I was vaguely aware that there had been rapes of German women in World War 2. It was mentioned somewhere in a tumblr post, and the number of victims certainly made an impression on me, but as I started this book to write about women and war, I came to realize it was far, far worse.
Women are underrepresented in the military and government, so the role women as a class play in war is negligent. When the discussion of victims of war arise, men often like to point out that mostly men die in wars, and that women are lucky to avoid military service- as if women are not expected to fuel war with reproductive labor, or that the high rates of sexual assault in the military hasn't played a large role in keeping women out. And of course, there is the depiction that death in unequivocally worse than sexual assault, which ignores the impact sexual assault has on a person's mental and physical health, denies the reality of death often being preferred over torture, and ignores that many women are killed after they are raped.
When you hear acts of terror such as:
"In Lauenburg in Pomerania, Red Army soliders stood in line in front of every house. One German woman was raped by as many as forty five men, despite the fact that she was half dead by the end. Victims included the 78 years old women and 9 year old children. The Russian soliders said that their wives and sisters had been treated far worse by the German soliders. When leaving the villlage, B. met a farmer who told him that his 13 year old daughter had been taken for the fifth time that morning."
How do you rationalize that away as being better than death? That it is an understandable but unfortunate side effect of a conflict women do not spur on, or honeslty have any control over? It illustrates not only the pervasive belief that women are property to be used as 'spoils of war', an attitude which continues to this day- but that there are no good men.
These rapes were perpetuated not by a singular group, but by many, including GI’s and Red Army Soldiers, British and French, Belgians, Poles, Czechs, and Serbs. The soldiers did not discriminate. As they marched across Europe, “on their way to germany, the americans raped the wives of allied british and french and also freed slave laborers and concentration camp inmates”.
And of course, this is not he only example, merely one of the worst for the time it went on, as well as the number of women involved. We can see this more in cases all around the world. It reminds me of an anecdote I heard, where a woman quit her job at a rape hotline because she was starting to hate men, and another woman told her that the only women who could remain were lesbians and women who lived without men; the reality of gender relations was laid bare, but still the concept of fearing or hating men was construed as 'extreme'. In fact, it appears very logical.
The Russians not only raped every female from infancy to old age in Berlin, but they also gang raped the female survivors of Auschwitz after they liberated the camp. Yep, they literally liberated Auschwitz from the Nazis…then went on a rape spree of the women and girls. I’d say the worst sexual offenders in WWII were the Japanese and the Russians, which makes me feel not bad at all about what happened to the Japanese soldiers on Ramree Island…
but they also gang raped the female survivors of Auschwitz after they liberated the camp. Yep, they literally liberated Auschwitz from the Nazis…then went on a rape spree of the women and girls.
Men are Devils. Absolute degenerates.
I am not doubting your words but have you got any reference for this, would like to look into it more.
Look up the Rape of Berlin. Here’s one article by the BBC:
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32529679.amp
Another by the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/may/01/news.features11
I’ve watched YouTube documentaries on it as well.
MAJOR CONTENT WARNING FROM THIS POINT ON.
The population of Berlin was almost all women and children at that time, as the men were off at the front lines, committing atrocities of their own. Due to Soviet behavior in other German cities as they advanced towards Berlin, women began buying cyanide with which to kill themselves and their children, because they knew what the soldiers were going to do to them. And they were right. Eight year old girls and eighty year old women were raped by as many as 30 men. It’s estimated that 2,000,000 women and girls in and around Berlin were raped. It’s believed that the soviets were so brutal towards the German women due to the behavior of German men towards Russian women around the time of the battle of Stalingrad. Typical male behavior - brutalize my innocent wife and daughter so I’ll brutalize your innocent wife and daughter. The Soviets were so infamous for their brutality that as German cities fell to the allied forces, the civilians would pray that they would see a platoon of American or British troops march in, and not Soviets. And the former two forces did plenty of raping as well, but not with anywhere near the same brutality as the Soviets. It was also punishable, not sanctioned.
This site has some good links to click regarding the Soviets behavior towards the survivors of Auschwitz:
https://neweasterneurope.eu/2022/04/21/the-crimes-of-bucha-have-a-long-history/
The book I am reviewing is specifically about this topic. Its the most in depth analysis of it you'll find, and it's pretty short.
There was a BBC drama series called The Bluebell Girls which was was set in Paris during the Second World War and based on the true story of dance troupe leader Margaret Kelly Leibovici and her involvement with the French resistance. At the end of the series there was a scene where women who had purportedly consorted with Nazi soldiers were publicly shamed by having their hair shaved off in front of a jeering crowd - which I found very unsettling. Obviously there were cases of French male collaborators being beaten or lynched, but, they weren't shamed in a sexual way.
In retrospect there are two things about that phenomenon. Firstly, the likelihood is that most of those women were probably prostituted women in the first place, with all the underlying reasons that we know leads to women being prostituted: CSA, sex rape trafficking (there's a haunting scene about this in Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London). During Second World war food shortages in Paris, were prostituted women who were already the victims of sexual abuse supposed to distinguish between 'good' customers rapists and 'bad' customers rapists? If the only life they knew was getting raped on a daily basis so they didn't starve, it was a bit rich for the rest of society to condemn them. They were basically used as scape goats.
Secondly, TV shows depicting this specific public shaming phenomenon as the worst type of punishment faced by some women in France at the end of the Second World war is, in retrospect, a sanitised version of events. Rape of women was common, regardless of whether or not they had 'consorted' with Nazi soldiers (the majority hadn't), and, as you say, was "perpetuated not by a singular group, but by many, including GI’s and Red Army Soldiers, British and French, Belgians, Poles, Czechs, and Serbs."
