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New article name goes here new article content ... During Second World War German forces conduced mass rapes during invasions and occupation of countries that were attacked by Nazi Germany. Sexual violence was integral part of German warfare in the East, particularly in Soviet Union, any attempts to punish soldiers for it were seldom practiced Rape in Wartime page 42 edited by Raphaelle Branche, Fabrice Virgili

In the rare case where a rape case was opened German commanders freely gave pardons to rapists, including those involved in multiple rapes, or even child molestation Rape in Wartime page 42 edited by Raphaelle Branche, Fabrice Virgili


Mass rapes

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Role of rape in German military wartime strategy, rape as tool of warfare

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Mass and public rapes were organized by German Army [1] Historian Regina Mühlhäuser pointed out that Wehrmacht also used sexual torture and undressing in numerous cases of interrogations.[2]

Difference between treatment of rape in Western and Eastern Europe by Nazi Germany

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Rapes were allowed in practice by the German military in eastern and south eastern Europe, while northern and western countries were relatively spared.[3][4] In Occupied Denmark, which initially agreed to collaborate with Nazi Germany, rapes were not widespread, and German officials promised to punish them.[3] As The Oxford Handbook of Modern German History notes In Poland, German soldiers could rape and pillage as they had never dared on the Rhine or the Mosel[5]

Poland

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Mass Rapes during invasion of Poland
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There were rapes committed by soldiers of the Wehrmacht forces against Jewish women and girls during the Invasion of Poland.[6] Rapes were also committed against Polish women and girls during mass executions carried out primarily by the Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz, which were accompanied by Wehrmacht soldiers and on territory under the administration of the German military, the rapes were carried out before shooting the female captives.[7]

Only one case of rape was prosecuted by a German court during the military campaign in Poland, the case of gang rape committed by three soldiers against women of the Jewish Kaufmann family in Busko-Zdrój; however, the German judge sentenced the guilty for Rassenschande - shame against the [German] race as defined by the racial policy of Nazi Germany - and not rape.[8]

Rapes by German forces during Warsaw Uprising
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The Warsaw Uprising of 1944 - Page 80

Włodzimierz Borodziej "On the very first days, German troops in Warsaw had murdered masses of AK soldiers and civilians: On August 1 at least 135 ... In Ochota, the less systematic mass murder was accompanied by rapes and robberies of the RONA members."

The Civilian Population and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 - Page 91 Joanna K. M. Hanson

Marie Curie Institute German soldiers and Kaminski brigade:

This was followed by further looting and raping of nurses, sisters and the sick.22 When one woman resisted she was shot. The following day the hospital was burnt down and the patients sh


Warsaw 1944: Poland's Bid for Freedom - Page 58

Robert Forczyk - 2009 Many female prisoners, like these Polish nurses (6) from the Wola Hospital, were first raped then murdered.

Soviet Union

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Thousands of Soviet female nurses, doctors and field medics fell victim to rape when captured, and were often murdered afterwards.[9] German soldiers used to brand the bodies of captured partisan women – and other women as well – with the words "Whore for Hitler's troops" and rape them.[10] Following their capture some German soldiers vividly bragged about committing rape and rape-homicide.[11] In the Soviet Union alone an estimates regarding the rape of Soviet women by the Wehrmacht range up to 10,000,000 incidents, with between 750,000 and 1,000,000 children being born as a result.[12][13][14][15]

Birgit Beck in her work Rape: The Military Trials of Sexual Crimes Committed by Soldiers in the Wehrmacht, 1939–1944 describes the leniency in punishing sex crimes by German authorities in the East, at the same time pointing out heavy punishments applied in the West.[16] If a soldier who committed a rape was subsequently convicted by a court-martial, he would usually be sentenced to four years in prison[17] The German penal code was also valid for soldiers in war.[18] but rapes were rarely prosecuted in practice and rapes by Germans of non-German women were not taken seriously, nor was it punishable by death, especially in the eastern European territories.[12] Rape by Germans of non-German women was not taken seriously, nor was it punishable by death, especially in the eastern European territories.[12]

In Soviet Russia rapes were only a concern if they undermined military discipline.[16] The German military command viewed them as another method of crushing Soviet resistance.[12] Since 1941, rape was theoretically punishable with the death sentence; however, this only concerned the rape of German women and was intended to protect German communities.[12]

