Rape during the occupation of Germany: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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[[File:US Army Germany occupation zones 1945.jpg|thumb|300px|Territorial changes and occupational zones of Nazi Germany after its defeat. Includes the front-line along the Elbe from which U.S. troops withdrew in July 1945]]

As Allied troops entered and occupied German territory during the later stages of [[World War II]] mass rapes took place both in connection with combat operations and during the subsequent occupation. Most Western scholars agree that the majority of the rapes were committed by [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] servicemen, but estimates vary widely. Russian historians have criticized the estimates and argue that these crimes were not widespread. The war time rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence.<ref name="sander"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/3255081/German-women-break-their-silence-on-horrors-of-Red-Army-rapes.html|title=German women break their silence on horrors of Red Army rapes|author=Allan Hall in Berlin|date=24 October 2008|work=Telegraph.co.uk|accessdate=10 December 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/raped-by-the-red-army-two-million-german-women-speak-out-1669074.html|title=Raped by the Red Army: Two million German women speak out|work=The Independent|accessdate=10 December 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,680354,00.html|title=Harrowing Memoir: German Woman Writes Ground-Breaking Account of WW2 Rape|author=Susanne Beyer|publisher=Spiegel.de|accessdate=10 December 2014}}</ref> According to [[Antony Beevor]], [[NKVD]] files have revealed that the Soviet leadership knew what was happening, including about the rape of Russian women liberated from labour camps, but did nothing to stop it,<ref name=Bird>{{cite journal |last=Bird |first=Nicky |title=Berlin: The Downfall 1945 by Antony Beevor |journal=International Affairs |volume=78 |number=4 |date=October 2002 |pages=914–916 |institution=Royal Institute of International Affairs}}</ref> while other sources say that the Soviet leadership took swift action.<ref name=Turchenko/><ref name=Senyavskaya/>

==Soviet Military==

Historians have written about sexual violence committed by the armies of the Western Allies and the Red Army as these forces fought their way into the Third Reich and during the period of occupation.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Perry |last=Biddiscombe |title=Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945–1948 |journal=[[Journal of Social History]] |volume=34 |issue=3 |year=2001 |pages=611–647 |jstor=3789820 |doi=10.1353/jsh.2001.0002}}</ref>

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[[Richard Overy]], a historian from [[King's College London]], has criticized the viewpoint held by the Russians, asserting that they refuse to acknowledge [[Soviet war crimes]] committed during the war, "Partly this is because they felt that much of it was justified vengeance against an enemy who committed much worse, and partly it was because they were writing the victors' history."<ref name="RedArmy"/>

===Criticism from Russian historians and others===

There is dispute from Russia concerning these claims. Russian historians argue that the numbers given are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. They argue that although there were cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect.<ref name="RedArmy">{{Cite news | last = Summers| first = Chris| title = Red Army rapists exposed| pages = | newspaper = [[BBC News Online]]| location = | date = 29 April 2002| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1939174.stm| archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = 27 May 2010}}</ref>

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According to historian Yelena Senyavskaya, mass rape by the Soviet Army in 1945 is one of the most widespread anti-Russian myths. She traces it back to Goebbels' propaganda at the end of the war, and then to some early Cold War publications in the West. She explains that the calculation used to derive the statistic that 2 million German women were raped is based on the number of newborns in 1945 and 1946 whose fathers are listed as Russian in one Berlin clinic, the assumption that all of these births were the result of rape, and then the multiplication of this effect across the entire female population (ages 8 to 80) of the eastern part of Germany; this method of calculation cannot be considered valid. Senyavskaya further argues against the misuse of Soviet archival documents. There are large concentrations of reports and tribunal materials about crimes committed by army personnel, but she says that is because such documents were stored together thematically, and these crimes were considered by the Soviet leadership as extraordinary events rather than the norm. Senyavskaya concludes that "those guilty of these crimes account for no more than two percent of the total number of servicemen, however, authors like Beevor spread their accusations against the entire Soviet Army."<ref name=Senyavskaya>{{citation |last=Senyavskaya |first=Yelena |title=Красная Армия в Европе в 1945 году в контексте информационной войны |trans_title=The Red Army in Europe in 1945 in the Context of Information War |website=histrf.ru |publisher=Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation |url=http://histrf.ru/ru/biblioteka/book/krasnaia-armiia-v-ievropie-v-1945-ghodu-v-kontiekstie-informatsionnoi-voiny |accessdate=1 June 2014}}</ref>

American historianjournalist Albert Axell has criticized the portrayal of the Soviet Army and argues that Zhukov and other generals took swift action to enforce discipline.<ref name=Axell>{{citation |last=Axell |first=Albert |title=Marshal Zhukov: The Man Who Beat Hitler |year=2003 |publisher=Pearson Longman |location=London |isbn=9780582772335 |pages=5-6}}</ref>▼

In his review of Beevor's book, Nicky Bird also criticizes the statistics, stating that: "Statistics proliferate, and are unverifiable. Beevor tends to accept estimates from a single doctor — how can we possibly know that 90 percent of Berlin women were infected by VD, that 90 percent of rape victims had abortions, that 8.7 percent of children born in 1946 had Russian fathers?"<ref name=Bird/>

▲American historian Albert Axell has criticized the portrayal of the Soviet Army and argues that Zhukov and other generals took swift action to enforce discipline.<ref name=Axell>{{citation |last=Axell |first=Albert |title=Marshal Zhukov: The Man Who Beat Hitler |year=2003 |publisher=Pearson Longman |location=London |isbn=9780582772335 |pages=5-6}}</ref>

===Social effects===

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{{cquote|We were young, strong, and four years without women. So we tried to catch German women and ... Ten men raped one girl. There were not enough women; the entire population run from the Soviet Army. So we had to take young, twelve or thirteen year-old. If she cried, we put something into her mouth. We thought it was fun. Now I can not understand how I did it. A boy from a good family... But that was me.<ref>Alexievich, p. 33</ref>}}

A woman telephone operator from the Soviet Army recalled that:

{{cquote|When we occupied every town, we had first three days for looting and ... [rapes]. That was unofficial of course. But after three days one could be court-martialed for doing this. ... I remember one raped German woman laying naked, with hand grenade between her legs. Now I feel shame, but I did not feel shame back then... Do you think it was easy to forgive [the Germans]? We hated to see their clean undamaged white houses. With roses. I wanted them to suffer. I wanted to see their tears. ... Decades had to pass until I started feeling pity for them.<ref>Alexievich, p. 386</ref>}}