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Abstract: The German military, Red Army, and partisans inflicted a massive amount
of sexual violence onto unarmed civilians on the eastern front during World War II.
Under the German occupation, civilians were driven into prostitutional relationships
and prostitution, which caused widespread venereal disease. The Germans established
military brothels and forced females to serve, indirectly by starvation or directly
by gunpoint. Unarmed civilians were raped, mutilated, and often died. Abuse of alcohol
was widespread among perpetrators from all sides. The wide variety of sexual activities
lie on a continuum of sexual desire and sexuality. These activities and abuses of
power often were motivated partially by sexual desire, including
brothel visits, prostitutional relationships, rape, and sexual harassment. The sexual
crimes were crimes of gender that intersect with other war crimes. Violations of racial
laws by Germans were widespread. The Soviets also seem to have raped indiscriminately.
Both sides raped females, whether Jewish, Slavic, Christian, or Baltic. The Germans
recruited this same variety of females into their brothels. Males also suffered sexual
abuse, and some perpetrators, especially in camps, were female. Rape likely was not
a military strategy. However, both leaderships were complicit in their condoning of
mass rape. Both have yet to accept responsibility for the rapes, and the Germans for
their extensive system of sexual slavery. Neither side was prosecuted after the war
for the vast sexual crimes they committed. Those targeted for sexual violence demonstrated
incredible fortitude and innovation by
camouflage, other acts of deception, and heroic acts of self-sacrifice. During the
last half century, many survivors slowly and courageously revealed their stories in
various ways. Although felt, the shame many victims and survivors have experienced
is misplaced. It belongs instead to the perpetrators in all their civilian, political,
and military forms. The long-standing, deafening, and pervasive silence surrounding
the topic of sexual violence has served well the perpetrators and others inclined
to disbelief. Despite the abundance of documentation - in German and east European
documents, memoirs, testimonies, and novels - scholars, witnesses, and officials chose
to ignore these crimes. This dissertation is also based on dozens of interviews conducted
by the author.
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