In October 1940 the laws on rape were changed, making it a "petitioned crime" – that is a crime for which punishment had to be requested. Historian Christa Paul writes that this resulted in "a nearly complete absence of prosecution and punishment for rape".[12] There were rape cases in the east where the perpetrators were sentenced if the rape was highly visible, damaging to the image of the German Army and the courts were willing to pass a condemning verdict against the accused.[12]


Examples of mass rapes by German forces in Soviet Union
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Belarus
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During occupation of Belarus and its capital Minsk German gangs regularly invaded houses during nights, setting them alight and raping women found inside

[19] In Smolensk German command opened a brother for officers in which hundreds of women and girls were driven by force, often by arms and hair.[20].

In Borissov in Belarus 75 women and girls attempting to flee at the approach of the German troops were captured by them. The Germans first raped and then savagely murdered 36 of their number. By order of a German officer named Hummer, the soldiers marched L. I. Melchukova, a 16-year-old girl, into the forest, where they raped her. A little later some other women who had alsobeen dragged into the forest saw some boards near the trees and the dying Melchukova nailed to the boards. The Germans had cut off her breasts in the presence of other women.

Ukraine
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  • Lviv: 32 women working in a garment factory were raped and murdered by German soldiers, in public park. A priest trying to stop the atrocity was murdered.
Lithuania
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Some German officers kept captured attractive Jewish women to live them, murdering them once they grew bored of their company Wartime Rape and Sexual Violence: an examination of the perpetrators ... By Alana Fangrad

Russia=

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  • Kerch:imprisoned women were raped and tortured;breasts were cut off,stomachs ripped open, limbs cut off and eyes gouged out. A mass grave full of mutilated bodies of young women was found after Germans were driven out of town.

Wehrmacht brothel system

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Main article: German military brothels in World War II

Under the German occupation, a widespread system of sexual slavery (forced prostitution) was instituted.[12] The Wehrmacht also ran brothels where women were forced to work.[10][21] The reason for establishing these brothels was the German officials' fear of venereal disease and onanism (masturbation). The Oberfeldarzt der Wehrmacht (Chief Field Doctor of the Wehrmacht) drew attention to "the danger of [the] spread of homosexualism".[8][22]

On May 3, 1941 the Foreign Ministry of the Polish Government in Exile issued a document describing the mass raids carried out in Polish cities with the aim of capturing young women, who were later forced to work in brothels attended by German officers and soldiers.[8]

In the Soviet Union women were kidnapped by German forces for prostitution; one report by the International Military Tribunal stated that "in the city of Smolensk the German Command opened a brothel for officers in one of the hotels into which hundreds of women and girls were driven; they were mercilessly dragged down the street by their arms and hair."[23]

The Nuremberg trials did not prosecute anyone for rape or other sexual violence; rape was defined as a crime against humanity, but prosecution was not included because such crimes had "no nexus to war".[12]

References

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  1. ^ The Evolving Boundaries of Defence: An Assessment of Recent Shifts in Defence Activities Renaud Bellais Emerald Group Publishing, page 206 14 Aug 2014
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference eurozine was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Muss was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Sultan, Christopher. "Nazi war crimes as described by German soldiers". Spiegel. Retrieved 16 November 2012.
  5. ^ The Oxford Handbook of Modern German History page 539 edited by Helmut Walser Smith
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Datner-rape was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Obozy podlegle organom policyjnym was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Wprost was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference SDatner was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference seifert1992 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Fleischhauer, Jan (8 April 2011). "Nazi War Crimes as Described by German Soldiers". Spiegel Online. Retrieved 8 April 2011.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cite error: The named reference Wendy was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference implementing was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference encounters was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference gegenwind was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference h-net.org was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference beck was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference beck13 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ Partisanas: Women in the Armed Resistance to Fascism and German Occupation (1936-1945) Ingrid Strobl AK Press, 2008 page 224
  20. ^ War and Rape: Law, Memory, and Justice by Nicola Henry pages 30-32, Routledge
  21. ^ Cite error: The named reference Nuremberg was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference ostrowska was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ Cite error: The named reference international was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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