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Benutzer:Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwweeeeeeee/Rape during the occupation of Germany

2011-02-12T20:05:37Z

76.191.230.178: /* Analysis */

{{POV|date=May 2010}}
{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

[[File:US Army Germany occupation zones 1945.jpg|thumb|300px|Territorial changes and occupational zones of Nazi Germany after its defeat. Includes the front-line along the Elbe from which U.S. troops withdrew in July 1945]]
As Allied troops entered and occupied German territory during the later stages of [[World War II]], mass rapes took place, both in connection to combat operations and during the subsequent occupation that was to last many years. Most published and most numerous are the rapes committed by [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] servicemen, for which estimates of rapes committed by them range from tens of thousands to 2 million.
==Historical background: rape in World War II Europe==
As German aggression against Poland started World War II, the first rapes during that conflict were committed by [[Wehrmacht]] forces against Jewish women and girls in September 1939;<ref name="Datner">"55 Dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce" [[Szymon Datner]] Warsaw 1967 page 67 "Zanotowano szereg faktów gwałcenia kobiet i dziewcząt żydowskich" (Numerous facts of cases of rapes made upon Jewish women and girls were reported)</ref> Polish women and girls were also raped during mass executions carried out primarily by the German minority's paramilitary force called [[Selbstschutz]]<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20071029144245/http://www.kki.net.pl/~museum/rozdz3,2.htm</ref>
Later rapes were also committed by German forces on [[Eastern Front]]; although their overall number is difficult to establish due to lack of prosecution of the crime by German courts in Eastern Europe,<ref name="Grossman2007">Atina Grossmann. Jews, Germans, and Allies: close encounters in occupied Germany. Princeton University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-691-08971-X, 9780691089713, p. 290</ref> the recent estimates suggest the number of rapes amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases.<ref name="bos"/><ref>[http://www.mitteleuropa.de/kriegskinder04.htm#*%C2%A0Ebba%20D.%C2%A0Drolshagen Schattendasein der Feindeskinder Die Nachkommen der Wehrmachtssoldaten in den ehemals besetzten Ländern] Neue Zürcher Zeitung 2004</ref>

Extensive rapes by Nazi German troops (besides other numerous atrocities) and revenge for them are given as one of possible explanations for actions during occupation of the former Nazi state.<ref name="Naimark108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108. [[Google Books]]. Chapter 2: [http://books.google.ca/books?id=MVSjHNKUKoEC&pg=PA69&dq=%22Soviet+Soldiers,+German+Women,+and+the+Problem+of+Rape%22&hl=en&ei=9bozTcmJIoqusAO2sZ2FBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Soviet%20Soldiers%2C%20German%20Women%2C%20and%20the%20Problem%20of%20Rape%22&f=false "Soviet Soldiers, German Women, and the Problem of Rape".] </ref> Even Christian Democrat German politicians had to concede that in light of the atrocities committed by the German military in Eastern Europe the degree of discipline demonstrated by the Soviet soldiers was amazing.<ref name="Grossman2007"/>

==Soviet Union==
A wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944–45, as the Western Allies and the Red Army battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The majority of the assaults were committed in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of German women raped by Soviet soldiers range from tens of thousands to 2 million.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref><ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> In many cases women were the victims of repeated rapes, some as many as 60 to 70 times.<ref name="Struggle for Europe">
[http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385497992&view=excerpt William I. Hitchcock ''The Struggle for Europe The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945 to the Present''] ISBN 978-0-385-49799-2 (0-385-49799-7)</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports,<ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath.<ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000.<ref name="sander">Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>{{Citation
| last = Sheehan
| first = Paul
| author-link =
| last2 =
| first2 =
| author2-link =
| title = An orgy of denial in Hitler's bunker
| newspaper = The Sydney Morning Herald
| pages =
| date = 17 May 2003
| url = http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html
| archiveurl =
| archivedate =
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref>

Natalya Gesse claimed that Russian soldiers raped German females from eight to eighty years old. There were claims cited by Beevor that Russian women were not spared either.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11 | location=London | work=The Guardian | title=They raped every German female from eight to 80 | date=1 May 2002 | first=Antony | last=Beevor}}</ref> Russian war veteran Vsevolod Olimpiev recalled, "The Soviet soldiers' relations with the German population where it had stayed may be called indifferent and neutral. Nobody, at least from our Regiment, harassed or touched them. Moreover, when we came across an obviously starving German family with kids we would share our food with them with no unnecessary words." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=klpmTGf_GdAC&pg=PA133&dq=On+the+bloody+road+to+Berlin:+frontline+accounts+from+Nor&hl=en&ei=PlRWTZ73BonCsAOmo72iDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false On the bloody road to Berlin: frontline accounts from North-West Europe and By Duncan Rogers, Sarah Rhiannon WilliamsTake our survey New!]</ref>

After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.
===Controversy===
[[File:Germans killed by Soviet army.jpg|thumb|300px|Picture taken by the [[Sicherheitspolizei]], the original caption states that the two women show signs of rape]]
There is dispute in Russia concerning these claims.<ref name="RedArmy">{{Cite news | last = Summers| first = Chris| title = Red Army rapists exposed| pages = | newspaper = [[BBC News Online]]| location = | date = 29 April 2002| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1939174.stm| archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = 27 May 2010}}</ref> They have encountered vast criticism from historians in Russia and the Russian government.<ref>{{Cite news
| last = Johnson
| first = Daniel
| coauthors =
| title = Russians angry at war rape claims
| newspaper = The Telegraph
| location = United Kingdom
| pages =
| language =
| publisher =
| date = 25 January 2002
| url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/25/wruss25.xml
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> Critics argue that the numbers are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there were cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect. In his review of ''[[Berlin: The Downfall 1945]]'', O.A. Rzheshevsky, a professor and President of the Russian Association of World War II Historians, has charged that Beevor is merely resurrecting the discredited and racist views of [[Neo-Nazi]] historians, who depicted Soviet troops as subhuman "Asiatic hordes."<ref>[http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor Review of Berlin: 1945] {{ru icon}})</ref> In an interview with ''[[BBC News Online]]'', Rzheshevsky admitted that he had only read excerpts and had not seen the book's source notes. He claimed that Beevor's use of phrases such as "Berliners remember" and "the experiences of the raped German women" were better suited "for pulp fiction, than scientific research." Rzheshevsky also defended Soviet reprisals against Germans, stating that the Germans could have expected an "avalanche of revenge".<ref name="RedArmy"/>

Rzheshevsky states that acts such as robbery and sexual assault are inevitable parts of war, and some men of Soviet and other Allied armies committed them. But in general, the Soviet soldiers treated peaceful Germans with humanity. <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

Colonel Ivan Busik, Director of Russia's Institute of Military History, wrote what Hero of the Soviet Union, Army General Ivan Tretiak said to him that there was not a single case of violence committed by men in his regiment. Tretiak said that although he wanted revenge, Stalin's orders on treating the population humanely were implemented, and discipline in the army strengthened. Tretiak said that in such a huge military group as that in Germany, there was bound to be cases of sexual misconduct, as men had not seen women in years. However, he explains that sexual relations were not always violent, but often involved mutual consent. The work of Beevor and others alleging mass rape is characterized by Tretiak as "filthy cynicism, because the vast majority of those who have been slandered cannot reply to these liars." <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

-Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 345-346</ref>, Communists<ref>Even German Communists were not spared. In Wedding, a left-wing stronghold until 1933, activists from the Julicherstrasse went out to congratulate the Soviet officers commanding the unit to occupy their district, showing party cards, which they had kept hidden during twelve years of illegality. ...the unit's officers raped them "that very evening." -Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 346</ref>, and Poles<ref name="Naimark106"/>.

[[Richard Overy]], a historian from [[King's College London]], has criticized the viewpoint held by some Russians, asserting that they refuse to acknowledge [[Soviet war crimes]] committed during the war, "Partly this is because they felt that much of it was justified vengeance against an enemy who committed much worse, and partly it was because they were writing the victors' history."<ref name="RedArmy"/>

==US==
In ''[[Taken by Force (book)|Taken by Force]]'' J Robert Lilly estimates the number of rapes committed by U.S. servicemen in Germany to be 11,040.<ref>Taken by Force: Rape and American GIs in Europe during World War II. J Robert Lilly. ISBN 978-0-230-50647-3 p.12</ref> In a letter to Time Magazine, an American Army sergeant wrote "Our own Army and the British Army ... have done their share of looting and raping.... It is also common knowledge that American soldiers are persona non grata in the homes of decent girls in many of the liberated countries because of their attitude that any foreign girl is automatically a prostitute.... This offensive attitude among our troops is not at all general, but the percentage is large enough to have given our Army a pretty black name, and we too are considered an army of rapists."<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854433-3,00.html Letter to the editor in Time magazine for November 12, 1945]</ref>

==France==
French troops took part in the invasion of Germany, and France was assigned an occupation zone in Germany. According to Perry Biddiscombe the French for instance committed "385 rapes in the [[Constance]] area; 600 in [[Bruchsal]]; and 500 in [[Freudenstadt]]."<ref>Perry Biddiscombe, Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948 Journal of Social History, Vol. 34, No. 3, (2001) p.635</ref>

According to [[Norman Naimark]] French Moroccan troops matched the behavior of Soviet troops when it came to rape, in particular in the early occupation of Baden and Württemberg.<ref name="Naimark106">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 106-7.</ref>
==Poland==
"With nearly two million Russian deserters and former POWs at large in Soviet-occupied Europe, it is no wonder that banditry on their part became a serious problem for the occupation."<ref name="Occupation1"/> Concerned with carrying out the [[expulsion of Germans]] from Silesia, the communist Polish administrators as a consequence could do little to protect the German population from Russian rapists.<ref name="Occupation1">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 74-75.</ref> A single Soviet report had alleged that presumably "Polish soldiers ... 'relate to German women as to free booty'."<ref name="Occupation1"/>

Polish women in Silesia were also subject to rape by Soviet soldiers, who did not always bother to differentiate along ethnic lines, or between victims and occupiers.<ref name="Naimark106"/>

==Analysis==

In Russia, there is much dispute about the allegations of mass rape committed against Germans. Makhmud Gareyev, President of the Academy of Military Sciences, who participated in the East Prussia campaign, said that he had not heard about sexual violence. He said that after what the Nazis did to Russia, excesses were likely to take place, but that such cases were strongly suppressed and punished, and were not widespread. He notes that the Soviet military leadership on 19 January 1945 signed an executive order calling on the avoidance of a rough relationship with the local population. Gareyev said that Beevor copied Goebbel's propaganda about the "aggressive sexuality of our soldiers." <ref>[http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/ Erotic Myths of the Second World War] </ref> According to Russia historian<ref>http://rt.com/news/khalkhin-gol-battle-anniversary/</ref><ref>http://rt.com/programs/spotlight/estonia-genocide-that-never-was/</ref> A. Dyukov's book asserted that "...The Germans did not experience a fraction of the horror that their soldiers staged in the East. Despite some excesses, which were firmly suppressed by the Command, the Red Army as a whole behaved toward the people of the Reich with humanity". The Russian soldiers are credited with feeding the German population, rescuing children, and helping to restore normal life in the country. <ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/dukov_ar/24.html</ref>

In his analysis of the motives behind the extensive Soviet rapes Norman Naimark singles out "hate propaganda, personal experiences of suffering at home, and a fully demeaning picture of German women in the press, not to mention among the soldiers themselves" as a part reason for the widespread rapes.<ref name="Occupation108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108-109.</ref> Naimark also noted the effect that the Russian tendency to binge-drink alcohol (of which much was available in Germany) had on the propensity of Russian soldiers to commit rape, especially rape-murder.<ref name="Occupation112">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 112.</ref> Naimark also notes the patriarchal nature of Russian culture, and of the Asian societies comprising the Soviet Union, where dishonor was in the past repaid by raping the women of the enemy.<ref name="Occupation114">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 114-115.</ref> The fact that the Germans had a much higher standard of living (with things such as indoor toilets), visible even when in ruins "may well have contributed to a national inferiority complex among Russians". Combining Russian feelings of inferiority and the resulting need to restore his honor and their desire for revenge may be the reason many women were raped in public as well as in front of husbands before both were killed.<ref name="Occupation114"/>

According to Anthony Beevor revenge played very little role in the frequent rapes; according to him the main reason for the rapes was the Soviet troops' feeling of entitlement to all types of booty, including women. Beevor exemplifies this with his discovery that Soviet troops also raped Russian and Polish girls and women that were liberated from Nazi concentration camps.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html] Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps, 24 Jan 2002, The Telegraph</ref>

==War crime==
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2011}}
At the Nuremberg trials, where only Axis defendants could be tried, no defendant was tried for rape as a "war crime under customary international law". Rape was however prosecuted as a war-crime in the trials against Japanese in Tokyo, and General Yamashita was found guilty of permitting rape. In 1946 rape was made a "crime against humanity".{{Fact|date=January 2011}}
==Discourse==
In postwar Germany, especially in West Germany, the war time rape stories became an essential part of political discourse.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> The rape of German women (along with the expulsion of Germans from the East and Allied occupation) had been universalized in an attempt to situate the German population on the whole as victims.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> This discourse became wholly discredited by the late 1960s; since 1970s on German leftists conducted politics focused on critical investigation of the Nazi past, the older generations’ unwillingness to face that past, and their tendency to portray themselves as victims rather than as perpetrators, particularly of the Holocaust.<ref name="bos">Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025</ref> Therefore, the frequently reiterated claim that the war time rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence<ref name="sander"/><ref>See also [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/3255081/German-women-break-their-silence-on-horrors-of-Red-Army-rapes.html][http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/raped-by-the-red-army-two-million-german-women-speak-out-1669074.html][http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,680354,00.html]</ref> is probably not correct.<ref name="bos"/>

