The Second World War went like a roller skating through humanity. Millions of dead and many more mutilated lives and destinies. All the warring parties did truly monstrous things, justifying everything with war.
Of course, the Nazis especially distinguished themselves in this regard, and this does not even take into account the Holocaust. There are many, both documented and frankly fictional stories about what the German soldiers got up to.
One of the high-ranking German officers recalled the briefings they received. Interestingly, there was only one order regarding female military personnel: “Shoot”.
Most did so, but the bodies of women in Red Army uniforms - soldiers, nurses or nurses - are often found among the dead, with traces of cruel torture left on their bodies.
Residents of the village of Smagleevka, for example, say that when they had the Nazis, they found a seriously wounded girl. And in spite of everything they dragged her out onto the road, stripped her and shot her.
But before her death, she was tortured for a long time for pleasure. Her whole body was turned into a solid bloody mess. The Nazis did much the same with female partisans. Before being executed, they could be stripped naked and long time keep in the cold.
Of course, the captives were constantly raped. And if the highest German ranks were forbidden to enter into an intimate relationship with the captives, then the ordinary rank and file had more freedom in this matter. And if the girl did not die after the whole company used her, then she was simply shot.
The situation in the concentration camps was even worse. Unless the girl was lucky and someone from the higher ranks of the camp took her to him as a servant. Although this did not save much from rape.
In this regard, the most cruel place was camp No. 337. There prisoners were kept naked for hours in the cold, a hundred people were put in barracks at once, and anyone who could not do the work was immediately killed. About 700 prisoners of war were killed in the Stalag every day.
Women were tortured in the same way as men, or even much worse. In terms of torture, the Spanish Inquisition could have envied the Nazis. Very often, girls were bullied by other women, for example the wives of the commandants, just for fun. The nickname of the commandant of Stalag No. 337 was "the cannibal".
O. Kazarinov "Unknown Faces of War". Chapter 5. Violence breeds violence (continued)Forensic psychologists have long established that rape, as a rule, is explained not by the desire for sexual satisfaction, but by the desire for power, the desire to emphasize their superiority over the weaker way of humiliation, a sense of revenge.
What if not war contributes to the manifestation of all these base feelings?
On September 7, 1941, at a rally in Moscow, an appeal of Soviet women was adopted, which said: “It is impossible to convey in words what the fascist villains are doing with a woman in the regions of the Soviet country temporarily captured by them. There is no limit to their sadism. These dastardly cowards drive women, children and old people ahead of them to hide from the fire of the Red Army. They rip open the stomachs of the victims they raped, cut out their breasts, they crush them with cars, tear them apart with tanks ... "
What state can a woman be in when she is exposed to violence, defenseless, crushed by the feeling of her own defilement, shame?
A stupor arises in the mind from the murders happening around. Thoughts are paralyzed. Shock. Another's uniforms, someone else's speech, someone else's smells. They are not even perceived as male rapists. These are some monstrous creatures from another world.
And they mercilessly destroy all the concepts of chastity, decency, modesty brought up over the years. They get to what has always been hidden from prying eyes, the exposure of which has always been considered indecent, what they whispered about in the gateways, that they trust only the most beloved people and doctors ...
Helplessness, despair, humiliation, fear, disgust, pain - everything is intertwined in one tangle, tearing from the inside, destroying human dignity. This tangle breaks the will, burns the soul, kills the personality. Drinks life ... Tear off clothes ... And there is no way to resist it. THIS will happen anyway.
I think that thousands and thousands of women cursed at such moments the nature, by the will of which they were born as women.
Let us turn to documents that are more revealing than any literary description. Documents collected only in 1941.
“… It happened in the apartment of a young teacher, Elena K. In broad daylight, a group of drunken German officers burst in here. At this time, the teacher was studying with three girls, her students. Having closed the door with a key, the bandits ordered Elena K. to undress. The young woman resolutely refused to comply with this impudent demand. Then the Nazis tore off her clothes and raped her in front of children. The girls tried to protect the teacher, but the scoundrels also brutally abused them. The teacher's five-year-old son remained in the room. Not daring to scream, the child looked at what was happening with eyes wide open in horror. A fascist officer approached him and cut him in two with a saber strike.
From the testimony of Lydia N., Rostov:
“Yesterday I heard a strong knock on the door. When I approached the door, they beat on it with rifle butts, trying to break it down. 5 German soldiers broke into the apartment. They kicked my father, mother and little brother out of the apartment. Then I found my brother's body in the stairwell. A German soldier threw him from the third floor of our house, as eyewitnesses told me. His head was broken. Mother and father were shot dead at the entrance of our house. I myself was subjected to gang violence. I was unconscious. When I woke up, I heard the hysterical screams of women in the neighboring apartments. That evening all the apartments of our house were defiled by the Germans. They raped all women. " Spooky document! The experienced fear of this woman is involuntarily conveyed in a few stingy lines. Butt blows on the door. Five monsters. Fear for oneself, for relatives taken away in an unknown direction: “Why? So they don't see what will happen? Arrested? Killed? " Doomed to vile torture that deprived of consciousness. The nightmare of the "hysterical screams of women in the neighboring apartments" amplified many times over, as if the whole house was moaning. Unreality…
The statement of Maria Tarantseva, a resident of the village of Novo-Ivanovka: "Having burst into my house, four German soldiers brutally raped my daughters Vera and Pelageya."
"On the very first evening in the city of Luga, the Nazis caught 8 girls on the streets and raped them."
“In the mountains. Tikhvin, Leningrad Region, 15-year-old M. Kolodetskaya, being wounded by a shrapnel, was brought to a hospital (formerly a monastery) where wounded German soldiers were kept. Despite her injury, Kolodetskaya was raped by a group of German soldiers, which was the cause of her death. "
Every time you shudder when you think about what is hidden behind the dry text of the document. The girl is bleeding, it hurts from the wound. Why did this war start! And finally, the hospital. Smell of iodine, bandages. People. Even if they are not Russians. They will help her. After all, in hospitals, people are treated. And suddenly, instead of this - a new pain, a cry, an animal melancholy, driving you to madness ... And consciousness slowly fades away. Forever and ever.
