‘When The Soldiers Came’ claims Allied troops raped one million women. Children, men and young boys were also abused by soldiers, it claims. Until now it was thought only the Stalin’s Red Army raped German women. But author insists she has spoken to some who can attest to the abuse. There was a misconception all women traded sex for coveted goods. But western soldiers took advantage of power to rape, says the author.
A million women were raped by Allied soldiers in Germany in the immediate aftermath of World War II, a new books claims.
‘When The Soldiers Came,’ by historian Miriam Gebhardt, is hailed as the definitive account of the treatment meted out to the defeated women of Nazi Germany which they remained silent about for decades out of shame and humiliaton.
‘At the very least 860,000 women and girls – and also men and young boys – were raped by the occupying Allied soldiers and their helpers. It happened everywhere,’ begins the book.
Until now it was widely thought that only the Red Army, which advanced on Germany with rape as a weapon sanctioned by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, committed the mass rapes upon tens of thousands of women, many of whom committed suicide.
‘Soldiers of the western Allies were also guilty,’ said Mrs. Gebhardt, a renowned historian in Germany who tracked down some victims to interview them about their ordeal at the hands of Briish and American soldiers.
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