The way the rapes have been discussed by Sander and Johr in their "''BeFreier und Befreite''"<ref name="sander"/> has been criticized by several scholars. According to Grossmann, the problem is that this is not a "universal" story of women being raped by men, but of German women being abused and violated by an army that fought Nazi Germany and liberated death camps.<ref name="Grossman"/> Such attempts to de-emphasize the historical context of the rape of German women is a serious omission, according to Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson,<ref>Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson. After the Fall: Women in the House of the Hangmen, ''October'', Vol. 72, (Spring, 1995) pp. 4-14</ref> and, according to Pascale Bos, is an example of ahistorical, feminist and sexist approach to the wartime rape issue.<ref name="bos"/>

According to Pascale Bos the feminist attempt to universalize the story of the rapes of German women came into a contradiction with Sander's and Johr's own description of the rapes as a form of genocidal rape: the rape of racially superior German women by racially inferior Russian soldiers, implying that such a rape was especially harmful for the victims.<ref name="bos"/> By contrast, the issue of the rapes of Soviet woman by ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers, that, according to some estimation amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases<ref>Gertjejanssen, Wendy Jo. 2004. “Victims, Heroes, Survivors: Sexual Violence on the Eastern Front during World War II.” PhD diss., University of Minnesota.</ref><ref>A 1942 Wehrmacht document suggested that the Nazi leadership considered implementing a special policy for the eastern front through which the estimated 750,000 babies born through sexual contact between the German soldiers and Russian women (an estimate deemed very conservative) could be identified and reclaimed as racially German. (The suggestion was made to add the middle names Friedrich and Luise to the birth certificates for boy and girl babies, respectively.) Although the plan was not implemented, such documents suggest that the births that resulted from rapes and other forms of sexual contact were deemed as beneficial, as increasing the “Aryan” race rather than as adding to the inferior Slavic race. The underlying ideology suggests that German rape and other forms of sexual contact may need to be seen as conforming to a larger military strategy of racial and territorial dominance. (Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025)</ref> is not treated by the authors as something deserving serious mention.<ref name="bos"/>

==Social Effects==
A number of "Russian babies" were born during the occupation, many of them as the result of rape.[http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,500251,00.html]

According to Norman Naimark we may never know how many German women and girls were raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation, their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as 2 million.<ref name="ReferenceA">N. Naimark "The Russians in Germany" p.132,133</ref> As to the social effects of this sexual violence Naimark notes:
{{Quotation|
:In any case, just as each rape survivor carried the effects of the crime with her till the end of her life, so was the collective anguish nearly unbearable. The social psychology of women and men in the soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the [[GDR]] in the fall of 1949, until—one could argue—the present.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>}}

==Literature==
The Soviet Dissident [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] took part in the invasion of Germany, and wrote a poem about it: [[Prussian Nights]]; "Twenty-two Hoeringstrasse. It's not been burned, just looted, rifled. A moaning by the walls, half muffled: the mother's wounded, half alive. The little daughter's on the mattress, dead. How many have been on it? A platoon, a company perhaps? A girl's been turned into a woman, a woman turned into a corpse. . . . The mother begs, "Soldier, kill me!"<ref>Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ''Prussian Nights: A Poem [Prusskie nochi]'', Robert Conquest, trans. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977).</ref>

==See also==
*[[War rape]]
*[[Rape during the occupation of Japan]]
*[[Marocchinate]]
*[[Soviet war crimes]]
*[[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
*[[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]
==References==
{{Reflist|3}}

{{World War II|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rape During The Occupation Of Germany}}
[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War crimes]]

[[cs:Zločiny Sovětského svazu za druhé světové války]]
[[da:Sovjetiske krigsforbrydelser]]
[[de:Verbrechen der Roten Armee im Zweiten Weltkrieg]]
[[es:Crímenes de guerra del Ejército Rojo]]
[[fr:Crimes de guerre de l'Armée rouge pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale]]
[[it:Crimini di guerra sovietici]]
[[ja:ソビエト連邦による戦争犯罪]]
[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]
[[ru:Насилие в отношении мирного населения Германии (1945)]]
[[tr:Sovyet savaş suçları]]
[[uk:Масові зґвалтування німецьких жінок червоноармійцями]]
[[zh:蘇聯戰爭罪行]]

Sexuelle Gewalt im Zweiten Weltkrieg

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76.191.230.178: /* Analysis */

Benutzer:Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwweeeeeeee/Rape during the occupation of Germany

2011-02-12T19:55:04Z

76.191.230.178: /* Analysis */

{{POV|date=May 2010}}
{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

[[File:US Army Germany occupation zones 1945.jpg|thumb|300px|Territorial changes and occupational zones of Nazi Germany after its defeat. Includes the front-line along the Elbe from which U.S. troops withdrew in July 1945]]
As Allied troops entered and occupied German territory during the later stages of [[World War II]], mass rapes took place, both in connection to combat operations and during the subsequent occupation that was to last many years. Most published and most numerous are the rapes committed by [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] servicemen, for which estimates of rapes committed by them range from tens of thousands to 2 million.
==Historical background: rape in World War II Europe==
As German aggression against Poland started World War II, the first rapes during that conflict were committed by [[Wehrmacht]] forces against Jewish women and girls in September 1939;<ref name="Datner">"55 Dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce" [[Szymon Datner]] Warsaw 1967 page 67 "Zanotowano szereg faktów gwałcenia kobiet i dziewcząt żydowskich" (Numerous facts of cases of rapes made upon Jewish women and girls were reported)</ref> Polish women and girls were also raped during mass executions carried out primarily by the German minority's paramilitary force called [[Selbstschutz]]<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20071029144245/http://www.kki.net.pl/~museum/rozdz3,2.htm</ref>
Later rapes were also committed by German forces on [[Eastern Front]]; although their overall number is difficult to establish due to lack of prosecution of the crime by German courts in Eastern Europe,<ref name="Grossman2007">Atina Grossmann. Jews, Germans, and Allies: close encounters in occupied Germany. Princeton University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-691-08971-X, 9780691089713, p. 290</ref> the recent estimates suggest the number of rapes amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases.<ref name="bos"/><ref>[http://www.mitteleuropa.de/kriegskinder04.htm#*%C2%A0Ebba%20D.%C2%A0Drolshagen Schattendasein der Feindeskinder Die Nachkommen der Wehrmachtssoldaten in den ehemals besetzten Ländern] Neue Zürcher Zeitung 2004</ref>

Extensive rapes by Nazi German troops (besides other numerous atrocities) and revenge for them are given as one of possible explanations for actions during occupation of the former Nazi state.<ref name="Naimark108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108. [[Google Books]]. Chapter 2: [http://books.google.ca/books?id=MVSjHNKUKoEC&pg=PA69&dq=%22Soviet+Soldiers,+German+Women,+and+the+Problem+of+Rape%22&hl=en&ei=9bozTcmJIoqusAO2sZ2FBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Soviet%20Soldiers%2C%20German%20Women%2C%20and%20the%20Problem%20of%20Rape%22&f=false "Soviet Soldiers, German Women, and the Problem of Rape".] </ref> Even Christian Democrat German politicians had to concede that in light of the atrocities committed by the German military in Eastern Europe the degree of discipline demonstrated by the Soviet soldiers was amazing.<ref name="Grossman2007"/>

==Soviet Union==
A wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944–45, as the Western Allies and the Red Army battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The majority of the assaults were committed in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of German women raped by Soviet soldiers range from tens of thousands to 2 million.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref><ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> In many cases women were the victims of repeated rapes, some as many as 60 to 70 times.<ref name="Struggle for Europe">
[http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385497992&view=excerpt William I. Hitchcock ''The Struggle for Europe The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945 to the Present''] ISBN 978-0-385-49799-2 (0-385-49799-7)</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports,<ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath.<ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000.<ref name="sander">Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>{{Citation
| last = Sheehan
| first = Paul
| author-link =
| last2 =
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| author2-link =
| title = An orgy of denial in Hitler's bunker
| newspaper = The Sydney Morning Herald
| pages =
| date = 17 May 2003
| url = http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html
| archiveurl =
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| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref>

Natalya Gesse claimed that Russian soldiers raped German females from eight to eighty years old. There were claims cited by Beevor that Russian women were not spared either.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11 | location=London | work=The Guardian | title=They raped every German female from eight to 80 | date=1 May 2002 | first=Antony | last=Beevor}}</ref> Russian war veteran Vsevolod Olimpiev recalled, "The Soviet soldiers' relations with the German population where it had stayed may be called indifferent and neutral. Nobody, at least from our Regiment, harassed or touched them. Moreover, when we came across an obviously starving German family with kids we would share our food with them with no unnecessary words." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=klpmTGf_GdAC&pg=PA133&dq=On+the+bloody+road+to+Berlin:+frontline+accounts+from+Nor&hl=en&ei=PlRWTZ73BonCsAOmo72iDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false On the bloody road to Berlin: frontline accounts from North-West Europe and By Duncan Rogers, Sarah Rhiannon WilliamsTake our survey New!]</ref>

After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.
===Controversy===
[[File:Germans killed by Soviet army.jpg|thumb|300px|Picture taken by the [[Sicherheitspolizei]], the original caption states that the two women show signs of rape]]
There is dispute in Russia concerning these claims.<ref name="RedArmy">{{Cite news | last = Summers| first = Chris| title = Red Army rapists exposed| pages = | newspaper = [[BBC News Online]]| location = | date = 29 April 2002| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1939174.stm| archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = 27 May 2010}}</ref> They have encountered vast criticism from historians in Russia and the Russian government.<ref>{{Cite news
| last = Johnson
| first = Daniel
| coauthors =
| title = Russians angry at war rape claims
| newspaper = The Telegraph
| location = United Kingdom
| pages =
| language =
| publisher =
| date = 25 January 2002
| url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/25/wruss25.xml
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> Critics argue that the numbers are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there were cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect. In his review of ''[[Berlin: The Downfall 1945]]'', O.A. Rzheshevsky, a professor and President of the Russian Association of World War II Historians, has charged that Beevor is merely resurrecting the discredited and racist views of [[Neo-Nazi]] historians, who depicted Soviet troops as subhuman "Asiatic hordes."<ref>[http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor Review of Berlin: 1945] {{ru icon}})</ref> In an interview with ''[[BBC News Online]]'', Rzheshevsky admitted that he had only read excerpts and had not seen the book's source notes. He claimed that Beevor's use of phrases such as "Berliners remember" and "the experiences of the raped German women" were better suited "for pulp fiction, than scientific research." Rzheshevsky also defended Soviet reprisals against Germans, stating that the Germans could have expected an "avalanche of revenge".<ref name="RedArmy"/>

Rzheshevsky states that acts such as robbery and sexual assault are inevitable parts of war, and some men of Soviet and other Allied armies committed them. But in general, the Soviet soldiers treated peaceful Germans with humanity. <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

Colonel Ivan Busik, Director of Russia's Institute of Military History, wrote what Hero of the Soviet Union, Army General Ivan Tretiak said to him that there was not a single case of violence committed by men in his regiment. Tretiak said that although he wanted revenge, Stalin's orders on treating the population humanely were implemented, and discipline in the army strengthened. Tretiak said that in such a huge military group as that in Germany, there was bound to be cases of sexual misconduct, as men had not seen women in years. However, he explains that sexual relations were not always violent, but often involved mutual consent. The work of Beevor and others alleging mass rape is characterized by Tretiak as "filthy cynicism, because the vast majority of those who have been slandered cannot reply to these liars." <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

-Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 345-346</ref>, Communists<ref>Even German Communists were not spared. In Wedding, a left-wing stronghold until 1933, activists from the Julicherstrasse went out to congratulate the Soviet officers commanding the unit to occupy their district, showing party cards, which they had kept hidden during twelve years of illegality. ...the unit's officers raped them "that very evening." -Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 346</ref>, and Poles<ref name="Naimark106"/>.

[[Richard Overy]], a historian from [[King's College London]], has criticized the viewpoint held by some Russians, asserting that they refuse to acknowledge [[Soviet war crimes]] committed during the war, "Partly this is because they felt that much of it was justified vengeance against an enemy who committed much worse, and partly it was because they were writing the victors' history."<ref name="RedArmy"/>

==US==
In ''[[Taken by Force (book)|Taken by Force]]'' J Robert Lilly estimates the number of rapes committed by U.S. servicemen in Germany to be 11,040.<ref>Taken by Force: Rape and American GIs in Europe during World War II. J Robert Lilly. ISBN 978-0-230-50647-3 p.12</ref> In a letter to Time Magazine, an American Army sergeant wrote "Our own Army and the British Army ... have done their share of looting and raping.... It is also common knowledge that American soldiers are persona non grata in the homes of decent girls in many of the liberated countries because of their attitude that any foreign girl is automatically a prostitute.... This offensive attitude among our troops is not at all general, but the percentage is large enough to have given our Army a pretty black name, and we too are considered an army of rapists."<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854433-3,00.html Letter to the editor in Time magazine for November 12, 1945]</ref>

==France==
French troops took part in the invasion of Germany, and France was assigned an occupation zone in Germany. According to Perry Biddiscombe the French for instance committed "385 rapes in the [[Constance]] area; 600 in [[Bruchsal]]; and 500 in [[Freudenstadt]]."<ref>Perry Biddiscombe, Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948 Journal of Social History, Vol. 34, No. 3, (2001) p.635</ref>

According to [[Norman Naimark]] French Moroccan troops matched the behavior of Soviet troops when it came to rape, in particular in the early occupation of Baden and Württemberg.<ref name="Naimark106">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 106-7.</ref>
==Poland==
"With nearly two million Russian deserters and former POWs at large in Soviet-occupied Europe, it is no wonder that banditry on their part became a serious problem for the occupation."<ref name="Occupation1"/> Concerned with carrying out the [[expulsion of Germans]] from Silesia, the communist Polish administrators as a consequence could do little to protect the German population from Russian rapists.<ref name="Occupation1">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 74-75.</ref> A single Soviet report had alleged that presumably "Polish soldiers ... 'relate to German women as to free booty'."<ref name="Occupation1"/>

Polish women in Silesia were also subject to rape by Soviet soldiers, who did not always bother to differentiate along ethnic lines, or between victims and occupiers.<ref name="Naimark106"/>

