" World War I memorial at Mărăşeşti in Moldavia. Here in a month-long battle from August to September 1917, the Romanian army fought the German army and some Austrian units to a standstill. The result of this stalemate was 27,000 Romanian dead, and 47,000 German and Austrian fatalities. The memorial itself holds the graves of 5,073 Romanians. The dreary gray walls of the well-socketed and cavernous mausoleum evince a slamming-shut-on-the-tomb finality, which seems to declare the futility of war in the grip of remembrance. Mărăşeşti is a place of august horror, just one particular example of why Romanians require, as they say and wish for, an escape from history. "

― Robert D. Kaplan , In Europe's Shadow: Two Cold Wars and a Thirty-Year Journey Through Romania and Beyond