German war film A Woman in Berlin opens old wounds over Red Army rapes

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article4981683.ece

German war film A Woman in Berlin opens old wounds over Red Army rapes

The gruff phrase “Komm Frau!” – Come, woman! – still sends shivers down the spines of elderly Germans. It was the command given by Russian soldiers as they prowled Berlin and other bombed-out postwar German cities, searching for women to rape.

The hidden horror of those months is about to be revealed in a new German film, A Woman in Berlin, that is likely to shock the nation, stir resentment against the Russians and provoke a debate about morality in war.

The film is based on a diary written by the German journalist Marta Hillers. She began to scribble it in a dusty cellar on Friday April 20, 1945 – Hitler’s birthday, the last before his suicide ten days later.

Within days of the occupation she had been raped several times by Red Army soldiers, one of many hundreds of thousands of German women abused in this way. It was the crime that no one talked about.

In communist East Germany, where the Soviet Union was hailed as friend and protector, the dark days of postwar rape and abuse were forgotten; in West Germany they were locked away among family secrets.

“The German soldiers came back from the war and did not want to know about the humiliation of their wives, daughters, even mothers,” says Nina Hoss, who plays the lead role in the film that opens in Berlin this week. “There was a double silence: the men about what they did on the front; the women about their suffering.”

Click on link for more.......http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article4981683.ece

 

I recall reading even Stalin getting angry at the situation at one point because it was impossible to make East Germany ( a bit later on ) a communistic country because of the continuing poor behaviour of the Red Army troops....

 

Yes Kai, I believe I know what you are referring to. There were dozens of soldiers who and even officers who were shot for such things.

 

I remember reading that in Ivans War

The one thing I really don't like about Der Untergang(The Downfall) was the fairytale ending that entirely avoided the subject of rape and sex slaves. It's brutal and hard to hear about, but it's the reality that many faced.

 

I just watch a program the night before, it sounds like the same one that you mentioned.
A German women was raped by on comming russian men non stop, she does not know how many,cause she could not keep up with the counting. Must of been a whole platoon or a whole unit.

It's not right to rape somebody but..............

Before German women were being rape, weren't Russian Women being rape by German soildiers in the early stage of the war.

 

Certainly, but if you ask the normal forum member he will probably tell you that one crime is no justification for another.

 

I think also it´s worth the mention that as I have read mostly the front line troops of the Red Army were not the ones to do rapings and only once the "security troops" or the second line of army arrived the bad things started to happen. I guess this was often the same for Germans, the SS being the second line.

This is my interpretation so please do say your opinion on this if you wish to.

 

Yes true, but try to say that to Rassian men after there Women were rape, During WW2.

During WW2 there was no rules for sexural or rapes.
In peace time it's so much different.

I'm not saying you're wrong, it's how i see things abit different from you Za Rodinu.

 

Security troops= The red army Russian?
SS= German Soildiers?

Is that correct.

If so, My first post Is Right for once YAY!