==Analysis==

In Russia, there is much dispute about the allegations of mass rape committed against Germans. Makhmud Gareyev, President of the Academy of Military Sciences, who participated in the East Prussia campaign, said that he had not heard about sexual violence. He said that after what the Nazis did to Russia, excesses were likely to take place, but that such cases were strongly suppressed and punished, and were not widespread. He notes that the Soviet military leadership on 19 January 1945 signed an executive order calling on the avoidance of a rough relationship with the local population. Gareyev said that Beevor copied Goebbel's propaganda about the "aggressive sexuality of our soldiers." <ref>[http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/ Erotic Myths of the Second World War] </ref>

In his analysis of the motives behind the extensive Soviet rapes Norman Naimark singles out "hate propaganda, personal experiences of suffering at home, and a fully demeaning picture of German women in the press, not to mention among the soldiers themselves" as a part reason for the widespread rapes.<ref name="Occupation108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108-109.</ref> Naimark also noted the effect that the Russian tendency to binge-drink alcohol (of which much was available in Germany) had on the propensity of Russian soldiers to commit rape, especially rape-murder.<ref name="Occupation112">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 112.</ref> Naimark also notes the patriarchal nature of Russian culture, and of the Asian societies comprising the Soviet Union, where dishonor was in the past repaid by raping the women of the enemy.<ref name="Occupation114">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 114-115.</ref> The fact that the Germans had a much higher standard of living (with things such as indoor toilets), visible even when in ruins "may well have contributed to a national inferiority complex among Russians". Combining Russian feelings of inferiority and the resulting need to restore his honor and their desire for revenge may be the reason many women were raped in public as well as in front of husbands before both were killed.<ref name="Occupation114"/>

According to Anthony Beevor revenge played very little role in the frequent rapes; according to him the main reason for the rapes was the Soviet troops' feeling of entitlement to all types of booty, including women. Beevor exemplifies this with his discovery that Soviet troops also raped Russian and Polish girls and women that were liberated from Nazi concentration camps.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html] Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps, 24 Jan 2002, The Telegraph</ref>

==War crime==
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2011}}
At the Nuremberg trials, where only Axis defendants could be tried, no defendant was tried for rape as a "war crime under customary international law". Rape was however prosecuted as a war-crime in the trials against Japanese in Tokyo, and General Yamashita was found guilty of permitting rape. In 1946 rape was made a "crime against humanity".{{Fact|date=January 2011}}
==Discourse==
In postwar Germany, especially in West Germany, the war time rape stories became an essential part of political discourse.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> The rape of German women (along with the expulsion of Germans from the East and Allied occupation) had been universalized in an attempt to situate the German population on the whole as victims.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> This discourse became wholly discredited by the late 1960s; since 1970s on German leftists conducted politics focused on critical investigation of the Nazi past, the older generations’ unwillingness to face that past, and their tendency to portray themselves as victims rather than as perpetrators, particularly of the Holocaust.<ref name="bos">Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025</ref> Therefore, the frequently reiterated claim that the war time rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence<ref name="sander"/><ref>See also [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/3255081/German-women-break-their-silence-on-horrors-of-Red-Army-rapes.html][http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/raped-by-the-red-army-two-million-german-women-speak-out-1669074.html][http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,680354,00.html]</ref> is probably not correct.<ref name="bos"/>

The way the rapes have been discussed by Sander and Johr in their "''BeFreier und Befreite''"<ref name="sander"/> has been criticized by several scholars. According to Grossmann, the problem is that this is not a "universal" story of women being raped by men, but of German women being abused and violated by an army that fought Nazi Germany and liberated death camps.<ref name="Grossman"/> Such attempts to de-emphasize the historical context of the rape of German women is a serious omission, according to Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson,<ref>Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson. After the Fall: Women in the House of the Hangmen, ''October'', Vol. 72, (Spring, 1995) pp. 4-14</ref> and, according to Pascale Bos, is an example of ahistorical, feminist and sexist approach to the wartime rape issue.<ref name="bos"/>

According to Pascale Bos the feminist attempt to universalize the story of the rapes of German women came into a contradiction with Sander's and Johr's own description of the rapes as a form of genocidal rape: the rape of racially superior German women by racially inferior Russian soldiers, implying that such a rape was especially harmful for the victims.<ref name="bos"/> By contrast, the issue of the rapes of Soviet woman by ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers, that, according to some estimation amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases<ref>Gertjejanssen, Wendy Jo. 2004. “Victims, Heroes, Survivors: Sexual Violence on the Eastern Front during World War II.” PhD diss., University of Minnesota.</ref><ref>A 1942 Wehrmacht document suggested that the Nazi leadership considered implementing a special policy for the eastern front through which the estimated 750,000 babies born through sexual contact between the German soldiers and Russian women (an estimate deemed very conservative) could be identified and reclaimed as racially German. (The suggestion was made to add the middle names Friedrich and Luise to the birth certificates for boy and girl babies, respectively.) Although the plan was not implemented, such documents suggest that the births that resulted from rapes and other forms of sexual contact were deemed as beneficial, as increasing the “Aryan” race rather than as adding to the inferior Slavic race. The underlying ideology suggests that German rape and other forms of sexual contact may need to be seen as conforming to a larger military strategy of racial and territorial dominance. (Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025)</ref> is not treated by the authors as something deserving serious mention.<ref name="bos"/>

==Social Effects==
A number of "Russian babies" were born during the occupation, many of them as the result of rape.[http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,500251,00.html]

According to Norman Naimark we may never know how many German women and girls were raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation, their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as 2 million.<ref name="ReferenceA">N. Naimark "The Russians in Germany" p.132,133</ref> As to the social effects of this sexual violence Naimark notes:
{{Quotation|
:In any case, just as each rape survivor carried the effects of the crime with her till the end of her life, so was the collective anguish nearly unbearable. The social psychology of women and men in the soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the [[GDR]] in the fall of 1949, until—one could argue—the present.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>}}

==Literature==
The Soviet Dissident [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] took part in the invasion of Germany, and wrote a poem about it: [[Prussian Nights]]; "Twenty-two Hoeringstrasse. It's not been burned, just looted, rifled. A moaning by the walls, half muffled: the mother's wounded, half alive. The little daughter's on the mattress, dead. How many have been on it? A platoon, a company perhaps? A girl's been turned into a woman, a woman turned into a corpse. . . . The mother begs, "Soldier, kill me!"<ref>Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ''Prussian Nights: A Poem [Prusskie nochi]'', Robert Conquest, trans. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977).</ref>

==See also==
*[[War rape]]
*[[Rape during the occupation of Japan]]
*[[Marocchinate]]
*[[Soviet war crimes]]
*[[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
*[[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]
==References==
{{Reflist|3}}

{{World War II|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rape During The Occupation Of Germany}}
[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War crimes]]

[[cs:Zločiny Sovětského svazu za druhé světové války]]
[[da:Sovjetiske krigsforbrydelser]]
[[de:Verbrechen der Roten Armee im Zweiten Weltkrieg]]
[[es:Crímenes de guerra del Ejército Rojo]]
[[fr:Crimes de guerre de l'Armée rouge pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale]]
[[it:Crimini di guerra sovietici]]
[[ja:ソビエト連邦による戦争犯罪]]
[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]
[[ru:Насилие в отношении мирного населения Германии (1945)]]
[[tr:Sovyet savaş suçları]]
[[uk:Масові зґвалтування німецьких жінок червоноармійцями]]
[[zh:蘇聯戰爭罪行]]

Sexuelle Gewalt im Zweiten Weltkrieg

2011-02-12T19:55:04Z

76.191.230.178: /* Analysis */

{{POV|date=May 2010}}
{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

[[File:US Army Germany occupation zones 1945.jpg|thumb|300px|Territorial changes and occupational zones of Nazi Germany after its defeat. Includes the front-line along the Elbe from which U.S. troops withdrew in July 1945]]
As Allied troops entered and occupied German territory during the later stages of [[World War II]], mass rapes took place, both in connection to combat operations and during the subsequent occupation that was to last many years. Most published and most numerous are the rapes committed by [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] servicemen, for which estimates of rapes committed by them range from tens of thousands to 2 million.
==Historical background: rape in World War II Europe==
As German aggression against Poland started World War II, the first rapes during that conflict were committed by [[Wehrmacht]] forces against Jewish women and girls in September 1939;<ref name="Datner">"55 Dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce" [[Szymon Datner]] Warsaw 1967 page 67 "Zanotowano szereg faktów gwałcenia kobiet i dziewcząt żydowskich" (Numerous facts of cases of rapes made upon Jewish women and girls were reported)</ref> Polish women and girls were also raped during mass executions carried out primarily by the German minority's paramilitary force called [[Selbstschutz]]<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20071029144245/http://www.kki.net.pl/~museum/rozdz3,2.htm</ref>
Later rapes were also committed by German forces on [[Eastern Front]]; although their overall number is difficult to establish due to lack of prosecution of the crime by German courts in Eastern Europe,<ref name="Grossman2007">Atina Grossmann. Jews, Germans, and Allies: close encounters in occupied Germany. Princeton University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-691-08971-X, 9780691089713, p. 290</ref> the recent estimates suggest the number of rapes amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases.<ref name="bos"/><ref>[http://www.mitteleuropa.de/kriegskinder04.htm#*%C2%A0Ebba%20D.%C2%A0Drolshagen Schattendasein der Feindeskinder Die Nachkommen der Wehrmachtssoldaten in den ehemals besetzten Ländern] Neue Zürcher Zeitung 2004</ref>

Extensive rapes by Nazi German troops (besides other numerous atrocities) and revenge for them are given as one of possible explanations for actions during occupation of the former Nazi state.<ref name="Naimark108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108. [[Google Books]]. Chapter 2: [http://books.google.ca/books?id=MVSjHNKUKoEC&pg=PA69&dq=%22Soviet+Soldiers,+German+Women,+and+the+Problem+of+Rape%22&hl=en&ei=9bozTcmJIoqusAO2sZ2FBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Soviet%20Soldiers%2C%20German%20Women%2C%20and%20the%20Problem%20of%20Rape%22&f=false "Soviet Soldiers, German Women, and the Problem of Rape".] </ref> Even Christian Democrat German politicians had to concede that in light of the atrocities committed by the German military in Eastern Europe the degree of discipline demonstrated by the Soviet soldiers was amazing.<ref name="Grossman2007"/>

==Soviet Union==
A wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944–45, as the Western Allies and the Red Army battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The majority of the assaults were committed in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of German women raped by Soviet soldiers range from tens of thousands to 2 million.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref><ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> In many cases women were the victims of repeated rapes, some as many as 60 to 70 times.<ref name="Struggle for Europe">
[http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385497992&view=excerpt William I. Hitchcock ''The Struggle for Europe The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945 to the Present''] ISBN 978-0-385-49799-2 (0-385-49799-7)</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports,<ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath.<ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000.<ref name="sander">Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>{{Citation
| last = Sheehan
| first = Paul
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| title = An orgy of denial in Hitler's bunker
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| date = 17 May 2003
| url = http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html
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Natalya Gesse claimed that Russian soldiers raped German females from eight to eighty years old. There were claims cited by Beevor that Russian women were not spared either.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11 | location=London | work=The Guardian | title=They raped every German female from eight to 80 | date=1 May 2002 | first=Antony | last=Beevor}}</ref> Russian war veteran Vsevolod Olimpiev recalled, "The Soviet soldiers' relations with the German population where it had stayed may be called indifferent and neutral. Nobody, at least from our Regiment, harassed or touched them. Moreover, when we came across an obviously starving German family with kids we would share our food with them with no unnecessary words." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=klpmTGf_GdAC&pg=PA133&dq=On+the+bloody+road+to+Berlin:+frontline+accounts+from+Nor&hl=en&ei=PlRWTZ73BonCsAOmo72iDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false On the bloody road to Berlin: frontline accounts from North-West Europe and By Duncan Rogers, Sarah Rhiannon WilliamsTake our survey New!]</ref>

After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.
===Controversy===
[[File:Germans killed by Soviet army.jpg|thumb|300px|Picture taken by the [[Sicherheitspolizei]], the original caption states that the two women show signs of rape]]
There is dispute in Russia concerning these claims.<ref name="RedArmy">{{Cite news | last = Summers| first = Chris| title = Red Army rapists exposed| pages = | newspaper = [[BBC News Online]]| location = | date = 29 April 2002| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1939174.stm| archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = 27 May 2010}}</ref> They have encountered vast criticism from historians in Russia and the Russian government.<ref>{{Cite news
| last = Johnson
| first = Daniel
| coauthors =
| title = Russians angry at war rape claims
| newspaper = The Telegraph
| location = United Kingdom
| pages =
| language =
| publisher =
| date = 25 January 2002
| url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/25/wruss25.xml
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> Critics argue that the numbers are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there were cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect. In his review of ''[[Berlin: The Downfall 1945]]'', O.A. Rzheshevsky, a professor and President of the Russian Association of World War II Historians, has charged that Beevor is merely resurrecting the discredited and racist views of [[Neo-Nazi]] historians, who depicted Soviet troops as subhuman "Asiatic hordes."<ref>[http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor Review of Berlin: 1945] {{ru icon}})</ref> In an interview with ''[[BBC News Online]]'', Rzheshevsky admitted that he had only read excerpts and had not seen the book's source notes. He claimed that Beevor's use of phrases such as "Berliners remember" and "the experiences of the raped German women" were better suited "for pulp fiction, than scientific research." Rzheshevsky also defended Soviet reprisals against Germans, stating that the Germans could have expected an "avalanche of revenge".<ref name="RedArmy"/>

Rzheshevsky states that acts such as robbery and sexual assault are inevitable parts of war, and some men of Soviet and other Allied armies committed them. But in general, the Soviet soldiers treated peaceful Germans with humanity. <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

Colonel Ivan Busik, Director of Russia's Institute of Military History, wrote what Hero of the Soviet Union, Army General Ivan Tretiak said to him that there was not a single case of violence committed by men in his regiment. Tretiak said that although he wanted revenge, Stalin's orders on treating the population humanely were implemented, and discipline in the army strengthened. Tretiak said that in such a huge military group as that in Germany, there was bound to be cases of sexual misconduct, as men had not seen women in years. However, he explains that sexual relations were not always violent, but often involved mutual consent. The work of Beevor and others alleging mass rape is characterized by Tretiak as "filthy cynicism, because the vast majority of those who have been slandered cannot reply to these liars." <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

-Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 345-346</ref>, Communists<ref>Even German Communists were not spared. In Wedding, a left-wing stronghold until 1933, activists from the Julicherstrasse went out to congratulate the Soviet officers commanding the unit to occupy their district, showing party cards, which they had kept hidden during twelve years of illegality. ...the unit's officers raped them "that very evening." -Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 346</ref>, and Poles<ref name="Naimark106"/>.

