Rape during the occupation of Germany

Territorial changes and occupational zones of Nazi Germany after its defeat. The map includes the front-line along the Elbe from which U.S. troops withdrew in July 1945.
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As Allied troops entered and occupied German territory during the later stages of World War II, mass rapes of women took place both in connection with combat operations and during the subsequent occupation of Germany by soldiers from all advancing Allied armies, although a majority of scholars agree that the records show that a majority of the rapes were committed by Soviet occupation troops.[1] The wartime rapes were followed by decades of silence.[2][3][4][5]

According to historian Antony Beevor, whose books were banned in 2015 from some Russian schools and colleges, NKVD (Soviet secret police) files have revealed that the leadership knew what was happening, but did little to stop it.[6] It was often rear echelon units who committed the rapes.[7] According to professor Oleg Rzheshevsky, "4,148 Red Army officers and many privates were punished for committing atrocities".[8] The exact number of German women and girls raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation is uncertain, but historians estimate their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as two million.[9]

  1. ^ Women and War. ABC-CLIO. 2006. pp. 480–. ISBN 978-1-85109-770-8.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference sander was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Allan Hall in Berlin (24 October 2008). "German women break their silence on horrors of Red Army rapes". Telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  4. ^ "Raped by the Red Army: Two million German women speak out". The Independent. 15 April 2009. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  5. ^ Susanne Beyer (26 February 2010). "Harrowing Memoir: German Woman Writes Ground-Breaking Account of WW2 Rape". Der Spiegel. Spiegel.de. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  6. ^ Bird, Nicky (October 2002). "Berlin: The Downfall 1945 by Antony Beevor". International Affairs. 78 (4). Royal Institute of International Affairs: 914–916.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Naimark 1995, p. 133