“In the Belarusian town of Shatsk, the Nazis gathered all the young girls, raped them, and then kicked them naked into the square and forced them to dance. Those who resisted were shot on the spot by the fascist monsters. This kind of violence and abuse by the invaders was widespread and widespread. "
“On the very first day in the village of Basmanovo, Smolensk Region, the fascist monsters drove into the field more than 200 schoolchildren and schoolgirls who had come to the village to harvest, surrounded them and shot them. They took the schoolgirls to their rear “for gentlemen officers”. " I am strong and cannot imagine these girls who came to the village with a noisy group of classmates, with their adolescent love and experiences, with the carelessness and cheerfulness inherent in this age. The girls, who then immediately, at once, saw the bloody corpses of their boys and, not having time to comprehend, refusing to believe what had happened, ended up in a hell created by adults.
“On the very first day of the arrival of the Germans in Krasnaya Polyana, two fascists appeared to Alexandra Yakovlevna (Demyanova). They saw in the room Demyanova's daughter - 14-year-old Nyura - a frail and frail health girl. A German officer grabbed the teenager and raped her in front of her mother. On December 10, the doctor of the local gynecological hospital, having examined the girl, stated that this Hitlerite bandit had infected her with syphilis. In a neighboring apartment, fascist cattle raped another 14-year-old girl, Tonya I.
On December 9, 1941, the corpse of a Finnish officer was found in Krasnaya Polyana. A collection of 37 female buttons was found in a pocket, an account of rape. And in Krasnaya Polyana he raped Margarita K. and also tore a button from her blouse. "
The killed soldiers often found "trophies" in the form of buttons, stockings, locks of women's hair. They found photographs of scenes of violence, letters and diaries in which they described their "exploits".
“In their letters the Hitlerites share their adventures with cynical frankness and boasting. Corporal Felix Kapdels sends a letter to his friend: “Having rummaged in the chests and organized a good supper, we began to have fun. The girl was caught angry, but we organized her too. It doesn't matter that the whole department ... "
Corporal Georg Pfaler does not hesitate to write to his mother (!) In Sappenfeld: “We stayed in a small town for three days ... You can imagine how much we ate in three days. And how many chests and cupboards have been dug, how many young ladies have been ruined ... Our life is now merry, not like in the trenches ... "
In the diary of the murdered chief corporal there is the following entry: “October 12th. Today I took part in cleaning the camp from suspicious ones. They shot 82. Among them was a beautiful woman. We, me and Karl, took her to the operating room, she bit and howled. After 40 minutes she was shot. Memory - a few minutes of pleasure "".
With the prisoners who did not have time to get rid of such compromising documents, the conversation was short: they took them aside and - a bullet in the back of the head.
A woman in a military uniform aroused particular hatred among enemies. She is not only a woman - she is also a soldier at war with you! And if the captive male soldiers were broken morally and physically with barbaric torture, then the female soldiers - with rape. (They also resorted to him during interrogations. The Germans raped the girls from the Young Guard, and threw one naked on a hot stove.)
The paramedics who fell into their hands were raped without exception.
“Two kilometers south of the village of Akimovka (Melitopolshchina), the Germans attacked the car in which there were two wounded Red Army soldiers and a female paramedic accompanying them. They dragged the woman into sunflowers, raped her, and then shot her. These animals twisted their hands at the wounded Red Army men and also shot them ... "
“In the village of Voronki, Ukraine, the Germans placed 40 wounded Red Army soldiers, prisoners of war and nurses in a former hospital. The nurses were raped and shot, and guards were set up near the wounded ... "
“In Krasnaya Polyana, the wounded soldiers and the wounded nurse were not given 4 days of water and 7 days of food, and then they were given salt water. The nurse began to agonize. The dying girl was raped by the Nazis in front of the wounded Red Army men. "
The perverse logic of war requires the rapist to exercise FULL power. This means that humiliation of the victim alone is not enough. And then unthinkable mockery is committed over the victim, and in conclusion, her life is taken away, as a manifestation of the SUPERIOR power. Otherwise, what good, she will think that she gave you pleasure! And you can look weak in her eyes, since you did not control your sexual desire. Hence the sadistic treatment and murder.
“Hitler's robbers in one village seized a fifteen-year-old girl and brutally raped her. Sixteen animals tortured this girl. She resisted, she called her mother, she screamed. They gouged out her eyes and threw her, torn to pieces, spattered on the street ... It was in the Belarusian town of Chernin. "
“In the city of Lvov, 32 female workers of a Lviv garment factory were raped and then killed by German stormtroopers. Drunken German soldiers dragged Lviv girls and young women into Kosciuszko Park and brutally raped them. The old priest V.L. Pomaznev, who, with a cross in his hands, tried to prevent violence against girls, the Nazis beat him, tore off his cassock, burned his beard and stabbed him with a bayonet. "
“The streets of the village of K., where the Germans were rampaging for some time, were strewn with the corpses of women, old people, and children. The surviving villagers told the Red Army soldiers that the Nazis drove all the girls into the hospital building and raped them. Then they locked the doors and set the building on fire. "
"In the Begoml region, the wife of a Soviet worker was raped and then put on a bayonet."
“In Dnepropetrovsk, on Bolshaya Bazarnaya Street, drunken soldiers detained three women. Having tied them to pillars, the Germans wildly outraged them, and then killed them. "
“In the village of Milyutino, the Germans arrested 24 collective farmers and took them to a neighboring village. Among those arrested was thirteen-year-old Anastasia Davydova. Having thrown the peasants into a dark barn, the Nazis began to torture them, demanding information about the partisans. All were silent. Then the Germans took the girl out of the barn and asked in which direction the collective farm cattle were driven. The young patriot refused to answer. Fascist scoundrels raped the girl and then shot him. "
“The Germans have rushed to us! Their officers dragged two 16-year-old girls into the cemetery and abused them. Then the soldiers were ordered to hang them in the trees. The soldiers obeyed the order and hung them upside down. In the same place, soldiers abused 9 elderly women. " (Collective farmer Petrova from the collective farm "Plowman".)
“We were standing in the village of Bolshoye Pankratovo. It was on Monday, the 21st, at four o'clock in the morning. The fascist officer walked through the village, entered all the houses, took money and things from the peasants, threatened to shoot all the inhabitants. Then we came to the house at the hospital. The doctor and the girl were there. He told the girl: "Follow me to the commandant's office, I must check your documents." I saw her hiding her passport on her chest. He took her into a garden near the hospital and raped her there. Then the girl threw herself into the field, she shouted, it was clear that she had lost her mind. He caught up with her and soon showed me a passport covered in blood ... "
“The Nazis broke into the Narkomzdrav sanatorium in Augustów. (…) German fascists raped all the women who were in this sanatorium. And then the mutilated, beaten sufferers were shot. "
Historical literature has repeatedly noted that “during the investigation of war crimes, many documents and evidence were found about the rape of young pregnant women, who then had their throats cut and their breasts pierced with bayonets. Obviously, the hatred of the female breast is in the blood of the Germans. "
I will cite several such documents and testimonies.
