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You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (January 2010) Click for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the German article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Misplaced Pages. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 2,178 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Misplaced Pages article at ]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|de|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Misplaced Pages:Translation.

The wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944/45, as Allied and Soviet troops battered their way into the Third Reich. The most massive the rapes were in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of rapes committed by Soviet soldiers range widely, from the tens of thousands to 2 million, with later research showing higher numbers (1.4-1.9 million). Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in Berlin, based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports, with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath. Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000. Antony Beevor describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass rape in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone. According to Natalya Gesse, "the Russian soldiers were raping every German female from eight to eighty." After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution. The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“ completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.

These claims are disputed by some in Russia. . Critics argue that the numbers are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect and loyalty. It is also emphasized that the Soviet military leadership discouraged crimes against civilians and took measures to punish offenders. A war veteran recalled: "The question of seeking revenge on the Nazis dropped out -- it's not the traditions of our people to take reprisals against women, children, and elderly...The attitude of Soviet soldiers to the German population, could be called neutral. Nobody, at least from out regiment, mistreated people."

See also

• Soviet war crimes
• War rape
• War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes
• Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II

References

1. Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. Journal of Social History, Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820
2. Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. The American Historical Review, Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395
3. Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.
4. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml
5. Hanna Schissler The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968
6. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768
7. Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers October, Vol. 72, Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties" (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926
8. Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: BeFreier und Befreite, Fischer, Frankfurt 2005
9. Seidler/Zayas: Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert, Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002
10. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html
11. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11
12. Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7
13. Naimark. The Russians in Germany, p. 79
14. http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html
15. http://actualhistory.ru/51
16. http://militera.lib.ru/research/dukov_ar/index.html
17. http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor
18. http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/
19. http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html
20. http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html

• 20th century in Germany
• Aftermath of World War II
• Human rights abuses
• War rape
• War casualties
• War crimes