[[Richard Overy]], a historian from [[King's College London]], has criticized the viewpoint held by some Russians, asserting that they refuse to acknowledge [[Soviet war crimes]] committed during the war, "Partly this is because they felt that much of it was justified vengeance against an enemy who committed much worse, and partly it was because they were writing the victors' history."<ref name="RedArmy"/>

==US==
In ''[[Taken by Force (book)|Taken by Force]]'' J Robert Lilly estimates the number of rapes committed by U.S. servicemen in Germany to be 11,040.<ref>Taken by Force: Rape and American GIs in Europe during World War II. J Robert Lilly. ISBN 978-0-230-50647-3 p.12</ref> In a letter to Time Magazine, an American Army sergeant wrote "Our own Army and the British Army ... have done their share of looting and raping.... It is also common knowledge that American soldiers are persona non grata in the homes of decent girls in many of the liberated countries because of their attitude that any foreign girl is automatically a prostitute.... This offensive attitude among our troops is not at all general, but the percentage is large enough to have given our Army a pretty black name, and we too are considered an army of rapists."<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854433-3,00.html Letter to the editor in Time magazine for November 12, 1945]</ref>

==France==
French troops took part in the invasion of Germany, and France was assigned an occupation zone in Germany. According to Perry Biddiscombe the French for instance committed "385 rapes in the [[Constance]] area; 600 in [[Bruchsal]]; and 500 in [[Freudenstadt]]."<ref>Perry Biddiscombe, Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948 Journal of Social History, Vol. 34, No. 3, (2001) p.635</ref>

According to [[Norman Naimark]] French Moroccan troops matched the behavior of Soviet troops when it came to rape, in particular in the early occupation of Baden and Württemberg.<ref name="Naimark106">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 106-7.</ref>
==Poland==
"With nearly two million Russian deserters and former POWs at large in Soviet-occupied Europe, it is no wonder that banditry on their part became a serious problem for the occupation."<ref name="Occupation1"/> Concerned with carrying out the [[expulsion of Germans]] from Silesia, the communist Polish administrators as a consequence could do little to protect the German population from Russian rapists.<ref name="Occupation1">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 74-75.</ref> A single Soviet report had alleged that presumably "Polish soldiers ... 'relate to German women as to free booty'."<ref name="Occupation1"/>

Polish women in Silesia were also subject to rape by Soviet soldiers, who did not always bother to differentiate along ethnic lines, or between victims and occupiers.<ref name="Naimark106"/>

==Analysis==

In Russia, there is much dispute about the allegations of mass rape committed against Germans. Makhmud Gareyev, President of the Academy of Military Sciences, who participated in the East Prussia campaign, said that he had not heard about sexual violence. He said that after what the Nazis did to Russia, excesses were likely to take place, but that such cases were strongly suppressed and punished, and were not widespread. He notes that the Soviet military leadership on 19 January 1945 signed an executive order calling on the avoidance of a rough relationship with the local population. Gareyev said that Beevor copied Goebbel's propaganda about the "aggressive sexuality of our soldiers." <ref>[http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/ Erotic Myths of the Second World War] </ref>

In his analysis of the motives behind the extensive Soviet rapes Norman Naimark singles out "hate propaganda, personal experiences of suffering at home, and a fully demeaning picture of German women in the press, not to mention among the soldiers themselves" as a part reason for the widespread rapes.<ref name="Occupation108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108-109.</ref> Naimark also noted the effect that the Russian tendency to binge-drink alcohol (of which much was available in Germany) had on the propensity of Russian soldiers to commit rape, especially rape-murder.<ref name="Occupation112">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 112.</ref> Naimark also notes the patriarchal nature of Russian culture, and of the Asian societies comprising the Soviet Union, where dishonor was in the past repaid by raping the women of the enemy.<ref name="Occupation114">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 114-115.</ref> The fact that the Germans had a much higher standard of living (with things such as indoor toilets), visible even when in ruins "may well have contributed to a national inferiority complex among Russians". Combining Russian feelings of inferiority and the resulting need to restore his honor and their desire for revenge may be the reason many women were raped in public as well as in front of husbands before both were killed.<ref name="Occupation114"/>

According to Anthony Beevor revenge played very little role in the frequent rapes; according to him the main reason for the rapes was the Soviet troops' feeling of entitlement to all types of booty, including women. Beevor exemplifies this with his discovery that Soviet troops also raped Russian and Polish girls and women that were liberated from Nazi concentration camps.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html] Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps, 24 Jan 2002, The Telegraph</ref>

==War crime==
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2011}}
At the Nuremberg trials, where only Axis defendants could be tried, no defendant was tried for rape as a "war crime under customary international law". Rape was however prosecuted as a war-crime in the trials against Japanese in Tokyo, and General Yamashita was found guilty of permitting rape. In 1946 rape was made a "crime against humanity".{{Fact|date=January 2011}}
==Discourse==
In postwar Germany, especially in West Germany, the war time rape stories became an essential part of political discourse.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> The rape of German women (along with the expulsion of Germans from the East and Allied occupation) had been universalized in an attempt to situate the German population on the whole as victims.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> This discourse became wholly discredited by the late 1960s; since 1970s on German leftists conducted politics focused on critical investigation of the Nazi past, the older generations’ unwillingness to face that past, and their tendency to portray themselves as victims rather than as perpetrators, particularly of the Holocaust.<ref name="bos">Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025</ref> Therefore, the frequently reiterated claim that the war time rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence<ref name="sander"/><ref>See also [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/3255081/German-women-break-their-silence-on-horrors-of-Red-Army-rapes.html][http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/raped-by-the-red-army-two-million-german-women-speak-out-1669074.html][http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,680354,00.html]</ref> is probably not correct.<ref name="bos"/>

The way the rapes have been discussed by Sander and Johr in their "''BeFreier und Befreite''"<ref name="sander"/> has been criticized by several scholars. According to Grossmann, the problem is that this is not a "universal" story of women being raped by men, but of German women being abused and violated by an army that fought Nazi Germany and liberated death camps.<ref name="Grossman"/> Such attempts to de-emphasize the historical context of the rape of German women is a serious omission, according to Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson,<ref>Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson. After the Fall: Women in the House of the Hangmen, ''October'', Vol. 72, (Spring, 1995) pp. 4-14</ref> and, according to Pascale Bos, is an example of ahistorical, feminist and sexist approach to the wartime rape issue.<ref name="bos"/>

According to Pascale Bos the feminist attempt to universalize the story of the rapes of German women came into a contradiction with Sander's and Johr's own description of the rapes as a form of genocidal rape: the rape of racially superior German women by racially inferior Russian soldiers, implying that such a rape was especially harmful for the victims.<ref name="bos"/> By contrast, the issue of the rapes of Soviet woman by ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers, that, according to some estimation amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases<ref>Gertjejanssen, Wendy Jo. 2004. “Victims, Heroes, Survivors: Sexual Violence on the Eastern Front during World War II.” PhD diss., University of Minnesota.</ref><ref>A 1942 Wehrmacht document suggested that the Nazi leadership considered implementing a special policy for the eastern front through which the estimated 750,000 babies born through sexual contact between the German soldiers and Russian women (an estimate deemed very conservative) could be identified and reclaimed as racially German. (The suggestion was made to add the middle names Friedrich and Luise to the birth certificates for boy and girl babies, respectively.) Although the plan was not implemented, such documents suggest that the births that resulted from rapes and other forms of sexual contact were deemed as beneficial, as increasing the “Aryan” race rather than as adding to the inferior Slavic race. The underlying ideology suggests that German rape and other forms of sexual contact may need to be seen as conforming to a larger military strategy of racial and territorial dominance. (Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025)</ref> is not treated by the authors as something deserving serious mention.<ref name="bos"/>

==Social Effects==
A number of "Russian babies" were born during the occupation, many of them as the result of rape.[http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,500251,00.html]

According to Norman Naimark we may never know how many German women and girls were raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation, their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as 2 million.<ref name="ReferenceA">N. Naimark "The Russians in Germany" p.132,133</ref> As to the social effects of this sexual violence Naimark notes:
{{Quotation|
:In any case, just as each rape survivor carried the effects of the crime with her till the end of her life, so was the collective anguish nearly unbearable. The social psychology of women and men in the soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the [[GDR]] in the fall of 1949, until—one could argue—the present.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>}}

==Literature==
The Soviet Dissident [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] took part in the invasion of Germany, and wrote a poem about it: [[Prussian Nights]]; "Twenty-two Hoeringstrasse. It's not been burned, just looted, rifled. A moaning by the walls, half muffled: the mother's wounded, half alive. The little daughter's on the mattress, dead. How many have been on it? A platoon, a company perhaps? A girl's been turned into a woman, a woman turned into a corpse. . . . The mother begs, "Soldier, kill me!"<ref>Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ''Prussian Nights: A Poem [Prusskie nochi]'', Robert Conquest, trans. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977).</ref>

==See also==
*[[War rape]]
*[[Rape during the occupation of Japan]]
*[[Marocchinate]]
*[[Soviet war crimes]]
*[[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
*[[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]
==References==
{{Reflist|3}}

{{World War II|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rape During The Occupation Of Germany}}
[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War crimes]]

[[cs:Zločiny Sovětského svazu za druhé světové války]]
[[da:Sovjetiske krigsforbrydelser]]
[[de:Verbrechen der Roten Armee im Zweiten Weltkrieg]]
[[es:Crímenes de guerra del Ejército Rojo]]
[[fr:Crimes de guerre de l'Armée rouge pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale]]
[[it:Crimini di guerra sovietici]]
[[ja:ソビエト連邦による戦争犯罪]]
[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]
[[ru:Насилие в отношении мирного населения Германии (1945)]]
[[tr:Sovyet savaş suçları]]
[[uk:Масові зґвалтування німецьких жінок червоноармійцями]]
[[zh:蘇聯戰爭罪行]]

Benutzer:Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwweeeeeeee/Rape during the occupation of Germany

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{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

[[File:US Army Germany occupation zones 1945.jpg|thumb|300px|Territorial changes and occupational zones of Nazi Germany after its defeat. Includes the front-line along the Elbe from which U.S. troops withdrew in July 1945]]
As Allied troops entered and occupied German territory during the later stages of [[World War II]], mass rapes took place, both in connection to combat operations and during the subsequent occupation that was to last many years. Most published and most numerous are the rapes committed by [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] servicemen, for which estimates of rapes committed by them range from tens of thousands to 2 million.
==Historical background: rape in World War II Europe==
As German aggression against Poland started World War II, the first rapes during that conflict were committed by [[Wehrmacht]] forces against Jewish women and girls in September 1939;<ref name="Datner">"55 Dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce" [[Szymon Datner]] Warsaw 1967 page 67 "Zanotowano szereg faktów gwałcenia kobiet i dziewcząt żydowskich" (Numerous facts of cases of rapes made upon Jewish women and girls were reported)</ref> Polish women and girls were also raped during mass executions carried out primarily by the German minority's paramilitary force called [[Selbstschutz]]<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20071029144245/http://www.kki.net.pl/~museum/rozdz3,2.htm</ref>
Later rapes were also committed by German forces on [[Eastern Front]]; although their overall number is difficult to establish due to lack of prosecution of the crime by German courts in Eastern Europe,<ref name="Grossman2007">Atina Grossmann. Jews, Germans, and Allies: close encounters in occupied Germany. Princeton University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-691-08971-X, 9780691089713, p. 290</ref> the recent estimates suggest the number of rapes amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases.<ref name="bos"/><ref>[http://www.mitteleuropa.de/kriegskinder04.htm#*%C2%A0Ebba%20D.%C2%A0Drolshagen Schattendasein der Feindeskinder Die Nachkommen der Wehrmachtssoldaten in den ehemals besetzten Ländern] Neue Zürcher Zeitung 2004</ref>

Extensive rapes by Nazi German troops (besides other numerous atrocities) and revenge for them are given as one of possible explanations for actions during occupation of the former Nazi state.<ref name="Naimark108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108. [[Google Books]]. Chapter 2: [http://books.google.ca/books?id=MVSjHNKUKoEC&pg=PA69&dq=%22Soviet+Soldiers,+German+Women,+and+the+Problem+of+Rape%22&hl=en&ei=9bozTcmJIoqusAO2sZ2FBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Soviet%20Soldiers%2C%20German%20Women%2C%20and%20the%20Problem%20of%20Rape%22&f=false "Soviet Soldiers, German Women, and the Problem of Rape".] </ref> Even Christian Democrat German politicians had to concede that in light of the atrocities committed by the German military in Eastern Europe the degree of discipline demonstrated by the Soviet soldiers was amazing.<ref name="Grossman2007"/>

==Soviet Union==
A wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944–45, as the Western Allies and the Red Army battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The majority of the assaults were committed in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of German women raped by Soviet soldiers range from tens of thousands to 2 million.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref><ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> In many cases women were the victims of repeated rapes, some as many as 60 to 70 times.<ref name="Struggle for Europe">
[http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385497992&view=excerpt William I. Hitchcock ''The Struggle for Europe The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945 to the Present''] ISBN 978-0-385-49799-2 (0-385-49799-7)</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports,<ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath.<ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000.<ref name="sander">Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>{{Citation
| last = Sheehan
| first = Paul
| author-link =
| last2 =
| first2 =
| author2-link =
| title = An orgy of denial in Hitler's bunker
| newspaper = The Sydney Morning Herald
| pages =
| date = 17 May 2003
| url = http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html
| archiveurl =
| archivedate =
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref>

