Rape during the occupation of Germany

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The wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944/45, as Allied 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, 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 widely disputed 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."

References

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
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
Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.
^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml
Hanna Schissler The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768
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
Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: BeFreier und Befreite, Fischer, Frankfurt 2005
Seidler/Zayas: Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert, Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11
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
Naimark. The Russians in Germany, p. 79
http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html Template:Ru icon
http://actualhistory.ru/51 Template:Ru icon
http://militera.lib.ru/research/dukov_ar/index.html Template:Ru icon
http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor Template:Ru icon
http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/ Template:Ru icon
http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html Template:Ru icon
http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html Template:Ru icon

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References