by Heath, Tim
While on the subject of war crimes committed by Russian soldiers against girls and women in Berlin, noted Allied war crimes after the D-Day landings at Normandy in France of June 1944, must also be examined.
As far as can be ascertained, there are no reports of any British soldiers ever having taken part in the rape of German girls or women. The British Tommy has always been, perhaps, the best disciplined of soldiers in the world, and in most cases conducted himself with great moral distinction throughout.
Research shows that the first Allied soldier to be executed for the crime of rape after the D-Day landings, was Private Clarence Whitfield, a coloured US soldier who had served with the 494th Port Battalion. Whitfield had been convicted of the brutal rape of Aniela Skrzyniarz, a young Polish girl who had been working on a farm at Vierville-sur-Mer just beyond Omaha Beach. This incident occurred on 14 June 1944, and Whitfield was hanged on gallows erected in the garden of the Chateau de Canisy, a castle in Canisy, Normandy, 5km south of Saint-Lô.
Two other coloured soldiers were also hanged for the crime of rape on 10 February 1945, in the village of Hameau Pigeon on the Cherbourg Peninsula. The two men, privates Yancy and Skinner, were convicted of the rape of 19-year-old French girl, Marie Osouf, and the murder of her boyfriend Auguste Lebarillier. Hundreds of black US troops were forced to watch the double hanging.
A total of 49 US soldiers were hanged for crimes of rape and murder that had been committed on French soil after the D-Day landings. It is noted that in the whole European theatre of operations, 109 civilians were murdered by US soldiers. It is also recorded, that US soldiers were responsible for the murder of at least 107 civilians and the rape of 552 in Germany. However, none of the German women interviewed for this work had any bad encounters or problems with soldiers of either the British or US armies, black or white.
Theresa Moelle can also testify to the shooting of at least one adult female, who was believed to have been involved in the fighting in Warsaw.
She had been held by the Russians ever since they had swept through Warsaw and drove our forces out, though she was with us for only a short period of time before she was killed. I often tried to make a conversation with her, but she did not seem to want to talk to anyone. I remember that she wore a black and white patch on her shoulder. I remember it as plain as anything; it was a black wolf head on a white background and was roughly triangular shaped. I did once ask her what it was and she said that it was one that she and her friends had made themselves from pieces of rag. Was she one of the female Wolves we had heard so many stories about after the war? Though we all called ourselves Female Wolves during the fighting in the city.
Soldiers came one evening and took her away, and several minutes later we heard shots being fired. When the soldiers returned they began drinking again and making dirty remarks about us again, and took great pleasure again in telling us how good it felt killing one of us fucking Germans. Looking back, I think that the woman had very likely belonged to one of the combat units set up by Gertrud Scholtz-Klink. Either way, it may be impossible to discover the truth now.
The terrible things revealed in this chapter, and indeed excerpts of material contained in the previous one, are just a very small number of a great many such incidents. The author felt an obligation to record at least some during the four years of his research for this book. It would be impossible to place too much documentary emphasis on accounts of Russian barbarity, as most cases seem to follow the same grotesque pattern.
To conclude, there will always be those that will say, ‘Well, those bloody Germans deserved all that they got for following the cause of National Socialism.’ Such comments, however, are usually the ignorant and venomous words of those who have no understanding of how a nation functions economically, socially and politically under dictatorial rule. Unless an individual has personally endured life within the regimented, often violent and controlled environment of a state like Nazi Germany, then judgement of those who lived through it all, whether they supported it or not, should be withheld.
Finally, one has to highly commend those women who, despite being sexually violated during that terrible time in Berlin, have very bravely stepped forward to discuss their experiences with the author. Added to this, they have done so with such immense dignity and in such detail for this work. It can never be a complete account of war, in all of its ugliness, without the warts and all approach essential for the production of this kind of work.
To some degree, the reader will also now be aware that the rape and violence perpetrated against some of the contributors to this work did not destroy their lives as was the obvious intention, and therefore, their continued strength and courage has to be admired.
Heidi Koch:
I don’t think that any of us would be here now if it had not been for the BDM. The BDM had prepared us all for struggle and to overcome all physical hardship and adversity. We were brought up to do nothing but struggle. Artur Axmann [Hitler Youth leader] once flattered us all at a meeting in 1943 by saying:
‘You are all butterflies, a butterfly emerges from its cocoon, to a short life filled with struggle, yet its beauty is so delicate. Let this delicate creature be your natural example.’
It was our physical strength that kept our bodies and our minds alive during the war, and particularly the hell of April and May of 1945. We did lose the war, but we did not lose our minds, and we are here now, though considerably older and wiser. In war everyone loses, even the victors lose something and that is the logic of it all. No sooner had Germany been beaten than the British and Americans were facing a new enemy in Communist Russia, just as Germany had warned. It started a new age of terror with the constant threat of instantaneous annihilation. World War Three came very close to happening for many years after World War Two had ended.
