Why 100,000 Berlin Women Were Tortured By Soviet Soldiers

本站添加: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]In the final days of World War II in Europe, a terrifying and fearsome problem was on the horizon for many German women inside of towns and cities.

[00:00:10]They were now seeing Soviet and Allied troops occupying their lands, and many were forced out of their homes, and they were subjected to a terrifying amount of assaults. Violence was inflicted upon German women by all armies of the Western Allies, and also by, in particular, the Soviet Red Army, who rampaged and treated German women like spoils of war.

[00:00:33]In their eyes, they were seeking revenge for the terror that was brought years before inside Soviet lands during Operation Barbarossa.

[00:00:42]German troops rounded up groups of women and had them shot inside mass pits. And when they charged into the black heart of the Reich, Berlin, the Soviets were completely unforgiving.

[00:00:54]In just a matter of weeks, over 100,000 German women were subjected to a horrendous ordeal at the hands of the Soviets, who would defeat the German defenders.

[00:01:05]This was all taking place inside of a city where Hitler took his final breaths, and where many of the top-ranking Nazis decided there was no way out.

[00:01:15]But why specifically did 100,000 Berlin women suffer so badly?

[00:01:20]The majority of the assaults upon German women were conducted within areas that fell under Soviet occupation.

[00:01:27]During their invasion into Germany, it's estimated that over 2 million German women were subjected to a horrific ordeal.

[00:01:35]Many of these women were repeatedly tortured in this way, and inside of Berlin, at least 100,000 alone suffered.

[00:01:42]The shame and evil of these incidents also led to around 10,000 women dying in the aftermath, as many couldn't live with what they'd been subjected to, and others were violently killed by the Soviets. Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator, was completely dismissive to this sort of crime, and he stated that he could understand, quote, "If a soldier who had crossed thousands of kilometers through blood and fire and death has fun with a woman or takes some trifle."

[00:02:11]Stalin also claimed that, I quote, "We lecture our soldiers too much. Let them take some initiative."

[00:02:19]No one was really ever punished for the actions against German women, and much of the motivation behind this was revenge. The Soviet Red Army had seen what German forces had done on their doorstep. They knew that the Germans had killed, slaughtered, and assaulted civilians themselves, and when they rampaged within Germany, they instinctively wanted revenge and to inflict the same sort of pain upon their enemies.

[00:02:43]The Soviet troops were also given a feeling of entitlement by their officers, too. As they entered Germany, they were not discouraged from their behavior, and they saw women as spoils of war. Shockingly, some Soviet soldiers even committed evil crimes upon women and girls who found themselves liberated from concentration camps. Some Soviet veterans tried to justify their actions, and they brazenly admitted it. One former officer said, I quote, "We were young, strong, and 4 years without women. So, we tried to catch German women. There were not enough. The entire population run from the Soviet Army. So, we had to take young, 13 or 14 years old. Now, I cannot understand how I did it, a boy from a good family, but that was me."

[00:03:32]One female telephone operator documented some of the crimes, and she claimed that, I quote, "When we occupied every town, we had first three or four days of looting and assaults. That was unofficial, of course, but after three days, one could be called marshal for doing this. I remember one German woman laying there with a hand grenade between her legs. Now, I feel shame, but I did not feel shame back then. Do you think it was easy to forgive the Germans? We hated to see their clean and damaged white houses with roses. I wanted them to suffer. I wanted to see their tears.

[00:04:08]Decades had to pass until I started feeling pity for them. Inside of Berlin, specifically, women decided to take drastic action, and as the Soviets came into the city, they sheltered underground and tried to hide out in cellars.

[00:04:23]They learned that the Soviets had a hunting hour, in which each evening, drunken soldiers would search for women wherever they could, and they would grab them and then conduct horrific crimes.

[00:04:33]One German woman said inside of Berlin that, I quote, "The next morning, we women proceeded to make ourselves look as unattractive as possible to the Soviets by smearing our faces with coal dust and covering our heads with old rags, our makeup for the Ivan. We huddled together in the central part of the basement, shaking with fear, while some peeked through the low basement windows to see what was happening on the Soviet-controlled street. We felt paralyzed by the sight of these husky Mongolians looking wild and frightening.