“In the village of Semyonovskoye, Kalinin Region, the Germans raped 25-year-old Olga Tikhonova, the wife of a Red Army soldier, mother of three children, who was in the last stage of pregnancy, and tied her hands with twine. After the rape, the Germans cut her throat, pierced both breasts and sadistically drilled them out.
“In Belarus, near the town of Borisov, 75 women and girls, who fled when German troops approached, fell into the hands of the Nazis. The Germans raped, then brutally killed 36 women and girls. 16-year-old girl L.I. By order of the German officer Hummer, the soldiers took Melchukova into the forest, where they raped her. After some time, other women, also taken to the forest, saw that there were boards near the trees, and the dying Melchukova was pinned to the boards with bayonets, in whom the Germans were in front of other women, in particular V.I. Alperenko and V.M. Bereznikova, they cut off their breasts ... "
(With all my rich imagination, I cannot imagine what an inhuman scream accompanying the torment of women should have stood over this Belarusian place, over this forest. because you know it's PEOPLE SCREAMING.)
“In the village of Zh., On the road, we saw the mutilated, undressed corpse of old man Timofey Vasilyevich Globa. It is all strewn with ramrods, riddled with bullets. Not far off in the garden lay a dead naked girl. Her eyes were gouged out, her right breast was cut off, and a bayonet stuck out in the left. This is the daughter of old man Globa - Galya.
When the Nazis broke into the village, the girl hid in the garden, where she spent three days. By the morning of the fourth day, Galya decided to make her way to the hut, hoping to get something to eat. Here she was overtaken by a German officer. A sick Globa ran out to her daughter's cry and hit the rapist with a crutch. Two more bandit officers jumped out of the hut, called the soldiers, seized Galya and her father. The girl was undressed, raped and brutally mocked at her, and her father was held so that he could see everything. They gouged out her eyes, cut off her right breast, and inserted a bayonet into the left. Then they undressed Timofey Globa, put him on the body of his daughter (!) And beat him with ramrods. And when he, having gathered the rest of his strength, tried to escape, he was overtaken on the road, shot and stabbed with bayonets. "
It was considered some kind of special “prowess” to rape and torture women in front of people close to them: husbands, parents, children. Perhaps the audience was necessary to demonstrate their "strength" in front of them and emphasize their humiliating helplessness?
"Everywhere brutalized German bandits break into houses, rape women and girls in front of their relatives and their children, scoff at the raped and brutally deal with their victims right there."
“Collective farmer Ivan Gavrilovich Teryokhin walked through the village of Puchki with his wife Polina Borisovna. Several German soldiers grabbed Polina, dragged her aside, threw her into the snow and, in front of her husband's eyes, began to rape one by one. The woman screamed, resisted with all her might.
Then the fascist rapist shot her point-blank. Polina Terekhova thrashed in agony. Her husband escaped from the hands of the rapists and rushed to the dying woman. But the Germans caught up with him and stuck 6 bullets in his back. "
“On the Apnas farm, drunken German soldiers raped a 16-year-old girl and threw her into a well. They also threw her mother there, who was trying to stop the rapists. "
Vasily Vishnichenko from the Generalskoye village showed: “The German soldiers seized me and took me to the headquarters. One of the fascists at this time dragged my wife into the cellar. When I returned, I saw that my wife was lying in the cellar, her dress was torn and she was already dead. The villains raped her and killed her with one bullet in the head and another in the heart.
In development of the topic and in addition to the article Elena Senyavskaya, posted on the website on May 10, 2012, we bring to the attention of our readers a new article by the same author, published in the journal
At the final stage of the Great Patriotic War, having liberated the Soviet territory occupied by the Germans and their satellites and pursuing the retreating enemy, the Red Army crossed the state border of the USSR. From that moment, her victorious path began through the countries of Europe - both those who languished for six years under fascist occupation, and those who acted in this war as an ally of the Third Reich, and through the territory of Hitlerite Germany itself. In the course of this advance to the West and the inevitable various contacts with the local population, Soviet servicemen, who had never been outside their own country before, received many new, very contradictory impressions about representatives of other peoples and cultures, from which ethnopsychological stereotypes of their perception of Europeans were later formed. ... Among these impressions, the image of European women occupied the most important place. Mentions, or even detailed stories about them, are found in letters and diaries, on the pages of memoirs of many participants in the war, where lyrical and cynical assessments and intonations often alternate.
The first European country to which the Red Army entered in August 1944 was Romania. In the "Notes on the War" by the front-line poet Boris Slutsky, we find very frank lines: "Sudden, almost knocked into the sea, Constanta is revealed. It almost coincides with the average dream of happiness and after the war. Restaurants. Bathrooms. Beds with clean linen. Reptilian vendors. And - women, smart urban women - girls of Europe - the first tribute we took from the vanquished ... "Then he describes his first impressions of" abroad ": “Where first the dirt from the hands remains, and then the face is washed”, feather beds instead of blankets - out of disgust caused by everyday life, immediate generalizations were made ... In Constanta we first met brothels ... Our first enthusiasm for the existence of free love quickly pass away. Not only the fear of infection and the high cost, but also the contempt for the very opportunity to buy a person, affects ... Many were proud of the type: a Romanian husband complains to the commandant's office that our officer did not pay his wife the agreed fifteen hundred lei. Everyone had a distinct consciousness: "It is impossible with us" ... Probably, our soldiers will remember Romania as a country of syphilitics ... ". And he concludes that it was in Romania, this European backwater, that "our soldier most of all felt his elevation over Europe."
