles from Drama we faced the ruins of
Doxato. This prosperous town was destroyed by the Bul-
garians on the pretext that Greek sharpshooters killed near
that place a number of Bulgarian soldiers who were retreating
from Kavala.
The Bulgarians bombarded Doxato for three hours with the
aid of four cannon placed on commanding heights, and they set
different sections of the town on fire. Not being satisfied with
this, they invited the gypsies to participate in the looting and
massacre of the Greeks. The slaughter of the people by the
Bulgarians was frightful. Hundreds of innocent citizens were
slain. The place was everywhere looted. We saw on the pave-
f
36
ments, among the ruins of the houses and shops, safes that were
forced open, broken sewing-machines, etc., etc. Women were
wringing their hands and/Crying in despair. I saw with my own
eyes children carrying bayonet wounds. I met an old woman
who had lost everything. She was crying piteously for her five
children, of the fate of whom she was ignorant. A Greek
priest was pierced through and through by a bayonet thrust near
the church door. We saw at different places piles of corpses
exposed to the sun, and others, half buried, whose heads, arms
or legs were sticking out of the soil.
One-half of the population of Doxato disappeared without
leaving any traces.
This heartrending spectacle impressed me painfully. Dur-
ing the entire trip from Hadji-Beylik to Doxato, I felt a terrible
shame that such savageries were committed by Slavs."
Kavala and Drama
The people of Kavala and Drama have been so terribly oppressed
during the past few months, that it will be difficult to give an ac-
curate account in a few words. 1 These cities were at least saved
from massacre and destruction.
Kavala owes its escape to a very ingenious stratagem of Admiral
Coundouriotis. 2 The Bulgarians believing that they were to be sur-
rounded, abandoned the city, taking with them as hostages Bishop
Athanase and his secretary, two doctors, the headmaster of the
Greek school, the dragoman of the Greek consulate, the honorary
dragoman of the French consulate and the most prominent Greek
citizens of the town. 8
1 For complete details see a long article by Gaston Deschamps, an eye-
witness, which was published in the Paris Temps July 22, 1913. Also an
article by Mr. Magrini in the Milan Secolo of July 18, which contains also-
an interview with Mr. Protopapas, the mayor of Kavala. Concerning Drama,
read the correspondence of Mr. Puaux in the Paris Temps July 21, 1913, and
that of Mr. Mavroudi in the Journal des Debats, July 24, 1913.
2 Mr. Deschamps who was on the island of Thasos opposite Kavala at
the time, describes this stratagem in all its details and characterizes it as
"one which Themistocles, admiral of the Athenians, would have approved."
See article above cited.
3 Here is the list:
1. The Bishop of Kavala. 2. P. Lekos, dragoman of the Greek con-
sulate. 3. P. Candiotis, Hellenic subject and manager of the Bank of Athens.
4. A. Charissiadis, merchant. 5. Dr. Poulidis. 6. M. Kolokythas, merchant
and honorary dragoman of the French consulate. 7. Dr. Conoplidis. 8.
Th. Vratzouhas, agent of the firm of Moriatis & Co., of Manchester. 9*
Boulgaridis, tobacco merchant, Hellenic subject. 10. C. Ioannou, tobacco-
merchant, Hellenic subject. 11. A. Alexopoulos, tobacco merchant, Hellenic
subject. 12. A. Zorbas, manager of the newspaper Simaia. 13. A. Natzos r
A
37
The same tactics were followed at Pravi, a small town northwest
of Kavala, 1 at Chari-Chaban and other places.
The prosperous village of Alistrati was saved, thanks to the
"timely arrival of the Greek army which extinguished the conflagra-
tion the Bulgarians had started. Official Greek sources also attribute
the saving of Drama to the rapid march of the 7th Division. Ac-
cording to Mr. Puaux, however, "Drama suffered little by compari-
son, thanks to the coolness and the humanity shown by the two
:principal Bulgarian functionaries, Colonel Guezof and Prefect
Dobref." 2
We bow before the testimony of Mr. Puaux, and, extending our
-congratulations to these two Bulgarian officials, we can not help
remarking that the efficacy of their intervention is an additional
-proof of the heavy responsibility that weighs upon all of their col-
leagues throughout the rest of Macedonia.
