Mass rape during the occupation of Germany

When told that Red Army soldiers sexually assaulted German refugees, the atheist Joseph Stalin declared: "We lecture our soldiers too much; let them have their initiative."[1]

The Soviet Union practiced state atheism and militant atheism.

According to the University of Cambridge, historically, the "most notable spread of atheism was achieved through the success of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which brought the Marxist-Leninists to power."[2] See also: Atheism and communism and Soviet atheism

## Mass rape and the Soviet Union's army in Germany[edit]

As Allied troops entered and occupied Germany during the latter part of World War II, mass rapes occurred in connection with combat operations and during the occupation which followed. Historians in the Western World generally conclude that the majority of the rapes were committed by Soviet servicemen.

The majority of the rapes happened in the Soviet occupation zone. Estimates of the number of German women sexually assaulted by Soviet soldiers have ranged up to 2 million.[3][4][5][6][7] The historian William Hitchcock declared that in many cases women were the victims of repeated rapes, some women experienced as many as 60 to 70 rapes.[8]

After the atheist leader of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin received a complaint from Yugoslav politician Milovan Djilas about rapes in Yugoslavia, Stalin reportedly said that he should "understand it if a soldier who has crossed thousands of kilometres through blood and fire and death has fun with a woman or takes some trifle."[9] Also, when told that Red Army soldiers sexually assaulted German refugees, Stalin declared: "We lecture our soldiers too much; let them have their initiative."[10]

Only a handful of Soviet soldiers were ever court martialed for raping German women during the war.[11]

## Contents

* 1 Mass rape and the Soviet Union's army in Germany
* 2 See also
* 3 External links
* 4 Notes

## See also[edit]

* Atheism and sexuality

* Atheism and rape

* Atheistic Sweden and rape

* Irreligion and domestic violence

* Secular Europe and domestic violence

* Atheism and sadism

* Atheism and women

* Soviet atheism

* Antitheism and antisocial behavior

* Atheism and morality

## External links[edit]

* 'They raped every German female from eight to 80' by Antony Beevor in The Guardian
* Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps by Daniel Johnson, The Telegraph
* Silence Broken On Red Army Rapes In Germany, National Public Radio
* The rape of Berlin, BBC

Video:

* Raped by Red Army soldiers, they talk for the first time
* German women raped during WWII by the Soviets

## Notes[edit]

1. ↑ Roberts, Andrew. "Stalin's army of rapists: The brutal war crime that Russia and Germany tried to ignore", Daily Mail, 24 October 2008.
2. ↑ Investigating atheism: Marxism. University of Cambridge (2008). Retrieved on July 17, 2014. “The most notable spread of atheism was achieved through the success of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which brought the Marxist-Leninists to power. For the first time in history, atheism thus became the official ideology of a state.”
3. ↑ Heineman, Elizabeth (1996). "The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity". American Historical Review 101 (2): 354–395.
4. ↑ Kuwert, P.; Freyberger, H. (2007). "The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II". International Psychogeriatrics 19 (4): 782–784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.
5. ↑ BBC - History - World Wars: The Battle for Berlin in World War Two. Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved on 10 December 2014.
6. ↑ Hanna Schissler The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949–1968 [1]
7. ↑ Silence Broken On Red Army Rapes In Germany. NPR.org (17 July 2009). Retrieved on 10 December 2014.
8. ↑ Hitchcock, William I. (2004). The Struggle for Europe: The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent, 1945 to the Present. Anchor Books. ISBN 978-0-385-49799-2.
9. ↑ Anne Applebaum, Iron Curtain, The Crushing of Eastern Europe, p.32
10. ↑ Roberts, Andrew. "Stalin's army of rapists: The brutal war crime that Russia and Germany tried to ignore", Daily Mail, 24 October 2008.
11. ↑ German women raped during WWII by the Soviets \- Video