Natalya Gesse claimed that Russian soldiers raped German females from eight to eighty years old. There were claims cited by Beevor that Russian women were not spared either.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11 | location=London | work=The Guardian | title=They raped every German female from eight to 80 | date=1 May 2002 | first=Antony | last=Beevor}}</ref> Russian war veteran Vsevolod Olimpiev recalled, "The Soviet soldiers' relations with the German population where it had stayed may be called indifferent and neutral. Nobody, at least from our Regiment, harassed or touched them. Moreover, when we came across an obviously starving German family with kids we would share our food with them with no unnecessary words." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=klpmTGf_GdAC&pg=PA133&dq=On+the+bloody+road+to+Berlin:+frontline+accounts+from+Nor&hl=en&ei=PlRWTZ73BonCsAOmo72iDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false On the bloody road to Berlin: frontline accounts from North-West Europe and By Duncan Rogers, Sarah Rhiannon WilliamsTake our survey New!]</ref>

After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.
===Controversy===
[[File:Germans killed by Soviet army.jpg|thumb|300px|Picture taken by the [[Sicherheitspolizei]], the original caption states that the two women show signs of rape]]
There is dispute in Russia concerning these claims.<ref name="RedArmy">{{Cite news | last = Summers| first = Chris| title = Red Army rapists exposed| pages = | newspaper = [[BBC News Online]]| location = | date = 29 April 2002| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1939174.stm| archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = 27 May 2010}}</ref> They have encountered vast criticism from historians in Russia and the Russian government.<ref>{{Cite news
| last = Johnson
| first = Daniel
| coauthors =
| title = Russians angry at war rape claims
| newspaper = The Telegraph
| location = United Kingdom
| pages =
| language =
| publisher =
| date = 25 January 2002
| url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/25/wruss25.xml
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> Critics argue that the numbers are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there were cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect. In his review of ''[[Berlin: The Downfall 1945]]'', O.A. Rzheshevsky, a professor and President of the Russian Association of World War II Historians, has charged that Beevor is merely resurrecting the discredited and racist views of [[Neo-Nazi]] historians, who depicted Soviet troops as subhuman "Asiatic hordes."<ref>[http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor Review of Berlin: 1945] {{ru icon}})</ref> In an interview with ''[[BBC News Online]]'', Rzheshevsky admitted that he had only read excerpts and had not seen the book's source notes. He claimed that Beevor's use of phrases such as "Berliners remember" and "the experiences of the raped German women" were better suited "for pulp fiction, than scientific research." Rzheshevsky also defended Soviet reprisals against Germans, stating that the Germans could have expected an "avalanche of revenge".<ref name="RedArmy"/>

Rzheshevsky states that acts such as robbery and sexual assault are inevitable parts of war, and some men of Soviet and other Allied armies committed them. But in general, the Soviet soldiers treated peaceful Germans with humanity. <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

Colonel Ivan Busik, Director of Russia's Institute of Military History, wrote what Hero of the Soviet Union, Army General Ivan Tretiak said to him that there was not a single case of violence committed by men in his regiment. Tretiak said that although he wanted revenge, Stalin's orders on treating the population humanely were implemented, and discipline in the army strengthened. Tretiak said that in such a huge military group as that in Germany, there was bound to be cases of sexual misconduct, as men had not seen women in years. However, he explains that sexual relations were not always violent, but often involved mutual consent. The work of Beevor and others alleging mass rape is characterized by Tretiak as "filthy cynicism, because the vast majority of those who have been slandered cannot reply to these liars." <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

-Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 345-346</ref>, Communists<ref>Even German Communists were not spared. In Wedding, a left-wing stronghold until 1933, activists from the Julicherstrasse went out to congratulate the Soviet officers commanding the unit to occupy their district, showing party cards, which they had kept hidden during twelve years of illegality. ...the unit's officers raped them "that very evening." -Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 346</ref>, and Poles<ref name="Naimark106"/>.

[[Richard Overy]], a historian from [[King's College London]], has criticized the viewpoint held by some Russians, asserting that they refuse to acknowledge [[Soviet war crimes]] committed during the war, "Partly this is because they felt that much of it was justified vengeance against an enemy who committed much worse, and partly it was because they were writing the victors' history."<ref name="RedArmy"/>

==US==
In ''[[Taken by Force (book)|Taken by Force]]'' J Robert Lilly estimates the number of rapes committed by U.S. servicemen in Germany to be 11,040.<ref>Taken by Force: Rape and American GIs in Europe during World War II. J Robert Lilly. ISBN 978-0-230-50647-3 p.12</ref> In a letter to Time Magazine, an American Army sergeant wrote "Our own Army and the British Army ... have done their share of looting and raping.... It is also common knowledge that American soldiers are persona non grata in the homes of decent girls in many of the liberated countries because of their attitude that any foreign girl is automatically a prostitute.... This offensive attitude among our troops is not at all general, but the percentage is large enough to have given our Army a pretty black name, and we too are considered an army of rapists."<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854433-3,00.html Letter to the editor in Time magazine for November 12, 1945]</ref>

==France==
French troops took part in the invasion of Germany, and France was assigned an occupation zone in Germany. According to Perry Biddiscombe the French for instance committed "385 rapes in the [[Constance]] area; 600 in [[Bruchsal]]; and 500 in [[Freudenstadt]]."<ref>Perry Biddiscombe, Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948 Journal of Social History, Vol. 34, No. 3, (2001) p.635</ref>

According to [[Norman Naimark]] French Moroccan troops matched the behavior of Soviet troops when it came to rape, in particular in the early occupation of Baden and Württemberg.<ref name="Naimark106">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 106-7.</ref>
==Poland==
"With nearly two million Russian deserters and former POWs at large in Soviet-occupied Europe, it is no wonder that banditry on their part became a serious problem for the occupation."<ref name="Occupation1"/> Concerned with carrying out the [[expulsion of Germans]] from Silesia, the communist Polish administrators as a consequence could do little to protect the German population from Russian rapists.<ref name="Occupation1">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 74-75.</ref> A single Soviet report had alleged that presumably "Polish soldiers ... 'relate to German women as to free booty'."<ref name="Occupation1"/>

Polish women in Silesia were also subject to rape by Soviet soldiers, who did not always bother to differentiate along ethnic lines, or between victims and occupiers.<ref name="Naimark106"/>

==Analysis==
In his analysis of the motives behind the extensive Soviet rapes Norman Naimark singles out "hate propaganda, personal experiences of suffering at home, and a fully demeaning picture of German women in the press, not to mention among the soldiers themselves" as a part reason for the widespread rapes.<ref name="Occupation108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108-109.</ref> Naimark also noted the effect that the Russian tendency to binge-drink alcohol (of which much was available in Germany) had on the propensity of Russian soldiers to commit rape, especially rape-murder.<ref name="Occupation112">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 112.</ref> Naimark also notes the patriarchal nature of Russian culture, and of the Asian societies comprising the Soviet Union, where dishonor was in the past repaid by raping the women of the enemy.<ref name="Occupation114">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 114-115.</ref> The fact that the Germans had a much higher standard of living (with things such as indoor toilets), visible even when in ruins "may well have contributed to a national inferiority complex among Russians". Combining Russian feelings of inferiority and the resulting need to restore his honor and their desire for revenge may be the reason many women were raped in public as well as in front of husbands before both were killed.<ref name="Occupation114"/>

According to Anthony Beevor revenge played very little role in the frequent rapes; according to him the main reason for the rapes was the Soviet troops' feeling of entitlement to all types of booty, including women. Beevor exemplifies this with his discovery that Soviet troops also raped Russian and Polish girls and women that were liberated from Nazi concentration camps.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html] Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps, 24 Jan 2002, The Telegraph</ref>

==War crime==
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2011}}
At the Nuremberg trials, where only Axis defendants could be tried, no defendant was tried for rape as a "war crime under customary international law". Rape was however prosecuted as a war-crime in the trials against Japanese in Tokyo, and General Yamashita was found guilty of permitting rape. In 1946 rape was made a "crime against humanity".{{Fact|date=January 2011}}
==Discourse==
In postwar Germany, especially in West Germany, the war time rape stories became an essential part of political discourse.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> The rape of German women (along with the expulsion of Germans from the East and Allied occupation) had been universalized in an attempt to situate the German population on the whole as victims.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> This discourse became wholly discredited by the late 1960s; since 1970s on German leftists conducted politics focused on critical investigation of the Nazi past, the older generations’ unwillingness to face that past, and their tendency to portray themselves as victims rather than as perpetrators, particularly of the Holocaust.<ref name="bos">Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025</ref> Therefore, the frequently reiterated claim that the war time rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence<ref name="sander"/><ref>See also [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/3255081/German-women-break-their-silence-on-horrors-of-Red-Army-rapes.html][http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/raped-by-the-red-army-two-million-german-women-speak-out-1669074.html][http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,680354,00.html]</ref> is probably not correct.<ref name="bos"/>

The way the rapes have been discussed by Sander and Johr in their "''BeFreier und Befreite''"<ref name="sander"/> has been criticized by several scholars. According to Grossmann, the problem is that this is not a "universal" story of women being raped by men, but of German women being abused and violated by an army that fought Nazi Germany and liberated death camps.<ref name="Grossman"/> Such attempts to de-emphasize the historical context of the rape of German women is a serious omission, according to Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson,<ref>Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson. After the Fall: Women in the House of the Hangmen, ''October'', Vol. 72, (Spring, 1995) pp. 4-14</ref> and, according to Pascale Bos, is an example of ahistorical, feminist and sexist approach to the wartime rape issue.<ref name="bos"/>

According to Pascale Bos the feminist attempt to universalize the story of the rapes of German women came into a contradiction with Sander's and Johr's own description of the rapes as a form of genocidal rape: the rape of racially superior German women by racially inferior Russian soldiers, implying that such a rape was especially harmful for the victims.<ref name="bos"/> By contrast, the issue of the rapes of Soviet woman by ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers, that, according to some estimation amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases<ref>Gertjejanssen, Wendy Jo. 2004. “Victims, Heroes, Survivors: Sexual Violence on the Eastern Front during World War II.” PhD diss., University of Minnesota.</ref><ref>A 1942 Wehrmacht document suggested that the Nazi leadership considered implementing a special policy for the eastern front through which the estimated 750,000 babies born through sexual contact between the German soldiers and Russian women (an estimate deemed very conservative) could be identified and reclaimed as racially German. (The suggestion was made to add the middle names Friedrich and Luise to the birth certificates for boy and girl babies, respectively.) Although the plan was not implemented, such documents suggest that the births that resulted from rapes and other forms of sexual contact were deemed as beneficial, as increasing the “Aryan” race rather than as adding to the inferior Slavic race. The underlying ideology suggests that German rape and other forms of sexual contact may need to be seen as conforming to a larger military strategy of racial and territorial dominance. (Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025)</ref> is not treated by the authors as something deserving serious mention.<ref name="bos"/>

==Social Effects==
A number of "Russian babies" were born during the occupation, many of them as the result of rape.[http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,500251,00.html]

According to Norman Naimark we may never know how many German women and girls were raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation, their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as 2 million.<ref name="ReferenceA">N. Naimark "The Russians in Germany" p.132,133</ref> As to the social effects of this sexual violence Naimark notes:
{{Quotation|
:In any case, just as each rape survivor carried the effects of the crime with her till the end of her life, so was the collective anguish nearly unbearable. The social psychology of women and men in the soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the [[GDR]] in the fall of 1949, until—one could argue—the present.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>}}

==Literature==
The Soviet Dissident [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] took part in the invasion of Germany, and wrote a poem about it: [[Prussian Nights]]; "Twenty-two Hoeringstrasse. It's not been burned, just looted, rifled. A moaning by the walls, half muffled: the mother's wounded, half alive. The little daughter's on the mattress, dead. How many have been on it? A platoon, a company perhaps? A girl's been turned into a woman, a woman turned into a corpse. . . . The mother begs, "Soldier, kill me!"<ref>Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ''Prussian Nights: A Poem [Prusskie nochi]'', Robert Conquest, trans. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977).</ref>

==See also==
*[[War rape]]
*[[Rape during the occupation of Japan]]
*[[Marocchinate]]
*[[Soviet war crimes]]
*[[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
*[[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]
==References==
{{Reflist|3}}

{{World War II|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rape During The Occupation Of Germany}}
[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War crimes]]

[[cs:Zločiny Sovětského svazu za druhé světové války]]
[[da:Sovjetiske krigsforbrydelser]]
[[de:Verbrechen der Roten Armee im Zweiten Weltkrieg]]
[[es:Crímenes de guerra del Ejército Rojo]]
[[fr:Crimes de guerre de l'Armée rouge pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale]]
[[it:Crimini di guerra sovietici]]
[[ja:ソビエト連邦による戦争犯罪]]
[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]
[[ru:Насилие в отношении мирного населения Германии (1945)]]
[[tr:Sovyet savaş suçları]]
[[uk:Масові зґвалтування німецьких жінок червоноармійцями]]
[[zh:蘇聯戰爭罪行]]