Another Soviet officer, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Fyodor Smolnikov, on September 17, 1944, wrote down his impressions of Bucharest in his diary: “Hotel Ambassador, restaurant, ground floor. I see the idle audience walking, they have nothing to do, they wait. They look at me like a rarity. "Russian officer !!!" I am very modestly dressed, more than modest. Let be. We will still be in Budapest. This is as true as the fact that I am in Bucharest. First class restaurant. The audience is dressed up, the most beautiful Romanians climb their eyes defiantly (Hereinafter, it is highlighted by the author of the article)... We will spend the night in a first-class hotel. The metropolitan street is seething. There is no music, the audience is waiting. Capital, damn it! I will not give in to advertising ... "
In Hungary, the Soviet army faced not only armed resistance, but also with insidious stabs in the back from the population, when "drunken and stragglers were killed in farmsteads" and drowned in silos. However, "women, not as depraved as Romanians, yielded with shameful ease ... A little love, a little dissipation, and most of all, of course, fear helped." Quoting a Hungarian lawyer, “It’s very good that Russians love children so much. It is very bad that they love women so much, "Boris Slutsky comments:" He did not take into account that Hungarian women also loved Russians, that along with the dark fear that pushed the knees of matrons and mothers of families apart, there was the tenderness of the girls and the desperate tenderness of the soldiers who surrendered themselves to the murderers their husbands. "
Grigory Chukhrai described such a case in Hungary in his memoirs. Part of it was quartered in one place. The owners of the house, where he and the soldiers settled down, during the feast "relaxed under the influence of Russian vodka and admitted that they were hiding their daughter in the attic." The Soviet officers were indignant: “For whom do you take us? We are not fascists! " “The owners were ashamed, and soon a skinny girl named Mariyka appeared at the table and eagerly began to eat. Then, having got used to it, she began to flirt and even ask us questions ... By the end of dinner, everyone was in a friendly mood and drank to "borotshaz" (friendship). Mariyka understood this toast too bluntly. When we went to bed, she appeared in my room in one undershirt. As a Soviet officer, I immediately realized that a provocation was being prepared. “They expect that I will be seduced by the charms of Mariyka and will make a fuss. But I will not give in to provocation, ”I thought. Yes, and the charms of Mariyka did not appeal to me - I showed her to the door.
The next morning, the hostess, putting food on the table, rattled dishes. “She's nervous. The provocation failed! " - I thought. I shared this thought with our Hungarian translator. He burst out laughing.
This is not a provocation! You have been shown a friendly disposition, and you have neglected it. Now you are not considered a person in this house. You need to move to another apartment!
Why did they hide their daughter in the attic?
They were afraid of violence. It is accepted in our country that a girl, before getting married, with the approval of her parents, can experience intimacy with many men. They say here: they don't buy a cat in a tied sack ... "
Young, physically healthy men had a natural attraction to women. But the lightness of European morals corrupted some of the Soviet fighters, while others, on the contrary, convinced that the relationship should not be reduced to simple physiology. Sergeant Alexander Rodin wrote down his impressions of the visit - out of curiosity! - a brothel in Budapest, where part of it stood for some time after the end of the war: “... After leaving, a disgusting, shameful feeling of lies and falsehood arose, a picture of a woman's obvious, frank pretense did not go out of my head ... It is interesting that such an unpleasant aftertaste from visiting a brothel remained not only with me, a young man, who was also brought up on principles such as “do not give a kiss without love, but also with most of our soldiers, with whom I had to talk ... Around the same days, I had to talk with one a pretty Magyark (she knew Russian from somewhere). When she asked if I liked Budapest, I replied that I liked it, only brothels are embarrassing. "But why?" the girl asked. Because it is unnatural, wild, - I explained: - a woman takes money and after that, immediately begins to "love!" The girl thought for a while, then nodded in agreement and said: "You are right: it is ugly to take money forward" ... "
Poland left a different impression of itself. According to the poet David Samoilov, “... in Poland they kept us strict. It was difficult to escape from the location. And pranks were severely punished. " And he gives the impressions of this country, where the only positive moment was the beauty of Polish women. “I cannot say that we liked Poland very much,” he wrote. - Then in it I did not come across anything noble and chivalrous. On the contrary, everything was bourgeois, farmer - both concepts and interests. Yes, and in eastern Poland they looked at us wary and semi-hostile, trying to rip off the liberators what was possible. However, the women were comfortingly beautiful and flirtatious, they captivated us with their mannerisms, cooing speech, where everything suddenly became clear, and they themselves were captivated at times by a rude male force or a soldier's uniform. And their pale, emaciated former admirers, gritting their teeth, went into the shadows for a while ... ".
But not all assessments of Polish women looked so romantic. On October 22, 1944, junior lieutenant Vladimir Gelfand wrote in his diary: with beautiful Polish women, proud to the point of disgust ... … I was told about Polish women: they lured our soldiers and officers into their arms, and when it came to bed, they cut off their penises with a razor, strangled their throats with their hands, and scratched their eyes. Crazy, wild, ugly females! You have to be careful with them and not get carried away by their beauty. And the Poles are beautiful, ugly. " However, there are other moods in his notes. On October 24, he records the following meeting: “Today, beautiful Polish girls turned out to be my companions to one of the villages. They complained about the absence of the guys in Poland. They also called me "Pan", but they were inviolable. I patted one of them gently on the shoulder in response to her remark about men, and consoled me with the thought of an open road for her to Russia - there are many men there. She hastened to step aside, and to my words she replied that there would be men for her here too. Said goodbye by shaking hands. So we didn’t come to an agreement, but nice girls, even if they’re Pole ”. A month later, on November 22, he wrote down his impressions of the first large Polish city he met in Minsk-Mazowieckie, and among the description of the architectural beauties and the number of bicycles that amazed him among all categories of the population, he devotes a special place to townspeople: “Noisy idle crowd, women, as one, in white special hats, apparently put on from the wind, which make them look like forty and surprise with their novelty... Men in triangular caps, in hats - fat, neat, empty. How many there are! ... Dyed lips, lined eyebrows, pretentiousness, excessive delicacy ... How unlike the natural life of a human being. It seems that people themselves live and move on purpose only to be looked at by others, and everyone will disappear when the last spectator leaves the city ... "
Not only Polish city dwellers, but also villagers left a strong, albeit contradictory, impression of themselves. “The vitality of the Poles, who survived the horrors of war and German occupation, was striking,” recalled Alexander Rodin. - Sunday afternoon in a Polish village. Beautiful, elegant, in silk dresses and stockings, Polka women, who on weekdays are ordinary peasant women, rake dung, barefoot, tirelessly work on the farm. Older women also look fresh and youthful. Although there are black frames around the eyes ..."He further cites his diary entry dated November 5, 1944:" Sunday, the inhabitants are all dressed up. They are going to visit each other. Men in felt hats, ties, jumpers. Women in silk dresses, bright, unworn stockings. Pink-cheeked girls - "panenki". Beautifully curled blonde hairstyles ... The soldiers in the corner of the hut are also animated. But whoever is sensitive will notice that this is a painful revival. Everyone laughs loudly to show that they are not bothered by this, that it does not even bother them at all and is not enviable at all. Are we worse than them? The devil knows what happiness it is - a peaceful life! After all, I have not seen her at all in civilian life! " His brother-soldier, Sergeant Nikolai Nesterov, wrote in his diary on the same day: “Today is a day off, the Poles, beautifully dressed, gather in one hut and sit in pairs. Even somehow it becomes uncomfortable. Wouldn't I be able to sit like this? .. "
Galina Yartseva, a serviceman, is much more ruthless in her assessment of the "European morals" reminiscent of "a feast during the plague". On February 24, 1945, she wrote to a friend from the front: “… If there was an opportunity, it would be possible to send wonderful parcels of their trophy things. There is something. It would be ours stripped and undressed. What cities have I seen, what kind of men and women. And looking at them, you are possessed by such evil, such hatred! They walk, love, live, and you go and set them free. They laugh at the Russians - "Schwein!" Yes Yes! Bastards ... I do not like anyone except the USSR, except for those peoples who live with us. I don’t believe in any friendship with Poles and other Lithuanians ... ”.