After the fall of Berlin, the uneasy peace between Britain and America and the Soviet Union would soon crumble under mutual distrust and paranoia, which would inevitably and ultimately lead to the political partitioning of Germany into two sectors, East and West, with a huge wall erected by the Russians and East Germans as the dividing line between the two. Before long, this edifice would become known around the world as the Berlin Wall, becoming the symbol of Communist tyranny.
Chapter Fifteen
After the Reich
With Hitler dead, the war lost, his army and air force decimated, and his dreams of a 1,000-year Reich in total ruins, the people of Berlin were as shattered and thoroughly beaten as their city. Berlin was now a city without infrastructure and in a state of complete turmoil. Once the raping, killing and looting had finally ended after three long days and nights, on orders from Josef Stalin, the Russian forces in the city were like angry bees, spending much of their time erecting all manner of unofficial memorials to their fallen comrades and patrolling the city streets. By 5 June 1945, the four victorious allied nations of America, Britain, France and the USSR assumed occupation power, and began working towards their plan for the immediate dissection of Germany.
Many thousands of ordinary German families had become displaced during the fighting, and groups of men and women wandered around the city, hopelessly searching for their missing children and relatives, many of whom were dead. The first American forces would not enter Berlin until 4 July 1945, so in the interim, many Berliners were just trying to come to terms with a now very uncertain future. German soldiers captured during the fighting were still being marched out of the city and into Soviet captivity. Those German soldiers accused of committing war crimes were held at a prison situated in the Pankow district of northeastern Berlin, a sector that joined the borough of Reinickendorf. This area later became the administrative centre of the Soviet occupation zone.
Theresa Moelle:
It was the worst period of my entire life. Everything was uncertain at that time and I was not sure if I would ever see my family ever again. I thought that we would all be transported to Russia and sent to the labour camps, as the guards often th
reatened us by saying we would be sent to die in the Gulag [Soviet forced-labour camp system]. I recall wondering if the Americans and British would come and try to sort things out, as everything was in chaos.
I had very bad cystitis, brought on by the unsanitary conditions of the camp, and was given very little food or water. The food we were given often made us sick. It was also around that time that they began intensive questioning.
It was always two different German-speaking Russians, who took it in turns to try and break you mentally. They told me that if I failed to tell them the truth I would be sorry. I told them I had only been with a flak unit, and they asked questions such as the type of gun and how many planes we shot down, and did we shoot any Russian planes down? When did we join the fighting amongst the civilians? etc. Lastly, they asked me how I came to be wearing a jacket of the type worn by the SS. I said that the jacket had been given to me during the battles in the city. I do not think they were convinced and they kept asking me if I had been involved with the SS, and I repeatedly told them no. Upon reflection, I had been stupid in taking the jacket from the SS soldier, even though I was cold at the time. He was just getting rid of the jacket in order to save himself I think, that’s how it looked when I thought about it, but I did not see it at that time. After quite a lot of questioning about my family and where we lived, what my father did, etc, they left me alone and bothered me no more. The atmosphere became a little more relaxed particularly when the Americans and British came.
On paper, Britain, France, America and Russia had agreed to divide Germany into four zones of occupation. These were to consist of a large Soviet zone in the east, a British zone in the northwest, a US zone in the southwest and a French zone, also to the southwest. Austria was to be separated from Germany again, and the territories located east of the Oder and Neisse rivers were handed to Poland as compensation for the loss of its eastern territories, which remained as a part of the USSR. The northern half of East Prussia was also annexed by the USSR. The German populations of these territories, including those of the territories located within the borders of the restored eastern European states, such as Czechoslovakia (Sudetenland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, etc, were forcibly expelled from their homes. This policy of what amounted to Soviet ethnic cleansing created a total of some 10,000,000 men, women and children refugees. They had nowhere to go and many headed for central Germany.
As the Four-Power occupying countries began the task of planning the reconstitution of the four zones in Germany, all manner of political and social problems became apparent, not just between the people of Berlin and the occupying Russian forces in the city. Tensions had begun to build between Russia and the Western Allies, the two camps expressing differences of opinion on many important issues, including those of the quadripartite control council and currency reforms. For example, the Russians refused to recognize the validity of the new Deutschmark in their zone of occupation, even though it had been introduced and was in use in the western occupation zones. Petty disputes were suddenly becoming a regular consequence. Things began to seriously spiral out of control when Stalin ordered his forces to close the roads, railway lines and canals connecting Berlin with the three Allied zones in western Germany. This was the start of what became known as the Berlin Blockade.
The Allied sectors in West Berlin had a population of over 2,000,000 people, who suddenly found themselves completely cut off, with no incoming food or fuel – especially coal – Stalin was optimistic that the blockade would be successful. To boost his quest to completely force the Allies from the city that he claimed was rightfully his, he offered to supply the beleaguered western Berliners with food supplies from the USSR. The offer was ignored by the Allied administrative governments, who immediately organized the famous Berlin Airlift to supply the city with all of the necessary supplies of food, fuel, clothing, and in fact all the necessities, and the odd luxury, from the air, an operation that would last for eleven months.