Sexuelle Gewalt im Zweiten Weltkrieg

2011-02-12T19:40:13Z

76.191.230.178: /* Soviet Union */ Restored unexplained deletion of material

{{POV|date=May 2010}}
{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

[[File:US Army Germany occupation zones 1945.jpg|thumb|300px|Territorial changes and occupational zones of Nazi Germany after its defeat. Includes the front-line along the Elbe from which U.S. troops withdrew in July 1945]]
As Allied troops entered and occupied German territory during the later stages of [[World War II]], mass rapes took place, both in connection to combat operations and during the subsequent occupation that was to last many years. Most published and most numerous are the rapes committed by [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] servicemen, for which estimates of rapes committed by them range from tens of thousands to 2 million.
==Historical background: rape in World War II Europe==
As German aggression against Poland started World War II, the first rapes during that conflict were committed by [[Wehrmacht]] forces against Jewish women and girls in September 1939;<ref name="Datner">"55 Dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce" [[Szymon Datner]] Warsaw 1967 page 67 "Zanotowano szereg faktów gwałcenia kobiet i dziewcząt żydowskich" (Numerous facts of cases of rapes made upon Jewish women and girls were reported)</ref> Polish women and girls were also raped during mass executions carried out primarily by the German minority's paramilitary force called [[Selbstschutz]]<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20071029144245/http://www.kki.net.pl/~museum/rozdz3,2.htm</ref>
Later rapes were also committed by German forces on [[Eastern Front]]; although their overall number is difficult to establish due to lack of prosecution of the crime by German courts in Eastern Europe,<ref name="Grossman2007">Atina Grossmann. Jews, Germans, and Allies: close encounters in occupied Germany. Princeton University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-691-08971-X, 9780691089713, p. 290</ref> the recent estimates suggest the number of rapes amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases.<ref name="bos"/><ref>[http://www.mitteleuropa.de/kriegskinder04.htm#*%C2%A0Ebba%20D.%C2%A0Drolshagen Schattendasein der Feindeskinder Die Nachkommen der Wehrmachtssoldaten in den ehemals besetzten Ländern] Neue Zürcher Zeitung 2004</ref>

Extensive rapes by Nazi German troops (besides other numerous atrocities) and revenge for them are given as one of possible explanations for actions during occupation of the former Nazi state.<ref name="Naimark108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108. [[Google Books]]. Chapter 2: [http://books.google.ca/books?id=MVSjHNKUKoEC&pg=PA69&dq=%22Soviet+Soldiers,+German+Women,+and+the+Problem+of+Rape%22&hl=en&ei=9bozTcmJIoqusAO2sZ2FBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Soviet%20Soldiers%2C%20German%20Women%2C%20and%20the%20Problem%20of%20Rape%22&f=false "Soviet Soldiers, German Women, and the Problem of Rape".] </ref> Even Christian Democrat German politicians had to concede that in light of the atrocities committed by the German military in Eastern Europe the degree of discipline demonstrated by the Soviet soldiers was amazing.<ref name="Grossman2007"/>

==Soviet Union==
A wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944–45, as the Western Allies and the Red Army battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The majority of the assaults were committed in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of German women raped by Soviet soldiers range from tens of thousands to 2 million.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref><ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> In many cases women were the victims of repeated rapes, some as many as 60 to 70 times.<ref name="Struggle for Europe">
[http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385497992&view=excerpt William I. Hitchcock ''The Struggle for Europe The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945 to the Present''] ISBN 978-0-385-49799-2 (0-385-49799-7)</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports,<ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath.<ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000.<ref name="sander">Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>{{Citation
| last = Sheehan
| first = Paul
| author-link =
| last2 =
| first2 =
| author2-link =
| title = An orgy of denial in Hitler's bunker
| newspaper = The Sydney Morning Herald
| pages =
| date = 17 May 2003
| url = http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html
| archiveurl =
| archivedate =
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref>

Natalya Gesse claimed that Russian soldiers raped German females from eight to eighty years old. There were claims cited by Beevor that Russian women were not spared either.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11 | location=London | work=The Guardian | title=They raped every German female from eight to 80 | date=1 May 2002 | first=Antony | last=Beevor}}</ref> Russian war veteran Vsevolod Olimpiev recalled, "The Soviet soldiers' relations with the German population where it had stayed may be called indifferent and neutral. Nobody, at least from our Regiment, harassed or touched them. Moreover, when we came across an obviously starving German family with kids we would share our food with them with no unnecessary words." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=klpmTGf_GdAC&pg=PA133&dq=On+the+bloody+road+to+Berlin:+frontline+accounts+from+Nor&hl=en&ei=PlRWTZ73BonCsAOmo72iDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false On the bloody road to Berlin: frontline accounts from North-West Europe and By Duncan Rogers, Sarah Rhiannon WilliamsTake our survey New!]</ref>

After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.
===Controversy===
[[File:Germans killed by Soviet army.jpg|thumb|300px|Picture taken by the [[Sicherheitspolizei]], the original caption states that the two women show signs of rape]]
There is dispute in Russia concerning these claims.<ref name="RedArmy">{{Cite news | last = Summers| first = Chris| title = Red Army rapists exposed| pages = | newspaper = [[BBC News Online]]| location = | date = 29 April 2002| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1939174.stm| archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = 27 May 2010}}</ref> They have encountered vast criticism from historians in Russia and the Russian government.<ref>{{Cite news
| last = Johnson
| first = Daniel
| coauthors =
| title = Russians angry at war rape claims
| newspaper = The Telegraph
| location = United Kingdom
| pages =
| language =
| publisher =
| date = 25 January 2002
| url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/25/wruss25.xml
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> Critics argue that the numbers are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there were cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect. In his review of ''[[Berlin: The Downfall 1945]]'', O.A. Rzheshevsky, a professor and President of the Russian Association of World War II Historians, has charged that Beevor is merely resurrecting the discredited and racist views of [[Neo-Nazi]] historians, who depicted Soviet troops as subhuman "Asiatic hordes."<ref>[http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor Review of Berlin: 1945] {{ru icon}})</ref> In an interview with ''[[BBC News Online]]'', Rzheshevsky admitted that he had only read excerpts and had not seen the book's source notes. He claimed that Beevor's use of phrases such as "Berliners remember" and "the experiences of the raped German women" were better suited "for pulp fiction, than scientific research." Rzheshevsky also defended Soviet reprisals against Germans, stating that the Germans could have expected an "avalanche of revenge".<ref name="RedArmy"/>

Rzheshevsky states that acts such as robbery and sexual assault are inevitable parts of war, and some men of Soviet and other Allied armies committed them. But in general, the Soviet soldiers treated peaceful Germans with humanity. <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

Colonel Ivan Busik, Director of Russia's Institute of Military History, wrote what Hero of the Soviet Union, Army General Ivan Tretiak said to him that there was not a single case of violence committed by men in his regiment. Tretiak said that although he wanted revenge, Stalin's orders on treating the population humanely were implemented, and discipline in the army strengthened. Tretiak said that in such a huge military group as that in Germany, there was bound to be cases of sexual misconduct, as men had not seen women in years. However, he explains that sexual relations were not always violent, but often involved mutual consent. The work of Beevor and others alleging mass rape is characterized by Tretiak as "filthy cynicism, because the vast majority of those who have been slandered cannot reply to these liars." <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

-Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 345-346</ref>, Communists<ref>Even German Communists were not spared. In Wedding, a left-wing stronghold until 1933, activists from the Julicherstrasse went out to congratulate the Soviet officers commanding the unit to occupy their district, showing party cards, which they had kept hidden during twelve years of illegality. ...the unit's officers raped them "that very evening." -Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 346</ref>, and Poles<ref name="Naimark106"/>.

[[Richard Overy]], a historian from [[King's College London]], has criticized the viewpoint held by some Russians, asserting that they refuse to acknowledge [[Soviet war crimes]] committed during the war, "Partly this is because they felt that much of it was justified vengeance against an enemy who committed much worse, and partly it was because they were writing the victors' history."<ref name="RedArmy"/>

==US==
In ''[[Taken by Force (book)|Taken by Force]]'' J Robert Lilly estimates the number of rapes committed by U.S. servicemen in Germany to be 11,040.<ref>Taken by Force: Rape and American GIs in Europe during World War II. J Robert Lilly. ISBN 978-0-230-50647-3 p.12</ref> In a letter to Time Magazine, an American Army sergeant wrote "Our own Army and the British Army ... have done their share of looting and raping.... It is also common knowledge that American soldiers are persona non grata in the homes of decent girls in many of the liberated countries because of their attitude that any foreign girl is automatically a prostitute.... This offensive attitude among our troops is not at all general, but the percentage is large enough to have given our Army a pretty black name, and we too are considered an army of rapists."<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854433-3,00.html Letter to the editor in Time magazine for November 12, 1945]</ref>

==France==
French troops took part in the invasion of Germany, and France was assigned an occupation zone in Germany. According to Perry Biddiscombe the French for instance committed "385 rapes in the [[Constance]] area; 600 in [[Bruchsal]]; and 500 in [[Freudenstadt]]."<ref>Perry Biddiscombe, Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948 Journal of Social History, Vol. 34, No. 3, (2001) p.635</ref>

According to [[Norman Naimark]] French Moroccan troops matched the behavior of Soviet troops when it came to rape, in particular in the early occupation of Baden and Württemberg.<ref name="Naimark106">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 106-7.</ref>
==Poland==
"With nearly two million Russian deserters and former POWs at large in Soviet-occupied Europe, it is no wonder that banditry on their part became a serious problem for the occupation."<ref name="Occupation1"/> Concerned with carrying out the [[expulsion of Germans]] from Silesia, the communist Polish administrators as a consequence could do little to protect the German population from Russian rapists.<ref name="Occupation1">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 74-75.</ref> A single Soviet report had alleged that presumably "Polish soldiers ... 'relate to German women as to free booty'."<ref name="Occupation1"/>

Polish women in Silesia were also subject to rape by Soviet soldiers, who did not always bother to differentiate along ethnic lines, or between victims and occupiers.<ref name="Naimark106"/>

==Analysis==
In his analysis of the motives behind the extensive Soviet rapes Norman Naimark singles out "hate propaganda, personal experiences of suffering at home, and a fully demeaning picture of German women in the press, not to mention among the soldiers themselves" as a part reason for the widespread rapes.<ref name="Occupation108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108-109.</ref> Naimark also noted the effect that the Russian tendency to binge-drink alcohol (of which much was available in Germany) had on the propensity of Russian soldiers to commit rape, especially rape-murder.<ref name="Occupation112">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 112.</ref> Naimark also notes the patriarchal nature of Russian culture, and of the Asian societies comprising the Soviet Union, where dishonor was in the past repaid by raping the women of the enemy.<ref name="Occupation114">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 114-115.</ref> The fact that the Germans had a much higher standard of living (with things such as indoor toilets), visible even when in ruins "may well have contributed to a national inferiority complex among Russians". Combining Russian feelings of inferiority and the resulting need to restore his honor and their desire for revenge may be the reason many women were raped in public as well as in front of husbands before both were killed.<ref name="Occupation114"/>

According to Anthony Beevor revenge played very little role in the frequent rapes; according to him the main reason for the rapes was the Soviet troops' feeling of entitlement to all types of booty, including women. Beevor exemplifies this with his discovery that Soviet troops also raped Russian and Polish girls and women that were liberated from Nazi concentration camps.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html] Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps, 24 Jan 2002, The Telegraph</ref>

==War crime==
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2011}}
At the Nuremberg trials, where only Axis defendants could be tried, no defendant was tried for rape as a "war crime under customary international law". Rape was however prosecuted as a war-crime in the trials against Japanese in Tokyo, and General Yamashita was found guilty of permitting rape. In 1946 rape was made a "crime against humanity".{{Fact|date=January 2011}}
==Discourse==
In postwar Germany, especially in West Germany, the war time rape stories became an essential part of political discourse.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> The rape of German women (along with the expulsion of Germans from the East and Allied occupation) had been universalized in an attempt to situate the German population on the whole as victims.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> This discourse became wholly discredited by the late 1960s; since 1970s on German leftists conducted politics focused on critical investigation of the Nazi past, the older generations’ unwillingness to face that past, and their tendency to portray themselves as victims rather than as perpetrators, particularly of the Holocaust.<ref name="bos">Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025</ref> Therefore, the frequently reiterated claim that the war time rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence<ref name="sander"/><ref>See also [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/3255081/German-women-break-their-silence-on-horrors-of-Red-Army-rapes.html][http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/raped-by-the-red-army-two-million-german-women-speak-out-1669074.html][http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,680354,00.html]</ref> is probably not correct.<ref name="bos"/>

The way the rapes have been discussed by Sander and Johr in their "''BeFreier und Befreite''"<ref name="sander"/> has been criticized by several scholars. According to Grossmann, the problem is that this is not a "universal" story of women being raped by men, but of German women being abused and violated by an army that fought Nazi Germany and liberated death camps.<ref name="Grossman"/> Such attempts to de-emphasize the historical context of the rape of German women is a serious omission, according to Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson,<ref>Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson. After the Fall: Women in the House of the Hangmen, ''October'', Vol. 72, (Spring, 1995) pp. 4-14</ref> and, according to Pascale Bos, is an example of ahistorical, feminist and sexist approach to the wartime rape issue.<ref name="bos"/>

According to Pascale Bos the feminist attempt to universalize the story of the rapes of German women came into a contradiction with Sander's and Johr's own description of the rapes as a form of genocidal rape: the rape of racially superior German women by racially inferior Russian soldiers, implying that such a rape was especially harmful for the victims.<ref name="bos"/> By contrast, the issue of the rapes of Soviet woman by ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers, that, according to some estimation amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases<ref>Gertjejanssen, Wendy Jo. 2004. “Victims, Heroes, Survivors: Sexual Violence on the Eastern Front during World War II.” PhD diss., University of Minnesota.</ref><ref>A 1942 Wehrmacht document suggested that the Nazi leadership considered implementing a special policy for the eastern front through which the estimated 750,000 babies born through sexual contact between the German soldiers and Russian women (an estimate deemed very conservative) could be identified and reclaimed as racially German. (The suggestion was made to add the middle names Friedrich and Luise to the birth certificates for boy and girl babies, respectively.) Although the plan was not implemented, such documents suggest that the births that resulted from rapes and other forms of sexual contact were deemed as beneficial, as increasing the “Aryan” race rather than as adding to the inferior Slavic race. The underlying ideology suggests that German rape and other forms of sexual contact may need to be seen as conforming to a larger military strategy of racial and territorial dominance. (Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025)</ref> is not treated by the authors as something deserving serious mention.<ref name="bos"/>