In Austria, where Soviet troops broke into in the spring of 1945, they faced a "general surrender": "Whole villages were covered with white rags. Elderly women raised their hands up when they met a man in a Red Army uniform. " It was here, according to B. Slutsky, that the soldiers "got hold of the blond women." At the same time, “the Austrians did not turn out to be overly stubborn. The overwhelming majority of peasant girls married "spoiled". The holiday soldiers felt like Christ in their bosom. In Vienna, our guide, a bank official, marveled at the persistence and impatience of the Russians. He believed that gallantry is enough to get everything you want from the wreath. " That is, it was not only a matter of fear, but also of certain peculiarities of the national mentality and traditional behavior.
And finally Germany. And the women of the enemy - mothers, wives, daughters, sisters of those who, from 1941 to 1944, sneered at the civilian population in the occupied territory of the USSR. How did the Soviet servicemen see them? The appearance of German women walking in a crowd of refugees is described in the diary of Vladimir Bogomolov: “Women - old and young - in hats, in headscarves with a turban and just a canopy, like our women, in smart coats with fur collars and in ragged clothes of an incomprehensible cut ... Many women wear dark glasses so as not to squint from the bright May sun and thus protect their face from wrinkles.... "Lev Kopelev recalled a meeting in Allenstein with evacuated Berliners:" There are two women on the sidewalk. Intricate hats, one even with a veil. Solid coats, and they themselves are sleek, sleek. " And he cited the soldiers' comments addressed to them: "chickens", "turkeys", "that would be so smooth ..."
How did the Germans behave when they met Soviet troops? In the report of the deputy. Head of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army Shikin in the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks G.F. begin to gradually take to the streets, almost all of them have white armbands on their sleeves. When meeting with our servicemen, many women raise their hands up, cry and tremble with fear, but as soon as they are convinced that the soldiers and officers of the Red Army are not at all the same as their fascist propaganda painted them, this fear quickly passes, more and more people take to the streets and offer their services, trying in every possible way to emphasize their loyalty to the Red Army. "
The greatest impression on the winners was made by the humility and prudence of the German women. In this regard, it is worth citing the story of N.A. Orlov, a mortarman, who was shocked by the behavior of German women in 1945: “Nobody in the minbat killed civilian Germans. Our special officer was a "Germanophile". If this happened, the reaction of the punitive authorities to such an excess would be quick. About violence against German women. It seems to me that some, talking about such a phenomenon, "exaggerate" a little. I remember an example of a different kind. We went into some German city, settled in houses. "Frau", 45 years old, appears and asks "the commandant's hera." They brought her to Marchenko. She claims to be in charge of the quarter, and has gathered 20 German women to sexually (!!!) serve Russian soldiers. Marchenko understood the German language, and to the deputy political officer Dolgoborodov, who was standing next to me, I translated the meaning of what the German woman said. The reaction of our officers was angry and abusive. The German woman was driven away, together with her "detachment" ready for service. In general, German obedience stunned us. They expected partisan warfare and sabotage from the Germans. But for this nation, order - Ordnung - is above all. If you are a winner, then they are "on their hind legs", and deliberately and not under duress. This is such a psychology ... ".
David Samoilov cites a similar case in his military notes: “In Arendsfeld, where we have just settled down, a small crowd of women with children appeared. They were led by a huge mustachioed German woman of about fifty - Frau Friedrich. She stated that she was a representative of the civilian population and asked to register the remaining residents. We replied that this could be done as soon as the commandant's office appeared.
It's impossible, ”said Frau Friedrich. “There are women and children here. They need to be registered.
The civilian population with screams and tears confirmed her words.
Not knowing what to do, I suggested that they take the basement of the house where we were accommodated. And they, calmed down, went down to the basement and began to be accommodated there, awaiting the authorities.
Herr Commissioner, Frau Friedrich told me complacently (I wore a leather jacket). “We understand that soldiers have small needs. They are ready, - continued Frau Friedrich, - to provide them with several younger women for ...
I did not continue the conversation with Frau Friedrich. "
After talking with the inhabitants of Berlin on May 2, 1945, Vladimir Bogomolov wrote in his diary: “We enter one of the surviving houses. Everything is quiet, dead. We knock, please open. You can hear whispering in the corridor, talking dully and excitedly. Finally the door opens. The women without age, huddled in a close group, bow down in fear, low and obsequiously. German women are afraid of us, they were told that Soviet soldiers, especially Asians, would rape and kill them ... Fear and hatred on their faces. But sometimes it seems that they like to be defeated - their behavior is so helpful, their smiles are so sweet and their words are sweet. These days, there are stories about how our soldier entered a German apartment, asked for a drink, and the German woman, as soon as she saw him, lay down on the sofa and took off her tights. "
“All German women are depraved. They have nothing against sleeping with them. " - such an opinion was prevalent in the Soviet troops and was supported not only by many illustrative examples, but also by their unpleasant consequences, which were soon discovered by military doctors.
The directive of the Military Council of the 1st Belorussian Front No. 00343 / Ш of April 15, 1945 read: “During the stay of the troops on the enemy's territory, the incidence of venereal diseases among military personnel has sharply increased. A study of the reasons for this situation shows that venereal diseases are widespread among Germans. Before the retreat, and also now, in the territory we occupied, the Germans took the path of artificial infection with syphilis and gonorrhea of German women in order to create large foci for the spread of venereal diseases among the soldiers of the Red Army».
