The Rape of German Women during WWII | Lisa Slater | Women’s History Month | USC Shoah Foundation

"Stalin gave his troops the right to rape, to steal, to kill, to do whatever they want to do. And believe me, they did.”

Usually, when we discuss the Holocaust, it’s easy to distinguish between the perpetrators and victims. However, some instances of wartime violence blur these lines, and identifying the perpetrator/victim becomes unclear. Lisa Slater, for example, was a Protestant Christian German woman who served as a teletypist for the German army during World War II. She claims to have been unaware of the persecution of Jews (and the Nazi’s other victims). In her USC Shoah Foundation testimony, Lisa recalls the Soviet soldiers’ violent victimization of her and other German women.

March is Women’s History Month in the United States.

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[rolandscherer]

My aunt was in Berlin during the collapse. Like most women, she never spoke about her experiences, but everyone in the family knew what had happened, just not how often. She was what was then called hysterical, today it would be called post-traumatic stress disorder.

[tacitus]

My grandmother was a child in Berlin during the fall. She told me how the Russians made them keep their apartment doors open or unlocked. My great grandmother disguised her a lot younger then she was (she was actually 11) and my great grandmother made herself look a lot older with ash. My grandmothers elderly grandad was there through some and would shoo the soldiers away when they would come in drunk saying “only old ladies and babies here.” Absolutely get what the SS did was evil and they were monsters, but children and innocent always are the ones that suffer from others crimes. My grandmother also said when she was little she had to stay with nuns while she was very sick and had to be quarantined. She said they were incredibly lovely. When the Russian’s came she found out when she was older the nunnery was attacked and the nuns were murdered and raped. War is sad, anyone that messes with children, no matter what side need to be strung up.

[JB-npxi]

Guy I use to work with, his aunt was a nurse in the Philippines when the Japanese invaded. He said she had been raped so many times by them and had to give herself so many home abortions, she lost the ability to bear children.

[nonameyet]

And it’s sickening to know that many of these perpetrators got away with it, probably lived on to have descendants walking around not knowing what their grandparents or great-grandparents did.

[dciccantelli]

"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do nothing".

[oliver]

raping is morally wrong, it doesn't matter if it is Germans doing it to French, Polish women or Soviets to German Women, or Japanese Korean, and Chinese women. this is not specific to one nation but to some men

[melissagallinetti]

I met a German lady that was institutionalized most of her life. She told me these stories and about how she had to smother her newborn baby so the group she was with was not found. I cannot imagine the hell her life was.

[lfw]

Everyone is quick to thank a vet, but they forget civilians pay the largest price in every war.

[Zayithyah]

So horrible and terrible. The evilness that people can do to others especially the women and children is just beyond comprehension..

[shannonmerrifield]

I was told growing up this happened to my grandfather’s cousins, 2 girls, teenagers. Eventually 1 committed suicide, the other survived but was in & out of the hospital her adult life. She suffered from breakdowns as a result of the rapes by Russian soldiers.

[reba]

It wasn't just the Russian soldiers raping women. My grandfather's cousin was almost rape by a African American soldier..
Her mother help a American General who had stomach problems, he gave her his name etc. When the African American soldier tried to rape her daughter she gave the soldier the name of the General then he stop what he was doing..
(This is all fact my grandfather witnessed this as a boy along side his mother.)

[pjmlegrande]

I lived in Germany for much of the 60s, from the ages of 11 to 17. My dad was military and stationed there and when he retired, continued to work there for an agency of the U.S. Govt. I was curious about WWII history and living there piqued that interest. To my mother’s great discomfort, I’d come home from the PX newsstand with paperbacks that were coming out at the time (1961-62) with what I suppose were the early wave of holocaust survivors’ accounts. They freaked me out but I could not stop reading them. It was a light bulb moment for me as a 13 year old that the world could be insanely brutal and I realized if the Nazis could do it, it could happen again in other places. As a result, I could never looked at adult authority in the same away as I had. Another book that I always saw at the PX newsstand was entitled The Big Rape. I was a little embarrassed to browse it at the newsstand, but I finally did. It was nothing but harrowing accounts of survivors of what this woman describes. More brutal insanity from the other side. I don’t know if that book is still in print.

[joalexsg]

Although horrifying as it is, thank you so much for not letting these and other crimes in WWII to be forgotten, a must share.

[moll]

My daughter visited Berlin last year and said she felt very sad - the spirits of the dead are still haunting Berlin.

[kiwichickinaus]

When I hear such stories, I develop an attitude or belief that it’s only the enemy soldiers that do the raping etc, but sadly it’s our allies too, and am reminded of my uncle (a New Zealander) who fought in the Vietnam war alongside our allied US soldiers, and he witnessed atrocities committed by these US soldiers of raping the women and pillaging in each village as they progressed throughout the war. My uncle came away when the war ended with such a disgust of the US and wanted nothing to do with anything of the US, for example, my cousins weren’t allowed to watch US tv programs! I don’t know military ways, but it seems ALL soldiers have a right to commit such horrendous crimes against women during wartime, which to me is just diabolical! War is usually started by pathological men and fought by men, yet it’s the women & children that suffer the most!

[snowflower]

My gypsy grandmother told me a story when i was a little girl.She said when the Russians took over Hungary the gypsy families had to cut very short the little girls, teenager girls hair off and hide them, because of the Russians raped women☹

[griswald]

My dad went into German farmhouses after the war and he wouldnt tell me what the Russians had done to the German occupants…..it must have been bad..

[lorenabg]

Rape was always part of all wars even now. Humanity is lost during those brutal times. 😢

[susiwakeman]

Thank you for your witness testimony, it is abhorrent and unacceptable the evil in this world x we will never ever forget x GOD Bless you all x much love from the UK xx

[jimmydykes]

My mother and grandmother survived ww2 and a concentration camp and neither one would watch a war movie