CHAPTER VII
THE ATTACKS ON THE CLERGY AND TEACHERS
The Destruction of the Schools and Historical Monuments
There are certain crimes among the many horrible ones that have
"been committed which the universities of Athens feel very keenly.
Your attention was drawn to the fiendish attacks made against
the high Macedonian prelates, and the large number of priests that
iell victims to their faith and fidelity to duty. The acts of violence
to which so many professors and teachers were subjected have,
no doubt, aroused your indignation.
From the correspondence of Mr. George Bourdon in the Paris
1 Here are the names of the citizens of Pravi carried off by the Bul-
garians :
Rev. Econome Papanicolaou, C. Emmanuelides, D. Emmanuelides, K.
Likides, P. Likides, George Karageorge, E. Hadjistergiou, C. Hadjistergiou,
C Fanitsas, N. Tascos, S. Joannis, D. Ragas, D. Lambros and Christ
Mousteniotis.
2See Paris Temps, July 21, 1913.
Hellenic subject, employed by the Bank of Athens. 14. Th. Pantazis, com-
mission merchant. 15. M. Pappadopoulos, secretary to the Archbishop.
16. I. Yattos. 17. Th. Valimidis. 18. P. Zoulas. 19. D. Tamintzikis. 20. S.
Phessas. 21. C. Phessas. 22. A. Vassiliadis. 23. D. Economou. 24. G.
Antoniadis, 25. A Papadopoulos. 26. J. Zorbas, and 27. C. Striminghis.
The Hellenic government immediately communicated this list to the
Greek legations abroad with the instruction to protest against this violation
of the rules of international law, and to demand protection for the lives of
the Hellenic subjects led away by the Bulgarians.
V
38
Figaro, which we quote below, you may form an idea of the horri-
ble death which Professor Papapavlos, D.L., suffered. He was
one of the most distinguished Hellenists, a brilliant scholar, and a
graduate of the universities of Athens and Leipzig. At the time
of his death he was the headmaster of the gymnasium at Serres.
Here is what Mr. Bourdon wrote on July 24, 1913 :
"The bodies of some of the hostages taken by the Bulgarians
from Serres will be found in a corn field. We searched for
them for a long time in vain. Finally one of us exclaimed :
'We are getting near.'
A stench of putrefaction, a strong, penetrating, persistent
and sickening smell of decaying flesh, an experience of which
I had in Casablanca, struck our olfactory nerves. We first
discovered one corpse, then a second, then a third — seven in
all. The first was lying about two hundred yards away from
the second, and three hundred yards approximately separated
the latter from the other four.
The last body we found on a slope not far from the others.
The first poor fellow must have stumbled as he lost his shoe
and fell three yards forward. Another must have been struck
on the back. He was lying face down and his whole body was
half stuck in the muddy field. A third had his skull crushed
with a gun, and the blow must have been so violent that it
broke the butt of the gun and threw it a few feet away. We
found the barrel still loaded with five cartridges in a thicket
not very far away, and the butt, which was covered with coagu-
lated blood and hairs, fitted exactly.
Near the corpse of another victim we found a second broken
butt. No doubt the murderer must have taken the barrel of
the gun with him. A fifth was lying on his back, his twisted
hands and fingers stuck in the soil. His face was black, his
mouth wide open and he seemed to be still yelling from fright.
It reminded me of those two petrified corpses one sees at
Pompeii, with twisted limbs and open mouths, looking, after so*
many centuries, as if they have not ceased to scream under the
molten lava.
Conscious of the sensibilities of my readers, I shall not pro-
tract the description of this horrible spectacle.
We armed ourselves with a stern will power, stopped our
nostrils and with horror-stricken eyes proceeded to the com-
pletion of the investigation we had undertaken, which we con-
sidered necessary.
We took photographs of these frightful remains which we
are going to publish. 1 One thing is certain, that these notables,.
1 They were published in L' Illustration, August 2, 1913.
39
like many others, were the victims of the regular army and not
of the comitadjis although the Bulgarian authorities deny this.
They were taken prisoners at Serres and forcibly carried off
by the retreating army.
The unfortunate victims before our eyes were well dressed
and had every appearance of gentlemen. That they were from
Serres, we have no doubt, as three of the bodies were recog-
nized and identified. ,,
One of the victims was Professor Papapavlos, and the other two
Dr. Cryssafis, the best doctor in Serres, and Mr. Stamoulis, the
manager of the Orient Bank.
