American soldiers during the Second World War: An Army Of Rapists? |
The Americans have got off lightly as compared to the Russians when the discourse turns to mass rape of German women during WW2. When we hear of "Rape...German women...WW2" we inevitably hear of the ugly, shoddily dressed, often Mongoloid Red Army soldiers.
American soldiers were almost as bad as the Russian soldiers when it came to exploiting German women during and after WW2 |
Andreas Vayngand a priest from the village of Hag-on-amperes recorded that on June 25 "very drunk Americans committed three rapes: one married woman, a spinster and innocent girl 16.5 years."
By order of the military command the residents had to hang on their doors lists of residents and their age - said in a memorandum dated 1 August 1945 according to the priest Alois Moozburga Shimla. What brought this order, it is easy to guess: 17 girls and women were raped several times. " We also know that the youngest victim of the Americans was only 7 years, and the most elderly - 69.
The subject of mass rape of German women during the Second World War by Allied soldiers, especially American soldiers warmed up again after the publication of a German book 'Als die Soldaten kamen' by Miriam Gebhardt in early 2015.
The author in it says the rapists came not only from the east but west also. That more than 8,60,000 German women and girls were violated by American GIs. Sickeningly she also says that German men and boys too were raped.
The terrible deeds occurred not only in the Soviet sector but also in American, British and French sectors of occupied Germany. It happened for days on end.
Rapes by American soldiers were less reported by the victims for two reasons. They were unwilling to speak out against the 'liberators'. Secondly, Goebbelsian propaganda had labeled only the Soviet soldiers as the 'bad guys' near the end of the conflict.
The agony that German women suffered at the end of WW2 remains under-reported in non-German Western media and the victims have not received any compensation.
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The numerous ravages committed by American soldiers busts the long held myth that there was no need of coercion as German women were readily enticed by a bar of chocolate.
The amorous tendencies of the GIs was not limited to Germany alone. Robert Lilly in his book "Taken By Force" estimates that about 17000 rapes were committed between 1942 and 1945 in Britain, France and Germany. Only 5% of these were reported. And Lilly's estimates are very very conservative.
In conclusion, in the unending discussions on the Second World War, there is little mention of the plight of the German women at the end of WW2. 70 years later there is no recognition of the crime, no apologies made, either by the Russians or the Americans.
And research on this subject is being done only in Germany. Why are there no books by American and British historians, academics and writers? One can count only one book, Mary Louise Roberts book "What Soldiers Do: Sex And The American GI In World War 2 France". Nothing else. There is of course Robert Lilly's "Taken by Force: Rape and American GIs in Europe in World War II". But it has racist undertones and it says mainly the black Americans were the bad guys. There are passing mentions in many treatises but not a single book on the mass rape of German women during WW2.
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