==Social Effects==
A number of "Russian babies" were born during the occupation, many of them as the result of rape.[http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,500251,00.html]

According to Norman Naimark we may never know how many German women and girls were raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation, their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as 2 million.<ref name="ReferenceA">N. Naimark "The Russians in Germany" p.132,133</ref> As to the social effects of this sexual violence Naimark notes:
{{Quotation|
:In any case, just as each rape survivor carried the effects of the crime with her till the end of her life, so was the collective anguish nearly unbearable. The social psychology of women and men in the soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the [[GDR]] in the fall of 1949, until—one could argue—the present.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>}}

==Literature==
The Soviet Dissident [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] took part in the invasion of Germany, and wrote a poem about it: [[Prussian Nights]]; "Twenty-two Hoeringstrasse. It's not been burned, just looted, rifled. A moaning by the walls, half muffled: the mother's wounded, half alive. The little daughter's on the mattress, dead. How many have been on it? A platoon, a company perhaps? A girl's been turned into a woman, a woman turned into a corpse. . . . The mother begs, "Soldier, kill me!"<ref>Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ''Prussian Nights: A Poem [Prusskie nochi]'', Robert Conquest, trans. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977).</ref>

==See also==
*[[War rape]]
*[[Rape during the occupation of Japan]]
*[[Marocchinate]]
*[[Soviet war crimes]]
*[[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
*[[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]
==References==
{{Reflist|3}}

{{World War II|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rape During The Occupation Of Germany}}
[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War crimes]]

[[cs:Zločiny Sovětského svazu za druhé světové války]]
[[da:Sovjetiske krigsforbrydelser]]
[[de:Verbrechen der Roten Armee im Zweiten Weltkrieg]]
[[es:Crímenes de guerra del Ejército Rojo]]
[[fr:Crimes de guerre de l'Armée rouge pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale]]
[[it:Crimini di guerra sovietici]]
[[ja:ソビエト連邦による戦争犯罪]]
[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]
[[ru:Насилие в отношении мирного населения Германии (1945)]]
[[tr:Sovyet savaş suçları]]
[[uk:Масові зґвалтування німецьких жінок червоноармійцями]]
[[zh:蘇聯戰爭罪行]]

Benutzer:Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwweeeeeeee/Rape during the occupation of Germany

2011-02-12T19:37:43Z

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{{POV|date=May 2010}}
{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

[[File:US Army Germany occupation zones 1945.jpg|thumb|300px|Territorial changes and occupational zones of Nazi Germany after its defeat. Includes the front-line along the Elbe from which U.S. troops withdrew in July 1945]]
As Allied troops entered and occupied German territory during the later stages of [[World War II]], mass rapes took place, both in connection to combat operations and during the subsequent occupation that was to last many years. Most published and most numerous are the rapes committed by [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] servicemen, for which estimates of rapes committed by them range from tens of thousands to 2 million.
==Historical background: rape in World War II Europe==
As German aggression against Poland started World War II, the first rapes during that conflict were committed by [[Wehrmacht]] forces against Jewish women and girls in September 1939;<ref name="Datner">"55 Dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce" [[Szymon Datner]] Warsaw 1967 page 67 "Zanotowano szereg faktów gwałcenia kobiet i dziewcząt żydowskich" (Numerous facts of cases of rapes made upon Jewish women and girls were reported)</ref> Polish women and girls were also raped during mass executions carried out primarily by the German minority's paramilitary force called [[Selbstschutz]]<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20071029144245/http://www.kki.net.pl/~museum/rozdz3,2.htm</ref>
Later rapes were also committed by German forces on [[Eastern Front]]; although their overall number is difficult to establish due to lack of prosecution of the crime by German courts in Eastern Europe,<ref name="Grossman2007">Atina Grossmann. Jews, Germans, and Allies: close encounters in occupied Germany. Princeton University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-691-08971-X, 9780691089713, p. 290</ref> the recent estimates suggest the number of rapes amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases.<ref name="bos"/><ref>[http://www.mitteleuropa.de/kriegskinder04.htm#*%C2%A0Ebba%20D.%C2%A0Drolshagen Schattendasein der Feindeskinder Die Nachkommen der Wehrmachtssoldaten in den ehemals besetzten Ländern] Neue Zürcher Zeitung 2004</ref>

Extensive rapes by Nazi German troops (besides other numerous atrocities) and revenge for them are given as one of possible explanations for actions during occupation of the former Nazi state.<ref name="Naimark108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108. [[Google Books]]. Chapter 2: [http://books.google.ca/books?id=MVSjHNKUKoEC&pg=PA69&dq=%22Soviet+Soldiers,+German+Women,+and+the+Problem+of+Rape%22&hl=en&ei=9bozTcmJIoqusAO2sZ2FBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Soviet%20Soldiers%2C%20German%20Women%2C%20and%20the%20Problem%20of%20Rape%22&f=false "Soviet Soldiers, German Women, and the Problem of Rape".] </ref> Even Christian Democrat German politicians had to concede that in light of the atrocities committed by the German military in Eastern Europe the degree of discipline demonstrated by the Soviet soldiers was amazing.<ref name="Grossman2007"/>

==Soviet Union==
A wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944–45, as the Western Allies and the Red Army battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The majority of the assaults were committed in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of German women raped by Soviet soldiers range from tens of thousands to 2 million.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref><ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> In many cases women were the victims of repeated rapes, some as many as 60 to 70 times.<ref name="Struggle for Europe">
[http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385497992&view=excerpt William I. Hitchcock ''The Struggle for Europe The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945 to the Present''] ISBN 978-0-385-49799-2 (0-385-49799-7)</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports,<ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath.<ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000.<ref name="sander">Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>{{Citation
| last = Sheehan
| first = Paul
| author-link =
| last2 =
| first2 =
| author2-link =
| title = An orgy of denial in Hitler's bunker
| newspaper = The Sydney Morning Herald
| pages =
| date = 17 May 2003
| url = http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html
| archiveurl =
| archivedate =
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> According to Natalya Gesse, "the Russian soldiers were raping every German female from eight to eighty."<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11 | location=London | work=The Guardian | title=They raped every German female from eight to 80 | date=1 May 2002 | first=Antony | last=Beevor}}</ref> Soviet<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html Red Army troops raped even Russian women...]</ref> and Jewish<ref>[http://www.usm.maine.edu/crm/faculty/jim/raphael.htm James W. Messerschmidt The forgotten victims...]</ref> women were raped also.

After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.
===Controversy===
[[File:Germans killed by Soviet army.jpg|thumb|300px|Picture taken by the [[Sicherheitspolizei]], the original caption states that the two women show signs of rape]]
There is dispute in Russia concerning these claims.<ref name="RedArmy">{{Cite news | last = Summers| first = Chris| title = Red Army rapists exposed| pages = | newspaper = [[BBC News Online]]| location = | date = 29 April 2002| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1939174.stm| archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = 27 May 2010}}</ref> They have encountered vast criticism from historians in Russia and the Russian government.<ref>{{Cite news
| last = Johnson
| first = Daniel
| coauthors =
| title = Russians angry at war rape claims
| newspaper = The Telegraph
| location = United Kingdom
| pages =
| language =
| publisher =
| date = 25 January 2002
| url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/25/wruss25.xml
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> Critics argue that the numbers are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there were cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect. In his review of ''[[Berlin: The Downfall 1945]]'', O.A. Rzheshevsky, a professor and President of the Russian Association of World War II Historians, has charged that Beevor is merely resurrecting the discredited and racist views of [[Neo-Nazi]] historians, who depicted Soviet troops as subhuman "Asiatic hordes."<ref>[http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor Review of Berlin: 1945] {{ru icon}})</ref> In an interview with ''[[BBC News Online]]'', Rzheshevsky admitted that he had only read excerpts and had not seen the book's source notes. He claimed that Beevor's use of phrases such as "Berliners remember" and "the experiences of the raped German women" were better suited "for pulp fiction, than scientific research." Rzheshevsky also defended Soviet reprisals against Germans, stating that the Germans could have expected an "avalanche of revenge".<ref name="RedArmy"/>

Rzheshevsky states that acts such as robbery and sexual assault are inevitable parts of war, and some men of Soviet and other Allied armies committed them. But in general, the Soviet soldiers treated peaceful Germans with humanity. <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

Colonel Ivan Busik, Director of Russia's Institute of Military History, wrote what Hero of the Soviet Union, Army General Ivan Tretiak said to him that there was not a single case of violence committed by men in his regiment. Tretiak said that although he wanted revenge, Stalin's orders on treating the population humanely were implemented, and discipline in the army strengthened. Tretiak said that in such a huge military group as that in Germany, there was bound to be cases of sexual misconduct, as men had not seen women in years. However, he explains that sexual relations were not always violent, but often involved mutual consent. The work of Beevor and others alleging mass rape is characterized by Tretiak as "filthy cynicism, because the vast majority of those who have been slandered cannot reply to these liars." <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

-Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 345-346</ref>, Communists<ref>Even German Communists were not spared. In Wedding, a left-wing stronghold until 1933, activists from the Julicherstrasse went out to congratulate the Soviet officers commanding the unit to occupy their district, showing party cards, which they had kept hidden during twelve years of illegality. ...the unit's officers raped them "that very evening." -Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 346</ref>, and Poles<ref name="Naimark106"/>.

[[Richard Overy]], a historian from [[King's College London]], has criticized the viewpoint held by some Russians, asserting that they refuse to acknowledge [[Soviet war crimes]] committed during the war, "Partly this is because they felt that much of it was justified vengeance against an enemy who committed much worse, and partly it was because they were writing the victors' history."<ref name="RedArmy"/>

==US==
In ''[[Taken by Force (book)|Taken by Force]]'' J Robert Lilly estimates the number of rapes committed by U.S. servicemen in Germany to be 11,040.<ref>Taken by Force: Rape and American GIs in Europe during World War II. J Robert Lilly. ISBN 978-0-230-50647-3 p.12</ref> In a letter to Time Magazine, an American Army sergeant wrote "Our own Army and the British Army ... have done their share of looting and raping.... It is also common knowledge that American soldiers are persona non grata in the homes of decent girls in many of the liberated countries because of their attitude that any foreign girl is automatically a prostitute.... This offensive attitude among our troops is not at all general, but the percentage is large enough to have given our Army a pretty black name, and we too are considered an army of rapists."<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854433-3,00.html Letter to the editor in Time magazine for November 12, 1945]</ref>

==France==
French troops took part in the invasion of Germany, and France was assigned an occupation zone in Germany. According to Perry Biddiscombe the French for instance committed "385 rapes in the [[Constance]] area; 600 in [[Bruchsal]]; and 500 in [[Freudenstadt]]."<ref>Perry Biddiscombe, Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948 Journal of Social History, Vol. 34, No. 3, (2001) p.635</ref>

According to [[Norman Naimark]] French Moroccan troops matched the behavior of Soviet troops when it came to rape, in particular in the early occupation of Baden and Württemberg.<ref name="Naimark106">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 106-7.</ref>
==Poland==
"With nearly two million Russian deserters and former POWs at large in Soviet-occupied Europe, it is no wonder that banditry on their part became a serious problem for the occupation."<ref name="Occupation1"/> Concerned with carrying out the [[expulsion of Germans]] from Silesia, the communist Polish administrators as a consequence could do little to protect the German population from Russian rapists.<ref name="Occupation1">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 74-75.</ref> A single Soviet report had alleged that presumably "Polish soldiers ... 'relate to German women as to free booty'."<ref name="Occupation1"/>

Polish women in Silesia were also subject to rape by Soviet soldiers, who did not always bother to differentiate along ethnic lines, or between victims and occupiers.<ref name="Naimark106"/>

==Analysis==
In his analysis of the motives behind the extensive Soviet rapes Norman Naimark singles out "hate propaganda, personal experiences of suffering at home, and a fully demeaning picture of German women in the press, not to mention among the soldiers themselves" as a part reason for the widespread rapes.<ref name="Occupation108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108-109.</ref> Naimark also noted the effect that the Russian tendency to binge-drink alcohol (of which much was available in Germany) had on the propensity of Russian soldiers to commit rape, especially rape-murder.<ref name="Occupation112">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 112.</ref> Naimark also notes the patriarchal nature of Russian culture, and of the Asian societies comprising the Soviet Union, where dishonor was in the past repaid by raping the women of the enemy.<ref name="Occupation114">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 114-115.</ref> The fact that the Germans had a much higher standard of living (with things such as indoor toilets), visible even when in ruins "may well have contributed to a national inferiority complex among Russians". Combining Russian feelings of inferiority and the resulting need to restore his honor and their desire for revenge may be the reason many women were raped in public as well as in front of husbands before both were killed.<ref name="Occupation114"/>

According to Anthony Beevor revenge played very little role in the frequent rapes; according to him the main reason for the rapes was the Soviet troops' feeling of entitlement to all types of booty, including women. Beevor exemplifies this with his discovery that Soviet troops also raped Russian and Polish girls and women that were liberated from Nazi concentration camps.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html] Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps, 24 Jan 2002, The Telegraph</ref>

==War crime==
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2011}}
At the Nuremberg trials, where only Axis defendants could be tried, no defendant was tried for rape as a "war crime under customary international law". Rape was however prosecuted as a war-crime in the trials against Japanese in Tokyo, and General Yamashita was found guilty of permitting rape. In 1946 rape was made a "crime against humanity".{{Fact|date=January 2011}}
==Discourse==
In postwar Germany, especially in West Germany, the war time rape stories became an essential part of political discourse.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> The rape of German women (along with the expulsion of Germans from the East and Allied occupation) had been universalized in an attempt to situate the German population on the whole as victims.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> This discourse became wholly discredited by the late 1960s; since 1970s on German leftists conducted politics focused on critical investigation of the Nazi past, the older generations’ unwillingness to face that past, and their tendency to portray themselves as victims rather than as perpetrators, particularly of the Holocaust.<ref name="bos">Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025</ref> Therefore, the frequently reiterated claim that the war time rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence<ref name="sander"/><ref>See also [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/3255081/German-women-break-their-silence-on-horrors-of-Red-Army-rapes.html][http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/raped-by-the-red-army-two-million-german-women-speak-out-1669074.html][http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,680354,00.html]</ref> is probably not correct.<ref name="bos"/>