[00:05:06]They continued to cause terror all across the German capital, and another woman claimed, I quote, "The front-line Russian troops who did the fighting, as a woman, you didn't have to be afraid of them. They shot every man they saw, even old men and young boys, but they left the women alone. It was the ones who came afterwards, the second echelon, who were the worst. They did all the assaulting and plundering. They stripped homes of every single possession, right down to the toilets. Many of the Soviet forces who entered the city of Berlin had been drinking very heavily, and they were battle-scarred. They justified their actions towards the women of the city as revenge for what the Nazis and Germans did, but of course, all of this was a war crime, and the women were innocent civilians, and they were defenseless.

[00:05:54]The Soviet general who was present and saw what was happening claimed, I quote, "The captured German female cats declared they were avenging their dead husbands. They must be destroyed without mercy. Our soldiers suggested stabbing them, but I would just execute them."

[00:06:11]So, those who were caught trying to take up arms against them were shot and killed or executed in other ways. But the same general then went on to say that, with horror on their faces, the women had told me what happened on the first night of the Red Army arrivals.

[00:06:26]But this all just shows you the attitudes the Soviet hierarchy had, especially towards German women.

[00:06:32]Every night, Berlin was under a huge amount of attack by those who ravaged throughout Berlin. And then, following this, the occupation of the city was also a very real fear and threat to women. In one area of Berlin, the Soviets entered an orphanage and also a home for women who had previously just given birth. This house was run by Catholic nuns and was overseen by a mother superior. These women were, of course, absolutely no threat. The Soviet officers went in first and spoke to the women fairly, and they wanted the women to try and escape as they knew what lower-ranking soldiers would then do.

[00:07:08]Many women decided to stay and couldn't believe what the men were saying, and what happened next isn't worth even talking about because it's so wrong.

[00:07:18]There were some high-profile victims of the brutality of the Soviet troops, too.

[00:07:23]Hitler's own personal chef and cook, Constanze Manziarly, after escaping the Führerbunker complex underground where Hitler had taken his life, was actually led away by Soviet soldiers near to an underground station.

[00:07:37]She was never seen again, and it's been presumed that she encountered a horrific fate and was then murdered by her attackers, and her body has, still to this day, never been found.

[00:07:48]Lots of women inside of Berlin were also violently attacked and beaten badly, and they tried to do whatever they could to escape terror.

[00:07:56]Some even tried to become the boyfriends of Soviet soldiers in the hope that this single soldier would protect them from others and also protect them from attacks from groups. The Red Army went hunting throughout the evening, and a combination of this, battle scars, revenge, and alcohol was a poisonous cocktail that led to so much more pain and evil within the ruins of Berlin.

[00:08:17]The women, as mentioned, were completely defenseless, and the only thing they could do was to try and hide out inside the cellars or underground where they could.

[00:08:26]Their husbands, brothers, and fathers during this were often dragged out and then shot, too. So, why did all this happen? Well, of course, one of the driving motivations was, as mentioned, revenge and reprisal for what the German forces had done inside Soviet lands.

[00:08:43]Many soldiers had family members who'd been shot in public or who'd been subjected to the crimes of the German forces. But there were also many other reasons. The Soviets believed that the women were spoils of war and were, in a sense, their property, which they could do whatever they wanted with.

[00:09:00]There was also, quite clearly, a distinct lack of direction or punishment from senior officers and generals to discourage this sort of behavior and action. Some of them even encouraged it and certainly turned a blind eye to what their men were doing.

[00:09:16]During the Battle of Berlin, the final chapter of the Second World War in Europe, there was a huge amount of terror and brutality inflicted upon civilians.

[00:09:24]Yes, many of them had supported the Nazis throughout their rise to power, but as they came under intense bombardment from the Soviet attacks, their opinions changed, and they went into pure survival mode, trying to outlive the next minute as best as they could to avoid danger.

[00:09:41]They went underground to flee from Soviet artillery, but many women had to cope with another form of terror that would emerge inside the city.

[00:09:50]Thanks for watching.

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