An adequate idea of what the Greek Church and the teachers
had to suffer in Macedonia and Thrace may be gained by con-
sulting the official reports of the Bishops which were published in
the Ecclesiastiki Alitheia, the official organ of the ecumenical
patriarchate.
The publication of these reports commenced on July 28, 191 3, 1
and is far from being completed. No doubt they will be translated
into French, and the civilized world will then be able to learn how,
in this twentieth century, such persecutions, recalling the darkest
times of the religious wars, were conceived and carried into
execution.
We shall mention only the case of Eurydice Papa-Apostolou, a
teacher at Pravi, who lost her reason after she was assaulted by
Bulgarian soldiers. 2
We may also mention the well known fact that in Macedonia
and Thrace the Greek schools were turned into hospitals, barracks
and stables, so that, in the guise of military necessity, Greek instruc-
tion was everywhere interrupted. In this way the Bulgarians ex-
pected to assimilate the Greek population of Macedonia and Thrace
to that of Eastern Roumelia, which, in spite of the treaty of Berlin
and other supplementary treaties, was deprived of its churches and
schools and forced to patronize the Bulgarian.
The literary world will also be shocked at the numerous acts of
vandalism against the ancient relics.
iSee "Ecclesiastiki Alitheia" Nos. 23 and 27.
2 Read the report of the Bishop of Elefteroupolis published in the afore-
said paper June 28. This poor girl is now an inmate of the Dafni lunatic
asylum, near Athens.
40
The reports of the Bishops contain ample proof of this statement*
Not only several objects of ancient art were stolen, but a number
of inscriptions disappeared or were destroyed.
The rage shown by the Bulgarians against the inscriptions was
manifest everywhere, and is partly explained by their fear that the
Greek inscriptions constituted historical records.
It appears from a letter of Dr. Economou, ephor of antiquities
in Macedonia, addressed on June 12, 1913, to his colleague, Pro-
fessor S. Lambros, that the Bulgarians of Ostrovon destroyed an
inscription because it contained the name Alexander, which they took
for that of Alexander the Great.
These acts of vandalism, or rather these bulgarisms, are nothing
in comparison to the profanation at Silyvria by the Bulgarian officer
Kaptsef, of the tomb believed to be that of Emperor Basil, the slayer
of Bulgarians.
In the conflagration of Serres many relics belonging to the
medieval and ancient periods perished, including the magnificent
Cathedral, a jewel of byzantine architecture, with its priceless con-
tents; the collection of the antiquities preserved in the Metropolis
and in the hospital ; the collection of the manuscripts of the diocese
and those of the gymnasium, together with twenty churches, many
of which were old, or contained ancient inscriptions, icones or
sculptures. 2
CHAPTER VIII
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?
In the course of this lengthy statement, we had several times
occasion to cite the names of the Bulgarian officers and officials
who were not only the instigators of the massacres, the looting and
the burning of the cities, but the leaders as well.
It is, therefore, a question of official crimes, and any attempt to
throw the responsibility on the comitadjis will be in vain. This
truth was established by the actual facts, and strongly proclaimed
1 See, among the many other reports, those of the Bishops of Heraclee,
Ganos and Derkos.
2 Full information regarding the inscriptions and other medieval and
ancient objects of art, until recently preserved in the Cathedral of Serres,
will be found in the splendid works of Prof. Papageorgiou (Bysantinische
Zeitschrift, 1894) and of Messrs. Pedrizet and Chesnay {Monuments de
VAcademie des Inscriptions, Paris, 1904).
41
and confirmed by the consular reports and the statements of the
foreign consuls at Salonica and by Commander Cardale of the
British Royal Navy.
The following editorial appeared in the Paris Temps, which is
always so well informed, on August 4, 1913 1 1
"The moral condition of Bulgaria was aggravated by the
investigation made by the counselor of the French Legation
at Athens, Mr. du Halgouet, whose worth and character are
unanimously recognized and respected. This investigation con-
firms and defines the accusations made by King Constantine."
Still more convincing are the official documents found in the
palace of the Bulgarian Governor at Serres on July 16, 1913. We
give the principal ones:
(a) Order No. 8265, dated June 21, by which the Governor of
Serres, Voulkof, ordered the prefect of Drama to arrest and com-
mit to some prison in Bulgaria the Greek Bishop of that town and
the foremost citizens, on the pretext that they were inflaming the
population.