It was shocking enough to discover the mass rape of German women committed by Russian soldiers at the end of the Second World War. The propaganda of the allied forces having an infallible moral compass was so strong. It shook my naive world view when I first read about how prolific rape crimes committed by allied forces were. Perhaps this chapter of the history of the Second World war was 'out of sight out of mind' due to the victim blaming and stigma attached to rape.
The point you make about rape being committed by men from all sides of the Second World War, and of all nationalities engaged in the conflict is also related to the deleted thread you made about people doubting the prevalence of rape crimes committed against Gazan women. Regardless of nationality, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic class, or side in a conflict, a significant number of men will commit rape if they have the opportunity to do so, and the silencing effect of the stigma attached to being a victim of rape is one of the factors relied upon by the perpetrators of rape as a war crime.
I'm surprised you saw it, since it got deleted to quickly. I feel like many people like to believe that real life conflicts are as easy as good vs evil, and tend to ignore the reality that sex plays in these situations. Quite simply, war tends to affect women worse than men; even causes worth fighting for have this same dichotomy when it comes down to the behavior of soldiers.
The thread was deleted before I could post a reply to the comment claiming that calls for a ceasefire were somehow anti-feminist (?!!). War does affect women worse than men, and it is further traumatising when the victorious side is described as 'liberators', when they are often responsible for inflicting horrific trauma. In order to tackle rape as a war crime - all rape as a war crime must be acknowledged and condemned.
I think it's also important to recognize that there is no 'bad woman' you're allowed to assault. Because you can move any woman to that category with the right phrasing. All rape is bad, period. There is no cause or worthy justification.
In the case of Soviet / Russian army, this is part of their official war strategy (I don't know about the others). They are doing the same in Ukraine - commanders instruct the troops to rape, and in some cases individuals may be punished if they don't participate.
Presumably this serves a dual purpose: negatively impacts the morale of defending troops at the front when they feel they can't protect their women at home; and destroys the moral compass of the Russian troops where, due to having participated in these atrocities, their only loyalty is now to the group of men who share their guilt / shame.
The women and children who get raped are just objects in this game.
I am not sure whether this is a good war strategy - sure, their soldiers can't leave anymore, after what they have done, but on the other hand ... enemies will never surrender once you have that kind of reputation.
(Honestly, I'm surprised more Russian soldiers weren't killed by German women back then, or are being killed by Ukrainian women right now. After all, when the choice is to be raped to death without killing even a single enemy soldier, and killing like, two or three, before being shot yourself, well ... oh, and shooting men must be SO much easier when you know they are all rapists, every single one.)
It is one thing to convince the enemy that your army is stronger so they might as well give up, and quite another to be so horrible that every single person on the other side will fight to the death. That's only a good strategy if your goal was genocide from the get go - if you just want to seize control of a region, it's ... well, I'd say suboptimal.
How does a lone woman kill a group of soldiers? European civilians don't have guns; and even if they did, trained and experienced soldiers are likely to be better and fasters shots.
As to genocide, Russian troops aren't known for valuing lives either. I don't think they mind killing lots of people if that's what it takes.
Where did you read about Russian commanders instructing their troops to rape? I’m not disputing your claim because men and war are atrocious (and this is incredibly believable), I am just curious as to where you are reading about this.
Most news outlets and investigative journalists in Ukraine have reported on this. You can also look into the war crimes files Ukraine is putting together.
It’s because men honestly do not see rape as that big of a deal whereas many women (me included) see what you describe and what’s happening to Israeli and Ukrainian women and what happens whenever soldiers are around is actually worse than being taken out cleanly by a bullet, especially when a soldier has a gun and have probably taken out a few on the other side. Rape, unlike military combat, is very one sided and with unevenly matched opponents.
As someone from a country that was occupied by Germans and then "liberated" by Russians, no, not all armies are the same. But somehow saying the Russians were far worse than the nazis is construed as being a nazi. The west just isn't taught about what happened in territories occupied by Russians, even though the numbers of deaths is higher, even though they went out of their way to rape.
I understand every army has rapists, but not every army had rape as its primary weapon for civilians.
Yes
My friends mother and grandmother lived in Germany during the Russian occupation
This trauma still prevails in the offspring, I assume mostly in Ost-germany. I have a mongolidic face too, some accuss me of being russian and bully me for it. But my known roots come from Sudetenland. I'v found all our history and existence is lead by rape.
And women really need to find ways to work together to get money, protections and other resources (back) for the crimes males did to us and our foremothers. It's highly unfair that we need to find a job to get income for food, water and a room to live. That we must share our environment with rapists. We should make sure, that males are sued, reduced and never let them uncontroled.
Last time I read when there are more women than men in an environment, the few men are even more willing to be 'polyamor'. Males are true parasites at the end, they want to spread their toxic fluids everywhere. Everyday I wish for a big rEVEenge attack. It needs to happen, every female deserve justice for the hardships she endured. All the hardships can be attributed back to males, those are the ones that create suffering.
The Russians also crucified German women on the walls or doors of their homes and barns.
I know a woman who was walking with her friends, and she was lagging a bit behind and the soldiers came out and grabbed her friends... she managed to turn around and run.
Moroccan Goumiers of the French Expeditionary Corps also committed mass rape against Italian women during WWII.
Remember this when men start advocating war of any kind. This is what they mean.