The Soviets became the victim of savage press reports and damning communiqués though the lifting of the blockade was almost entirely as a result of the success of the airlift. Britain and America would not yield to months of military posturing and provocation by the Russians, deliberate harassment of the airlift aircraft flying the mutually agreed flight corridors, endless covert shuttle diplomacy, and continuous Soviet-sponsored media propaganda. In spite of extremely hazardous flying conditions in the winter of 1948, the airlift tonnages continued to increase to seemingly impossible levels. The Allies facilitated a democratically elected city council in their sectors and, in spite of powerfully worded threats from the Russians, unilaterally introduced a new German currency. Out of concern that he was rapidly losing Russia’s sphere of influence in the region, Stalin lifted the embargo. More importantly, and although Soviet forces on standby in neighbouring satellite states enormously outnumbered those of the Allies, Stalin was still three years away from the usable production of nuclear weapons. President Harry S. Truman, on the other hand had, at that time, the trump card. He had used the atom bomb against Hiroshima and Nagasaki with devastating success. He was not afraid to use the weapon then, and had the potential to use it again in the event of a Soviet-initiated war in Europe.
Although roads, railways and canals were once again opened, relations between the western allies and the USSR would never be the same again. In fact the situation deteriorated as the Western Allies made decisions often without involving the Russian authorities, something that caused Stalin and those closest to him within his political circle some great consternation.
Theresa Moelle, in the meantime, had been reunited with her adoptive family and clearly recalls in late July 1945 when their lives took a dramatic turn for the better.
The Russians just came one morning and began selecting many of us for transfer. I thought that we were going to be sent to Russia and felt like fighting to try and escape, but with tied hands that would have been a useless idea. They came to each of us and unbound our hands and asked our names, which were then written down on a sheet of paper. The next thing we know we hear American voices and then see the first Americans we would ever meet. There was this young American man who quietly told us to get into the back of the truck and that we were leaving. I still could not believe this was happening and had to be helped into the back of the truck; we were just elated.
The drive seemed to last for hours and we could not see where we were going because a tarpaulin sheet covered the whole of the back of the truck. We stopped occasionally and were checked, and then given a drink of water from a metal canteen bottle and, best of all, we were given chocolate. I could not even recall when I last ate chocolate and there I was with this big bar of chocolate, which I gulped down.
We finally arrived at the western suburbs of Berlin and it was dark outside. We were taken into a building that had been a German house and was now being used by the Americans as some kind of Head Quarters. There were uniformed men and women everywhere. We were then separated and taken to our own room where we were searched and then given a medical check. A medical nurse, through an interpreter, asked me if I had sustained any injuries and began looking through my hair. She immediately found the wound on the back of my head, and gasped as she ran her fingers over it. She said that it was too late to put any stitching in the wound as it had already scabbed over and was starting to heal, but she insisted that it was bathed and a bandage put on it. I also had a bruise underneath my left eye caused by the regular slapping routines from our Russian lady friend. My eyes were examined and I was then brought a meal consisting of potatoes, carrots and a little gravy and a cup of hot tea. I could not get the food down quick enough and drank the tea so fast that it burned my tongue.
The interpreter said, ‘Hey, take it easy will ya,’ in his American accent.
I then was given some nice clean clothing to put on, though it did not fit me too well as I had lost so much weight, but it was clean and made me feel like new. After that, I was taken into another r
oom and asked questions about the fighting in the city and how I had been involved in it. I answered them as best as I could, and I trusted them more than the Russians, so this was not any problem. I asked them if I could have a cigarette, and one of my interrogators placed a packet before me on the table, took one out for me and gave me a light. I then handed the packet of cigarettes back, but he told me to keep them. I explained I couldn’t as I would be in trouble if my family found out I had begun smoking cigarettes.
After the questioning I was taken back to my room and was told to try and get some sleep, and that if I needed attention in the night I should knock on the door of my room, as the door had to be locked from the outside. I told them I wanted to find my family and the interpreter replied smiling ‘We know who you belong to, your father, or rather your guardian, has been looking for you for many weeks.’
‘Where is he? and ‘can I go to him?’ were my replies.
The interpreter then said, ‘Please, rest now and your father will be here to see you within the next few days.’
I found it very hard to settle that night and the night was the longest of my life. I stared at the reflection of the moon that shone through a small stained glass window high upon the wall, and tossed and turned until the early hours. I finally fell asleep and was woken at around 10.00am in the morning by the interpreter and the nurse, who firstly knocked on my door before opening it with the rattle of keys. There, standing right behind the interpreter and the nurse, was Walter Moelle. We threw ourselves at each other and sobbed like children.