(b) Order No. 8391, bearing date June 21, addressed to the
Governor of Serres, Voulkof, by the Chief-of-Staff, Moustakof,
contained a list of prominent citizens who were to be imprisoned
by the latter.
(c) Document No. 8390, dated June 21, addressed by Voulkof,
Governor of Serres, to the prefect of Strumnitza, ordered the im-
prisonment of the Greek Bishop of that town in a Bulgarian
monastery.
1 The Paris Temps of July 30 already contained the following dispatch
from Salonica:
"Mr. du Halgouet, first secretary of the French legation in Athens and
Colonel Lepidi, who were ordered by the French government to make an in-
vestigation on the reported massacre and looting by the Bulgarians, visited
Serres, Doxato and Demir-Hissar, and made a thorough examination.
The result, which they incorporated in an official report, agrees in every
respect with the result of the investigation previously made by the consuls-
general of Austria and Italy at Salonica. Mr. du Halgouet asserts that
Serres and Doxato were destroyed in the same manner and after a settled
plan, not by the comitadjis, but by the regular Bulgarian army which acted
in accordance with special orders received from higher sources.
The local civil officials and the chiefs of the Bulgarian police and gen-
darmerie helped the army in its work of destruction.
Mr. du Halgouet declared that several Bulgarian officers were among
the slayers.
This dispatch was fully confirmed by a long correspondence by Gaston
Deschamps, published in Le Temps, August 7, 1913.
w
42
(d) Dispatch No. 8256, dated June 21, addressed by the Prime
Minister of Bulgaria, Mr. Danef, to the military governor of
Serres, counselled the latter to have the Bishop and the notables
tried by a court martial before sending them to prison, in order
to justify their arrest.
(e) Lastly, dispatch No. 8263 from the military governor of
Serres to the Bulgarian Commander-in-Chief advising him of the
arrest of the Bishops of Doiran and Kavala.
CONCLUSION
Sir and Very Honorable Colleague :
This statement, notwithstanding our efforts to abridge it, not-
withstanding the many atrocities we have omitted, is much longer
than intended. No doubt you must have observed, if you have had
the patience to read it through, that not one single fact could be
denied, and that it is based on unimpeachable testimony. But even
glancing through it, you must have been convinced that, when you
were asked by cable three weeks ago to stigmatize these misdeeds
without precedent in the history of modern warfare, in the name of
righteousness and Christian morality, we did not exaggerate.
We expressed the hope that European public opinion would pre-
vent the repetition of the Macedonian atrocities in that part of
Thrace which was still occupied by the Bulgarians and which is
inhabited, almost entirely, by Greeks and Turks.
Unfortunately, the echo of indignation which the news from
Macedonia created throughout the civilized world failed to reach
the ears of the governments at Sofia ; so that Dede-Agatch, Macri,
Gioumouldjina, Xanthy and other localities in Thrace were made
the scenes of horrors no less atrocious than those committed in
Macedonia.
We thought, however, that this sad deception should not prevent
us from sending you the present report.
Bulgaria owes its independence in a great measure to the massa-
cres of Batak, to the "Bulgarian Atrocities" so eloquently denounced
by the late Gladstone. At a moment when it is being debated, not-
withstanding the outcome of war, whether many hundred thousand
Greeks are to be left under Bulgarian rule, it appears to us neces-
sary that the civilized world, so justly shocked by the atrocities of
"1
43
which the Bulgars were the victims in 1876, should form a more
accurate idea of the crimes committed by them in 1913. 1
Please accept, Dear Sir and Colleague, the assurance of my
highest consideration.
Theodore Zaimis,
Rector of the Universities of Athens,
Athens, August 31, 1913.
1 According to an article by J. W. Ozanne, which appeared in the Nine-
teenth Century, one of the largest English Reviews, on August 1, 1913, "the
Bulgarian attack against the districts occupied by the Greeks and the Ser-
vians was accompanied by scenes of unheard of savagery, before which the
atrocities of Botak, which caused a shiver of horror to run throughout the
civilized world, pale into insignificance. * * * The subjects of King
Ferdinand have established a record."
1