On April 26, 1945, the Military Council of the 47th Army reported that “... In March, the number of venereal diseases among military personnel increased as compared with February of this year. four times. ... The female part of the German population in the surveyed areas is affected by 8-15%. There are cases when the enemy specifically leaves German women sick with venereal diseases to infect military personnel. "
To implement the Decree of the Military Council of the 1st Belorussian Front No. 056 of April 18, 1945 on the prevention of venereal diseases in the troops of the 33rd Army, a leaflet was issued with the following content:
“Comrades, servicemen!
You are being seduced by German women, whose husbands went around all brothels in Europe, got infected themselves and infected their German women.
Before you are those German women who were deliberately abandoned by the enemies in order to spread venereal diseases and thereby incapacitate the soldiers of the Red Army.
We must understand that our victory over the enemy is close and that soon you will be able to return to your families.
What kind of eyes will the one who brings a contagious disease look into the eyes of his loved ones?
Can we, the soldiers of the heroic Red Army, be the source of infectious diseases in our country? NO! For the moral character of a Red Army soldier must be as pure as the image of his Motherland and family! "
Even in the memoirs of Lev Kopelev, who angrily describes the facts of violence and looting of Soviet servicemen in East Prussia, there are lines reflecting the other side of the "relationship" with the local population: they sell a loaf of bread and wives and daughters. " The squeamish tone in which Kopelev renders these "stories" implies their unreliability. However, they are confirmed by many sources.
Vladimir Gelfand described in his diary his courtship with a German girl (the entry was made six months after the end of the war, on October 26, 1945, but still very characteristic): “I wanted to enjoy the caresses of pretty Margot to my heart's content - kisses and hugs were not enough. I expected more, but did not dare to demand and insist. The girl's mother was pleased with me. Still would! I brought sweets and butter, sausage, expensive German cigarettes to the altar of trust and affection from my relatives. Already half of these products are enough to have a complete basis and the right to do anything with the daughter in front of the mother, and she will not say anything against it. For food products today are more expensive even than life, and even such a young and sweet sensual woman, like the gentle beauty Margot. "
Interesting diary entries were left by the Australian war correspondent Osmar White, who in 1944-1945. was in Europe in the ranks of the 3rd American Army under the command of George Paton. Here is what he wrote in Berlin in May 1945, just a few days after the end of the assault: “I walked through the night cabaret, starting with the Femina near Potsdammerplatz. It was a warm and humid evening. The air was filled with the smell of sewers and rotting corpses. Femina's façade was covered in futuristic nude pictures and advertisements in four languages. The ballroom and restaurant were filled with Russian, British, and American officers escorting (or hunting down) the women. A bottle of wine cost $ 25, a horse meat and potato hamburger $ 10, a pack of American cigarettes a mind-boggling $ 20. The cheeks of the Berlin women were rouged, and their lips were painted in such a way that it seemed that Hitler had won the war. Many women wore silk stockings. The lady-hostess of the evening opened the concert in German, Russian, English and French. This provoked a taunt from the captain of the Russian artillery, who was sitting next to me. He leaned over to me and said in decent English: “Such a quick transition from national to international! RAF bombs are great professors, aren't they? "
The general impression of European women that Soviet servicemen have is sleek and smart (in comparison with their war-worn compatriots in the half-starved rear, in the lands liberated from the occupation, and with front-line friends dressed in washed tunics), available, selfish, loose or cowardly submissive. The exceptions were Yugoslav women and Bulgarians. The harsh and ascetic Yugoslav partisans were perceived as comrades in and were considered inviolable. And given the severity of manners in the Yugoslav army, "the partisan girls probably looked at the PW [field wives] as being of a special, nasty sort." Boris Slutsky recalled about Bulgarians as follows: “... After Ukrainian complacency, after Romanian debauchery, the severe inaccessibility of Bulgarian women amazed our people. Almost no one boasted of victories. It was the only country where officers were often accompanied on a walk by men, almost never by women. Later, the Bulgarians were proud when they were told that the Russians were going to return to Bulgaria for brides - the only ones in the world who remained clean and untouched. "
The Czech beauties, who joyfully greeted Soviet soldiers-liberators, left a pleasant impression. Embarrassed tankers from combat vehicles covered with oil and dust, decorated with wreaths and flowers, said among themselves: “... Something tank bride, to clean it up. And their girls, you know, they put on. Good people. I have not seen such a sincere people for a long time ... ”The friendliness and hospitality of the Czechs was sincere. “… - If it were possible, I would kiss all the soldiers and officers of the Red Army for liberating my Prague, - to a general friendly and approving laugh, said… a Prague tram worker”, - this is how he described the atmosphere in the liberated Czech capital and the mood of local residents May 11, 1945 Boris Polevoy.
But in other countries, through which the army of victors passed, the female part of the population did not command respect. “In Europe, women gave up, changed before anyone else ... - wrote B. Slutsky. - I was always shocked, confused, disoriented by the lightness, shameful lightness of love relationships. Decent women, of course, disinterested, were like prostitutes - hastily availability, a desire to avoid intermediate stages, no interest in the motives pushing a man to get closer to them. Like people who learned three obscene words from the entire vocabulary of love lyrics, they reduced the whole thing to a few body movements, causing resentment and contempt among the most yellow-eyed of our officers ... Restraining motives were not ethics at all, but the fear of infection, fear of publicity, of pregnancy. - and added that under the conditions of conquest "general depravity covered and hid a special female depravity, made her invisible and shameful."
However, among the motives that contributed to the spread of "international love", despite all the prohibitions and harsh orders of the Soviet command, there were several more: female curiosity for "exotic" lovers and the unprecedented generosity of Russians to the object of their sympathy, which favorably distinguished them from tight-fisted European men.
