'They raped every German female from eight to 80'

[orieleye]

"Red Army soldiers don't believe in 'individual liaisons' with German women," wrote the playwright Zakhar Agranenko in his diary when serving as an officer of marine infantry in East Prussia. "Nine, ten, twelve men at a time - they rape them on a collective basis."

The Soviet armies advancing into East Prussia in January 1945, in huge, long columns, were an extraordinary mixture of modern and medieval: tank troops in padded black helmets, Cossack cavalrymen on shaggy mounts with loot strapped to the saddle, lend-lease Studebakers and Dodges towing light field guns, and then a second echelon in horse-drawn carts. The variety of character among the soldiers was almost as great as that of their military equipment. There were freebooters who drank and raped quite shamelessly, and there were idealistic, austere communists and members of the intelligentsia appalled by such behaviour.

Beria and Stalin, back in Moscow, knew perfectly well what was going on from a number of detailed reports. One stated that "many Germans declare that all German women in East Prussia who stayed behind were raped by Red Army soldiers". Numerous examples of gang rape were given - "girls under 18 and old women included".

Marshal Rokossovsky issued order No 006 in an attempt to direct "the feelings of hatred at fighting the enemy on the battlefield." It appears to have had little effect. There were also a few arbitrary attempts to exert authority. The commander of one rifle division is said to have "personally shot a lieutenant who was lining up a group of his men before a German woman spreadeagled on the ground". But either officers were involved themselves, or the lack of discipline made it too dangerous to restore order over drunken soldiers armed with submachine guns.

\'They raped every German female from eight to 80\' | News | guardian.co.uk Books

[M.R.]

So much about liberators and glorious allies... Not that I'm defending German side, but I'm sick of stories how glorious allies were and how they did nothing wrong, liberated Europe etc. It's a myth used by modern world powers and communist regimes before.

[Cirrus]

Originally Posted by M.R.

So much about liberators and glorious allies... Not that I'm defending German side, but I'm sick of stories how glorious allies were and how they did nothing wrong, liberated Europe etc. It's a myth used by modern world powers and communist regimes before.

Indeed, but it's not only about the allies : a war is never clean, whatever the militaries can say. Not that I am especially antimilitarist, but that's a fact.