War Dossier: A Scene from History — Mass Rapes of Women in Germany at the End of World War II

February 23, 2019

A Scene from History — Mass Rapes of Women in Germany at the End of World War II

One of the most painful subjects of the Second World War remains the mass killings and rapes committed by the Red Army during its advance into Germany. I am not writing this text in order to blacken or excuse either side. My only purpose is to draw attention to another repulsive and indelible face of war. I studied dozens of pages of material. Unfortunately, because of space limitations, I can present it only briefly.

The Russians themselves had suffered severely under the German occupation and had lost millions of people. That is indisputable. When the German advance was halted and the Soviet Army moved forward, the assault on Berlin began. Panic swept German cities. Some women committed suicide together with their children.

When the Red Army entered Berlin and established control, attacks on women began. With every night the cries grew louder—the voices of women desperately calling for help in the city streets. According to Berlin physicians, over the course of several months about 100,000 to 130,000 women were raped, and about 10,000 were killed, either through violence or suicide. If other regions under German control are included, the total number of victims has been estimated at around 1.5 million women.

Vladimir Gelfand, a Jew of Ukrainian origin, witnessed the tragedy experienced by women in Berlin and described it in his diary. For many years he was not permitted to publish these records. He was a member of the Communist Party from 1942 to 1946 and served as a lieutenant in the Red Army. After the war, according to the article, he defended a candidate dissertation and worked as a history teacher at Gorky University. While in Berlin he recorded a scene that, for him, symbolized the position of German women amid the city’s ruins:

“Their faces bore the imprint of profound fear. Russians had attacked a young woman—her clothes had been torn to shreds. When they entered the city, they raped everyone, from eight to eighty-eight years old. They caught me when I was crying in a narrow street, trying to escape, and immediately threw me to the ground. I think there were twenty of them or more. In the end I lost consciousness... A mother said: ‘They raped my daughter in front of my eyes.’ Another young woman suddenly jumped onto my knees and said: ‘If you want, you can sleep with me.’ I think she had suffered a nervous breakdown.”

Vladimir Gelfand’s memoirs, like other books, were later translated into Swedish and German. They are regarded as among the most valuable testimonies describing the occupation of Berlin.

The situation began to get out of control. Berlin was said to be filled with the bodies of women who had been raped and discarded. Commanders ignored what was happening. Some even said, “Now it is our turn.” When accusations mounted, an official statement was issued on behalf of the Soviet Army declaring that the heroic Russian soldier did not stoop to such acts. Soviet Party authorities called all such accusations “black fascist propaganda.” But, the author argues, it was true.

In 2002 historian Antony Beevor published Berlin: The Downfall, in which he used documents sent to NKVD chief Lavrentiy Beria. These documents contained reports of rape and violence in regions from East Prussia to Berlin. Evidently, the materials were passed on to Stalin himself. At the same time, Soviet newspapers published photographs of soldiers distributing food to the German population. Such publications were accompanied by typical official formulations of the time: “Our heroic army has extended a hand to the German people in order to help the victims of war.” Not a word was said about violence. Only decades later did books begin to appear that told this side of the story, including A Woman in Berlin.

On the Soviet side there was strict censorship. Those who mentioned rapes and mass killings, who “defamed the honor” of the Red Army or passed information to the foreign press, received official warnings that they could be imprisoned for up to five years.

Germany faced another problem. Under Paragraph 218, the law then in force, women were prohibited from obtaining abortions. After the war, however, this prohibition ceased to operate. A temporary parliament immediately adopted legislation legalizing abortions, and within several months thousands of Berlin women made use of the opportunity.

Years later, a young Russian historian named Vera Dubina began studying these events. She studied history and sociology at Moscow University. During a trip to Berlin she began collecting material on the subject and decided to publish a book. She described her experience as follows:

“I returned with a very strong desire to respond. But when I decided to publish a book, some officials began threatening my academic career. I was told that I had no right to tarnish our nation’s victory in this way. Even my family began to look at me as though I were a traitor.”

In time the violence and rapes in Berlin subsided. Tens of thousands of people were arrested as prisoners of war and sent to camps. Women found themselves in desperate circumstances. Food supplies were controlled by the Russians and Americans. Meat, fat, clothing and other necessities were extremely difficult to obtain. After some time, desperate Berlin women themselves began seeking contact with American and Soviet soldiers.

For many decades the full scale of these events remained hidden. It later became clear that American and some British soldiers had also taken part in rapes. The author nevertheless attributes the largest share of the crimes to the Soviet Army.

A book drawing on the testimony of German woman Ingeborg Bullert and other witnesses was adapted into a film shown in Germany in 2008. The reaction was astonishing. Germans officially acknowledged that they were shocked. Until then, the younger generation had had little idea of what had happened. It was as though all sides had followed the rule of the three wise monkeys: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Russians and Americans kept silent about their crimes, while Germans concealed the truth for many years out of fear and shame.

I have attached several photographs from that period. I deliberately did not use the most offensive images; those included here are enough to give an idea of what took place.

Submitted by: Oray Poyraz

• 1. “This is how it all began. German women practically worshipped Hitler.”
• 2. “And this is how it ended. The Red Army enters Berlin.”
• 3. “Vladimir Gelfand, who wrote in his diary what women in Berlin told him.”
• 4.  “A Soviet soldier tries to drag a woman away.”
• 5. “Then the massacres and rapes began.”
• 6. “After the rapes and massacres, some German women began to associate with occupation soldiers. The men on the right are American soldiers; the man walking with the woman is a Soviet soldier.”