Junior lieutenant Daniil Zlatkin at the very end of the war ended up in Denmark, on the island of Bornholm. In his interview, he said that the interest of Russian men and European women to each other was mutual: “We did not see women, but we had to ... And when we arrived in Denmark ... it is free, please. They wanted to check, test, try a Russian person, what it is, how it is, and it seemed to work better than the Danes. Why? We were disinterested and kind ... I gave a box of chocolates half a table, I gave 100 roses to an unknown woman ... for her birthday ... "
At the same time, few people thought about a serious relationship, about marriage, in view of the fact that the Soviet leadership clearly outlined its position on this issue. The Decree of the Military Council of the 4th Ukrainian Front of April 12, 1945 said: “1. Explain to all officers and all personnel of the front troops that marriage with foreign women is illegal and strictly prohibited. 2. To report immediately on command about all cases of military personnel entering into marriage with foreign women, as well as about the connections of our people with hostile elements of foreign states, in order to bring those responsible to account for the loss of vigilance and violation of Soviet laws. " The directive of the head of the Political Directorate of the 1st Belorussian Front of April 14, 1945 read: “According to the head of the Main Directorate of Human Resources of the NCO, the Center continues to receive applications from officers of the active army with a request to authorize marriages with women of foreign states (Polish, Bulgarian, Czech and etc.). Such facts should be seen as dulling vigilance and dulling patriotic feelings. Therefore, it is necessary in political and educational work to pay attention to a deep explanation of the inadmissibility of such acts on the part of the officers of the Red Army. Explain to all the officers who do not understand the futility of such marriages, the inexpediency of marrying foreign women, up to a direct prohibition, and not to allow a single case. "
And women did not indulge themselves with illusions about the intentions of their gentlemen. “At the beginning of 1945, even the stupidest Hungarian peasant women did not believe our promises. The European women were already aware that we were forbidden to marry foreign women, and they suspected that there was a similar order for a joint appearance in a restaurant, cinema, etc. This did not prevent them from loving our ladies' men, but it gave this love a purely "owed" [carnal] character, "wrote B. Slutsky.
On the whole, it should be admitted that the image of European women that was formed among the soldiers of the Red Army in 1944-1945, with rare exceptions, turned out to be very far from the suffering figure with his hands chained, looking with hope from the Soviet poster "Europe will be free!" ...
Notes (edit)
Slutsky B. War Notes. Poems and ballads. SPb., 2000.S. 174.
In the same place. S. 46-48.
In the same place. S. 46-48.
Smolnikov F.M. We are at war! The diary of a front-line soldier. Letters from the front. M., 2000.S. 228-229.
Slutsky B. Decree. Op. S. 110, 107.
In the same place. P. 177.
Chukhrai G. My war. M .: Algorithm, 2001.S. 258-259.
Rodin A. Three thousand kilometers in the saddle. Diaries. M., 2000.S. 127.
Samoilov D. People of one option. From military notes // Aurora. 1990. No. 2.P. 67.
In the same place. S. 70-71.
Gelfand V.N. Diaries 1941-1946. http://militera.lib.ru/db/gelfand_vn/05.html
In the same place.
In the same place.
Rodin A. Three thousand kilometers in the saddle. Diaries. M., 2000.S. 110.
In the same place. S. 122-123.
In the same place. P. 123.
Central archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. F. 372. Op. 6570. D; 76.L. 86.
Slutsky B. Decree. Op. P. 125.
In the same place. S. 127-128.
Bogomolov V.O. Germany Berlin. Spring 1945 // Bogomolov V.O. My life, or did I dream about you? .. M .: The magazine "Our contemporary", No. 10-12, 2005, No. 1, 2006. http://militera.lib.ru/prose/russian/bogomolov_vo/03. html
Kopelev L. Keep forever. In 2 books. Book 1: Parts 1-4. M .: Terra, 2004. Ch. 11.http: //lib.rus.ec/b/137774/read#t15
Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (hereinafter - RGASPI). F. 17. Op. 125.D. 321.L. 10-12.
From an interview with N.A. Orlov on the site "I remember". http://www.iremember.ru/minometchiki/orlov-naum-aronovich/stranitsa-6.html
Samoilov D. Decree. Op. P. 88.
Bogomolov V.O. My life, or did I dream about you? .. // Our contemporary. 2005. No. 10-12; 2006. No. 1. http://militera.lib.ru/prose/russian/bogomolov_vo/03.html
From the Political report on bringing to the personnel the directives of Comrade Stalin No. 11072 of 04/20/1945 in the 185 rifle division. April 26, 1945 Quoted. Quoted from: Bogomolov V.O. Decree. Op. http://militera.lib.ru/prose/russian/bogomolov_vo/02.html
Cit. on: Bogomolov V.O. Decree. Op. http://militera.lib.ru/prose/russian/bogomolov_vo/02.html
In the same place.
In the same place.
State Archives of the Russian Federation. F. p-9401. Op. 2.D. 96.L.203.
Kopelev L. Decree. Op. Ch. 12.http: //lib.rus.ec/b/137774/read#t15
Gelfand V.N. Decree. Op.
White Osmar. Conquerors "Road: An Eyewitness Account of Germany 1945. Cambridge University Press, 2003. XVII, 221 pp. Http://www.argo.net.au/andre/osmarwhite.html
Slutsky B. Decree. Op. P. 99.
In the same place. P. 71.
Polevoy B. Liberation of Prague // From the Soviet Information Bureau ... Journalism and sketches of the war years. 1941-1945. T. 2. 1943-1945. Moscow: APN Publishing House, 1982.S. 439.
In the same place. S. 177-178.
In the same place. P. 180.
From an interview with D.F. Zlatkin on June 16, 1997 // Personal archive.
Cit. on: Bogomolov V.O. Decree. Op. http://militera.lib.ru/prose/russian/bogomolov_vo/04.html
In the same place.
Slutsky B. Decree. Op. S. 180-181.
The article was prepared with the financial support of the Russian Humanitarian Scientific Foundation, project No. 11-01-00363a.
A Soviet poster of 1944 "Europe will be free!" Was used in the design. Artist V. Koretsky
3.8 (76.25%) 32 votesWomen held captive by the Germans. How the Nazis mocked the captured Soviet women
The Second World War went like a roller skating through humanity. Millions of dead and many more mutilated lives and destinies. All the warring parties did truly monstrous things, justifying everything with war.
Carefully! The material presented in this collection may seem unpleasant or intimidating.
Of course, the Nazis especially distinguished themselves in this regard, and this does not even take into account the Holocaust. There are many, both documented and frankly invented stories about what the German soldiers got up to.
One of the high-ranking German officers recalled the briefings they received. Interestingly, there was only one order regarding female military personnel: “Shoot”.
Most did so, but among the dead are often found the bodies of women in the uniform of the Red Army - soldiers, nurses or nurses, whose bodies are left with traces of cruel torture.
Residents of the village of Smagleevka, for example, say that when they had the Nazis, they found a seriously wounded girl. And in spite of everything they dragged her out onto the road, stripped her and shot her.
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But before her death, she was tortured for a long time for pleasure. Her whole body was turned into a solid bloody mess. The Nazis did much the same with female partisans. Before being executed, they could be stripped naked and kept in the cold for a long time.
