As the Second World War was coming to an end in Europe, a bloody and brutal battle was
erupting in Berlin. The Soviet Red Army had advanced into the heartland of NAzi Germany,
and inside of his underground bunker Adolf Hitler remained. As his city was being heavily
bombed and was crumbling under the pressure from the Soviets, he decided to bring his
life to an end. But inside of the city, the fighting was fierce and intense, and during
the battle it’s believed that the red army lost around 80,000 soldiers, but the Germans
lost around 100,000 with round 22,000 civilians also killed and almost half a million people
captured. The iconic images of the battle for the Reichstag live long in the memory,
but despite managing to defeat the Nazis and force the German surrender, the Soviet Red
Army committed scores of horrific atrocities and crimes against the people of Berlin. In
particular women suffered greatly as the Red Army advanced. Join us today as we look at
the horrific torture of the women of the battle of Berlin. To support our channel, please
make sure to subscribe.
On the 20th April 1945 and Hitler’s 56th Birthday, the Soviet artillery rang out around
Berlin and the city continued to be hit heavily until its surrender. There was a huge amount
of Soviet artillery fired during the Battle of Berlin, and the soviet plan was to encircle
the city. It was 2 days later where Hitler flew into a blind fit of rage when he realised
that plans to attempt a German breakout had not occurred as the city was suffering heavily,
and it was then when he declared that the war was over and he blamed his generals for
this. Joseph Goebbels ordered propaganda to continue to be spread to try and defend the
city, and even young boys were armed with Panzerfausts and explosives to rebel the Soviets.
It was said, ‘On the walls of the houses we saw Goebbels' appeals, hurriedly scrawled
in white paint: 'Every German will defend his capital. We shall stop the Red hordes
at the walls of our Berlin.' Just try and stop them. Steel pillboxes, barricades, mines,
traps, suicide squads with grenades clutched in their hands—all are swept aside before
the tidal wave. Drizzling rain began to fall. Near Biesdorf I saw batteries preparing
to open fire. 'What are the targets?' I asked the battery commander. 'Centre of Berlin, Spree bridges,
and the northern and Stettin railway stations,' he answered. Then came the tremendous words
of command: 'Open fire on the capital of Fascist Germany.' I noted the time. It was exactly
8:30 a.m. on 22 April. Ninety-six shells fell in the centre of Berlin in the course of a
few minutes.
As soon as the Soviets were advancing reports were going back to Moscow about the behaviour
of the Soviet forces. It was said that, ‘many Germans declared that all German women in
East Prussia who stayed behind were assaulted by Red Army soldiers.’ An order number 006
was issued in an attempt to direct the feelings of hatred at fighting the enemy on the battlefield
rather than committing assaults. This had little effect, and there was a complete lack
of discipline inside of the Red Army. The calls to avenge the Motherland which the Soviets
Feld had been violated by the German invasion in the soviet soldier’s opinions gave them
in their minds permission to do whatever they wanted in Germany. It was said by one soldier
that, ‘Our soldiers behaviour towards Germans particularly Gerrman women is absolutely correct,’
and many believed it was amusing what they were doing. It was completely sick, and it
was said that many soviet women who served inside of the Red Army even watched as the
men assaulted and killed many women. It was said in 1945 that, ‘The Russian soldiers
were assaulting every German female from 8 to 80.’
Many of the Soviet soldiers were often drinking heavily also, and were drinking anything they
could get their hands on. It is believed that this gave them courage to attack women further,
and many women were subject also to violence at the hands of these drunk men. They rampaged
across Germany assaulting and abusing wherever they went, and it’s believed that 2 million
children were born to unwinding German women who had been subject to horrific ordeals at
the hands of the Red Army forces. They did not discriminate with age, and many older
women were also subject to horrific ordeals, and these were completely helpless. Many Red
Army soldiers wanted to humiliate the German women as an act of revenge, and as the Red
Army reached Berlin they regarded women as a right of conquest that they could simply
take almost like sick plunder. It was said by one Soviet General that, ‘a group of
35 provisional leftenants on a course and their battalion commander entered a women’s
dormitory,’ and then carried out horrific crimes there. But in Berlin, the stories of
the Red Army soldiers had been told by Joseph Goebbels, who had distributed propaganda about
the horror of the Red Army. Many believed that despite what had happened in the countryside,
this sort of behaviour could not have been done inside of Berlin, however the Red Army
rampaged throughout the city.
One man who was stationed near the city of Berlin summed up the Red Army’s attitude
towards women. When his group encountered a group of German women fighters he said,
‘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.’ This same soviet soldier later wrote once he reached Berlin that he
came across a group of German women who were carrying suitcases and other items. He asked
where they were going and he said that, ‘With horror on their faces, they told me what had
happened on the first night of the Red Army’s arrivals.’ They poked here explained the
beautiful German girls, they all climbed on me.’
In one area of Berlin, Soviet officers visiter a Sister, the mother superior of a maternity
clinic and orphanage. The officers behaved well and warned the women of the second line
soldiers and what they would do. These officers were right, and when they arrived at the house,
nuns, young women, old women, pregnant women and mothers who had just given birth were
subjected to horrific ordeals. As the city of Berlin was crumbling, soviet soldiers found
many of the air raid shelters and then flashed their torches in the face of many of the women
before they were then grabbed out the shelters and they selected their victims. The women
of Berlin were being treated as spoils of war, who the soldiers took their anger and
rage out on. Many women were forced to try and become friendly with one Soviet soldier
so that they would protect them from other members of the red army.
For example Magda Wieland a 24 year old actress was dragged from a cupboard where she hid,
and a soldier from Central Asia found her. She offered to be his girlfriend if he would
protect her from other Russians, but instead he boasted to his friends and they then assaulted
her. Many women had to disappear during what they deemed was the ‘hunting hours,’ where
there Soviiets would look for any woman. They saw the safer hours as the early morning when
they were hungover and sleeping, and many mothers gave themselves up to save their daughters.
Many women who live in Berlin still today can recall the horror and the screams of those
nights, and as many of the windows had been blown through by the artillery, everything
could be heard.
The city’s hospitals had to deal with many of the victims of the Red Army, and one doctor
believed that around 100,000 women had been assaulted in Berlin, but 10,000 women had
died from their ordeals, or the fact they took their lives after the horror they were
subject to. It’s believed that 2 million women at least were assaulted by Red Army
soldiers across Germany. Men who tried to defend women against soviet attackers were
shot dead and were killed in brutal ways. Following the fall of the city, on-lookers
noted that out of desperation and for food, many of Berlin’s women sold themselves for
food and other luxuries such as cigarettes which were being used as a currency in the
city. One woman who lived during the Battle of Berlin said, ‘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 make-up 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.
At the ruin across the street from us the first Soviet orders were posted, including
a curfew. Suddenly there was a shattering noise outside. Horrified, we watched the Soviets
demolish the corner grocery store and throw its contents, shelving and furniture out into
the street.’ The Red army were causing terror across the city, and another woman said, ‘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’
The Soviet Red Army soldiers caused terror and much fear inside of Berlin. They believed
in retribution and believed they could do what many German soldiers had done to Soviet
women when they rampaged throughout the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa. They believed
that this gave them justification to carry out large scale assaults on the final battlefield
of the European theatre of the Second World War. Many women were scarred by what happened
to them at the hands of the soldiers, and because of this many could not live with themselves
and their ordeals after the war. Still today many old women in Berlin can recall what happened
inside of their city, with the Red Army carrying out some of the most horrific and large scale
war crimes of the Second World War.
Thanks for watching
To support our channel please make sure to subscribe
Thanks again for watching