Women soldiers of the Red Army in captivity and the Germans 1 part
Of course, the captives were constantly raped.
Women soldiers of the Red Army held captive by the Finns and the Germans, part 2. Jews
And if the highest German ranks were forbidden to enter into an intimate relationship with the captives, then the ordinary rank and file had more freedom in this matter.
And if the girl did not die after the whole company used her, then she was simply shot.
The situation in the concentration camps was even worse. Unless the girl was lucky and someone from the higher ranks of the camp took her to him as a servant. Although this did not save much from rape.
In this regard, the most cruel place was camp No. 337. There prisoners were kept naked for hours in the cold, a hundred people were put in barracks at once, and anyone who could not do the work was immediately killed. About 700 prisoners of war were killed in the Stalag every day.
Women were tortured in the same way as men, or even much worse. In terms of torture, the Spanish Inquisition could have envied the Nazis.
Soviet soldiers knew exactly what was happening in concentration camps and what the threat of captivity. Therefore, no one wanted to give up and was not going to. They fought to the end, until her death, she was the only winner in those terrible years.
Bright memory to all those who died in the war ...
The idea of the German invaders about Soviet women was formed on the basis of Nazi propaganda, which asserted that the vast eastern territory was inhabited by half-savage, dissolute ladies devoid of intelligence, who had lost the concept of human virtues.
Having crossed the border of the USSR, the Nazi servicemen were forced to admit that the stereotypes imposed on them by the party did not at all correspond to reality.
Mercy
Among the amazing qualities of Soviet women, the German military especially noted their mercy and lack of hatred for the soldiers of the enemy army.
In the front-line records made by Major Kühner there are passages dedicated to peasant women, who, despite the hardships and general grief, did not become embittered, but shared with the needy fascists the last meager supplies of food. It is also recorded there that “when we [the Germans] feel thirsty during the transitions, we go into their huts, and they give us milk,” thereby putting the invaders into an ethical dead end.
Chaplain Keeler, who served in the medical unit, by the will of fate, turned out to be a guest in the house of 77-year-old grandmother Alexandra, whose heartfelt concern for him made him think about metaphysical questions: “She knows that we are fighting against them, and yet she knits socks for me ... The feeling of enmity is probably unfamiliar to her. Poor people share their last good with us. Do they do it out of fear, or does this people really have an innate sense of self-sacrifice? Or do they do it out of good nature or even out of love? "
Kuhner's true bewilderment was caused by the strong maternal instinct of a Soviet woman, about which he wrote: "How often I saw Russian peasant women shouting over wounded German soldiers, as if they were their own sons."
Moral
The real shock of the German invaders was caused by the high morality of Soviet women. The thesis of the promiscuity of oriental ladies, implanted by fascist propaganda, turned out to be just a myth, devoid of foundation.
The Wehrmacht soldier Michels, reflecting on this topic, wrote: “What did they tell us about a Russian woman? And how did we find her? I think that there is hardly a German soldier who has been to Russia who has not learned to appreciate and respect the Russian woman. "
All the fair sex, driven to Germany from the occupied territories of the USSR for forced labor, were immediately sent for a medical examination, during which very unexpected details were revealed.
Doctor's assistant Eirich, orderly Gamm, left such an interesting note on the pages of his notebook: “The doctor who examined Russian girls ... was deeply impressed by the examination results: 99% of girls aged 18 to 35 turned out to be chaste”, followed by the addition “he thinks, that in Oryol it would have been impossible to find girls for a brothel ... "
Similar data came from various enterprises where Soviet girls were sent, including the Wolfen factory, whose representatives noted: "It seems that a Russian man pays due attention to a Russian woman, which ultimately is also reflected in the moral aspects of life." ...
The writer Ernest Jünger, who fought in the German troops, having heard from the staff doctor von Grevenitz that the data on the sexual debauchery of Eastern women was a complete deception, realized that his feelings did not let him down. Endowed with the ability to peer into human souls, the writer, describing Russian young ladies, noticed “the brilliance of purity that surrounds their face. Its light does not have in itself the flicker of active virtue, but rather resembles the reflection of moonlight. However, this is precisely why you feel the great power of this light ... "
Operability
German tank general Leo Geir von Schweppenburg, in his memoirs about Russian women, noted their "worth, no doubt, purely physical performance." This trait of their character was also noticed by the German leadership, which decided to use the Eastern ladies stolen from the occupied territories as servants in the homes of devoted members of the National Socialist Workers' Party of Germany.
The housekeeper's duties included a thorough cleaning of the apartments, which weighed down the pampered German Frau and badly affected their precious health.
Cleanliness
One of the reasons for attracting Soviet women to housekeeping was their amazing cleanliness. The Germans, who broke into the houses of civilians, rather modest in appearance, were amazed at their interior decoration and neatness imbued with folk motives.
Expecting to meet with the barbarians, the fascist servicemen were discouraged by the beauty and personal hygiene of Soviet women, which was reported by one of the heads of the Dortmund health department: “I was actually amazed at the good appearance of workers from the East. The greatest surprise was caused by the teeth of the workers, since until now I have not yet found a single case of a Russian woman having bad teeth. Unlike us Germans, they must pay a lot of attention to keeping their teeth in order. "
And chaplain Franz, who by virtue of his vocation did not have the right to look at a woman through the eyes of a man, restrainedly stated: “About feminine Russian women (if I can put it that way), I got the impression that they, with their special inner strength, keep under the moral control of those Russians who can be considered barbarians. "
Family bonds
The lies of the fascist agitators who asserted that the totalitarian authorities of the Soviet Union completely destroyed the institution of the family, to which the Nazis sang praises, could not stand the test of reality.
From the front-line letters of German soldiers, their relatives learned that women from the USSR were not robots without feelings at all, but anxious and caring daughters, mothers, wives and grandmothers. Moreover, the warmth and closeness of their family ties could only be envied. At every opportunity, numerous relatives communicate with each other and help each other.
Piety
The fascists were greatly impressed by the deep piety of Soviet women, who, despite the official persecution of religion in the country, managed to maintain a close connection with God in their souls. Moving from one settlement to another, Hitler's soldiers discovered many churches and monasteries in which services were held.
Major K. Kühner in his memoirs told about two peasant women he saw, who were praying fervently, standing among the ruins of a church burned by the Germans.
The Nazis were surprised by women prisoners of war who refused to work on church holidays, in some places the guards went to meet the religious feelings of the prisoners, and in others a death sentence was imposed for disobedience.
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