The way the rapes have been discussed by Sander and Johr in their "''BeFreier und Befreite''"<ref name="sander"/> has been criticized by several scholars. According to Grossmann, the problem is that this is not a "universal" story of women being raped by men, but of German women being abused and violated by an army that fought Nazi Germany and liberated death camps.<ref name="Grossman"/> Such attempts to de-emphasize the historical context of the rape of German women is a serious omission, according to Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson,<ref>Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson. After the Fall: Women in the House of the Hangmen, ''October'', Vol. 72, (Spring, 1995) pp. 4-14</ref> and, according to Pascale Bos, is an example of ahistorical, feminist and sexist approach to the wartime rape issue.<ref name="bos"/>

According to Pascale Bos the feminist attempt to universalize the story of the rapes of German women came into a contradiction with Sander's and Johr's own description of the rapes as a form of genocidal rape: the rape of racially superior German women by racially inferior Russian soldiers, implying that such a rape was especially harmful for the victims.<ref name="bos"/> By contrast, the issue of the rapes of Soviet woman by ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers, that, according to some estimation amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases<ref>Gertjejanssen, Wendy Jo. 2004. “Victims, Heroes, Survivors: Sexual Violence on the Eastern Front during World War II.” PhD diss., University of Minnesota.</ref><ref>A 1942 Wehrmacht document suggested that the Nazi leadership considered implementing a special policy for the eastern front through which the estimated 750,000 babies born through sexual contact between the German soldiers and Russian women (an estimate deemed very conservative) could be identified and reclaimed as racially German. (The suggestion was made to add the middle names Friedrich and Luise to the birth certificates for boy and girl babies, respectively.) Although the plan was not implemented, such documents suggest that the births that resulted from rapes and other forms of sexual contact were deemed as beneficial, as increasing the “Aryan” race rather than as adding to the inferior Slavic race. The underlying ideology suggests that German rape and other forms of sexual contact may need to be seen as conforming to a larger military strategy of racial and territorial dominance. (Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025)</ref> is not treated by the authors as something deserving serious mention.<ref name="bos"/>

==Social Effects==
A number of "Russian babies" were born during the occupation, many of them as the result of rape.[http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,500251,00.html]

According to Norman Naimark we may never know how many German women and girls were raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation, their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as 2 million.<ref name="ReferenceA">N. Naimark "The Russians in Germany" p.132,133</ref> As to the social effects of this sexual violence Naimark notes:
{{Quotation|
:In any case, just as each rape survivor carried the effects of the crime with her till the end of her life, so was the collective anguish nearly unbearable. The social psychology of women and men in the soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the [[GDR]] in the fall of 1949, until—one could argue—the present.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>}}

==Literature==
The Soviet Dissident [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] took part in the invasion of Germany, and wrote a poem about it: [[Prussian Nights]]; "Twenty-two Hoeringstrasse. It's not been burned, just looted, rifled. A moaning by the walls, half muffled: the mother's wounded, half alive. The little daughter's on the mattress, dead. How many have been on it? A platoon, a company perhaps? A girl's been turned into a woman, a woman turned into a corpse. . . . The mother begs, "Soldier, kill me!"<ref>Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ''Prussian Nights: A Poem [Prusskie nochi]'', Robert Conquest, trans. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977).</ref>

==See also==
*[[War rape]]
*[[Rape during the occupation of Japan]]
*[[Marocchinate]]
*[[Soviet war crimes]]
*[[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
*[[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]
==References==
{{Reflist|3}}

{{World War II|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rape During The Occupation Of Germany}}
[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War crimes]]

[[cs:Zločiny Sovětského svazu za druhé světové války]]
[[da:Sovjetiske krigsforbrydelser]]
[[de:Verbrechen der Roten Armee im Zweiten Weltkrieg]]
[[es:Crímenes de guerra del Ejército Rojo]]
[[fr:Crimes de guerre de l'Armée rouge pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale]]
[[it:Crimini di guerra sovietici]]
[[ja:ソビエト連邦による戦争犯罪]]
[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]
[[ru:Насилие в отношении мирного населения Германии (1945)]]
[[tr:Sovyet savaş suçları]]
[[uk:Масові зґвалтування німецьких жінок червоноармійцями]]
[[zh:蘇聯戰爭罪行]]

Sexuelle Gewalt im Zweiten Weltkrieg

2011-02-12T19:37:43Z

76.191.230.178: /* Soviet Union */ Restored unexplained deletion of material

{{POV|date=May 2010}}
{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

[[File:US Army Germany occupation zones 1945.jpg|thumb|300px|Territorial changes and occupational zones of Nazi Germany after its defeat. Includes the front-line along the Elbe from which U.S. troops withdrew in July 1945]]
As Allied troops entered and occupied German territory during the later stages of [[World War II]], mass rapes took place, both in connection to combat operations and during the subsequent occupation that was to last many years. Most published and most numerous are the rapes committed by [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] servicemen, for which estimates of rapes committed by them range from tens of thousands to 2 million.
==Historical background: rape in World War II Europe==
As German aggression against Poland started World War II, the first rapes during that conflict were committed by [[Wehrmacht]] forces against Jewish women and girls in September 1939;<ref name="Datner">"55 Dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce" [[Szymon Datner]] Warsaw 1967 page 67 "Zanotowano szereg faktów gwałcenia kobiet i dziewcząt żydowskich" (Numerous facts of cases of rapes made upon Jewish women and girls were reported)</ref> Polish women and girls were also raped during mass executions carried out primarily by the German minority's paramilitary force called [[Selbstschutz]]<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20071029144245/http://www.kki.net.pl/~museum/rozdz3,2.htm</ref>
Later rapes were also committed by German forces on [[Eastern Front]]; although their overall number is difficult to establish due to lack of prosecution of the crime by German courts in Eastern Europe,<ref name="Grossman2007">Atina Grossmann. Jews, Germans, and Allies: close encounters in occupied Germany. Princeton University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-691-08971-X, 9780691089713, p. 290</ref> the recent estimates suggest the number of rapes amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases.<ref name="bos"/><ref>[http://www.mitteleuropa.de/kriegskinder04.htm#*%C2%A0Ebba%20D.%C2%A0Drolshagen Schattendasein der Feindeskinder Die Nachkommen der Wehrmachtssoldaten in den ehemals besetzten Ländern] Neue Zürcher Zeitung 2004</ref>

Extensive rapes by Nazi German troops (besides other numerous atrocities) and revenge for them are given as one of possible explanations for actions during occupation of the former Nazi state.<ref name="Naimark108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108. [[Google Books]]. Chapter 2: [http://books.google.ca/books?id=MVSjHNKUKoEC&pg=PA69&dq=%22Soviet+Soldiers,+German+Women,+and+the+Problem+of+Rape%22&hl=en&ei=9bozTcmJIoqusAO2sZ2FBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Soviet%20Soldiers%2C%20German%20Women%2C%20and%20the%20Problem%20of%20Rape%22&f=false "Soviet Soldiers, German Women, and the Problem of Rape".] </ref> Even Christian Democrat German politicians had to concede that in light of the atrocities committed by the German military in Eastern Europe the degree of discipline demonstrated by the Soviet soldiers was amazing.<ref name="Grossman2007"/>

==Soviet Union==
A wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944–45, as the Western Allies and the Red Army battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The majority of the assaults were committed in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of German women raped by Soviet soldiers range from tens of thousands to 2 million.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref><ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> In many cases women were the victims of repeated rapes, some as many as 60 to 70 times.<ref name="Struggle for Europe">
[http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385497992&view=excerpt William I. Hitchcock ''The Struggle for Europe The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945 to the Present''] ISBN 978-0-385-49799-2 (0-385-49799-7)</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports,<ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath.<ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000.<ref name="sander">Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>{{Citation
| last = Sheehan
| first = Paul
| author-link =
| last2 =
| first2 =
| author2-link =
| title = An orgy of denial in Hitler's bunker
| newspaper = The Sydney Morning Herald
| pages =
| date = 17 May 2003
| url = http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html
| archiveurl =
| archivedate =
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> According to Natalya Gesse, "the Russian soldiers were raping every German female from eight to eighty."<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11 | location=London | work=The Guardian | title=They raped every German female from eight to 80 | date=1 May 2002 | first=Antony | last=Beevor}}</ref> Soviet<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html Red Army troops raped even Russian women...]</ref> and Jewish<ref>[http://www.usm.maine.edu/crm/faculty/jim/raphael.htm James W. Messerschmidt The forgotten victims...]</ref> women were raped also.

After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.
===Controversy===
[[File:Germans killed by Soviet army.jpg|thumb|300px|Picture taken by the [[Sicherheitspolizei]], the original caption states that the two women show signs of rape]]
There is dispute in Russia concerning these claims.<ref name="RedArmy">{{Cite news | last = Summers| first = Chris| title = Red Army rapists exposed| pages = | newspaper = [[BBC News Online]]| location = | date = 29 April 2002| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1939174.stm| archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = 27 May 2010}}</ref> They have encountered vast criticism from historians in Russia and the Russian government.<ref>{{Cite news
| last = Johnson
| first = Daniel
| coauthors =
| title = Russians angry at war rape claims
| newspaper = The Telegraph
| location = United Kingdom
| pages =
| language =
| publisher =
| date = 25 January 2002
| url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/25/wruss25.xml
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> Critics argue that the numbers are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there were cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect. In his review of ''[[Berlin: The Downfall 1945]]'', O.A. Rzheshevsky, a professor and President of the Russian Association of World War II Historians, has charged that Beevor is merely resurrecting the discredited and racist views of [[Neo-Nazi]] historians, who depicted Soviet troops as subhuman "Asiatic hordes."<ref>[http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor Review of Berlin: 1945] {{ru icon}})</ref> In an interview with ''[[BBC News Online]]'', Rzheshevsky admitted that he had only read excerpts and had not seen the book's source notes. He claimed that Beevor's use of phrases such as "Berliners remember" and "the experiences of the raped German women" were better suited "for pulp fiction, than scientific research." Rzheshevsky also defended Soviet reprisals against Germans, stating that the Germans could have expected an "avalanche of revenge".<ref name="RedArmy"/>

Rzheshevsky states that acts such as robbery and sexual assault are inevitable parts of war, and some men of Soviet and other Allied armies committed them. But in general, the Soviet soldiers treated peaceful Germans with humanity. <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

Colonel Ivan Busik, Director of Russia's Institute of Military History, wrote what Hero of the Soviet Union, Army General Ivan Tretiak said to him that there was not a single case of violence committed by men in his regiment. Tretiak said that although he wanted revenge, Stalin's orders on treating the population humanely were implemented, and discipline in the army strengthened. Tretiak said that in such a huge military group as that in Germany, there was bound to be cases of sexual misconduct, as men had not seen women in years. However, he explains that sexual relations were not always violent, but often involved mutual consent. The work of Beevor and others alleging mass rape is characterized by Tretiak as "filthy cynicism, because the vast majority of those who have been slandered cannot reply to these liars." <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

-Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 345-346</ref>, Communists<ref>Even German Communists were not spared. In Wedding, a left-wing stronghold until 1933, activists from the Julicherstrasse went out to congratulate the Soviet officers commanding the unit to occupy their district, showing party cards, which they had kept hidden during twelve years of illegality. ...the unit's officers raped them "that very evening." -Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 346</ref>, and Poles<ref name="Naimark106"/>.

[[Richard Overy]], a historian from [[King's College London]], has criticized the viewpoint held by some Russians, asserting that they refuse to acknowledge [[Soviet war crimes]] committed during the war, "Partly this is because they felt that much of it was justified vengeance against an enemy who committed much worse, and partly it was because they were writing the victors' history."<ref name="RedArmy"/>

==US==
In ''[[Taken by Force (book)|Taken by Force]]'' J Robert Lilly estimates the number of rapes committed by U.S. servicemen in Germany to be 11,040.<ref>Taken by Force: Rape and American GIs in Europe during World War II. J Robert Lilly. ISBN 978-0-230-50647-3 p.12</ref> In a letter to Time Magazine, an American Army sergeant wrote "Our own Army and the British Army ... have done their share of looting and raping.... It is also common knowledge that American soldiers are persona non grata in the homes of decent girls in many of the liberated countries because of their attitude that any foreign girl is automatically a prostitute.... This offensive attitude among our troops is not at all general, but the percentage is large enough to have given our Army a pretty black name, and we too are considered an army of rapists."<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854433-3,00.html Letter to the editor in Time magazine for November 12, 1945]</ref>

==France==
French troops took part in the invasion of Germany, and France was assigned an occupation zone in Germany. According to Perry Biddiscombe the French for instance committed "385 rapes in the [[Constance]] area; 600 in [[Bruchsal]]; and 500 in [[Freudenstadt]]."<ref>Perry Biddiscombe, Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948 Journal of Social History, Vol. 34, No. 3, (2001) p.635</ref>

According to [[Norman Naimark]] French Moroccan troops matched the behavior of Soviet troops when it came to rape, in particular in the early occupation of Baden and Württemberg.<ref name="Naimark106">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 106-7.</ref>
==Poland==
"With nearly two million Russian deserters and former POWs at large in Soviet-occupied Europe, it is no wonder that banditry on their part became a serious problem for the occupation."<ref name="Occupation1"/> Concerned with carrying out the [[expulsion of Germans]] from Silesia, the communist Polish administrators as a consequence could do little to protect the German population from Russian rapists.<ref name="Occupation1">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 74-75.</ref> A single Soviet report had alleged that presumably "Polish soldiers ... 'relate to German women as to free booty'."<ref name="Occupation1"/>

Polish women in Silesia were also subject to rape by Soviet soldiers, who did not always bother to differentiate along ethnic lines, or between victims and occupiers.<ref name="Naimark106"/>

==Analysis==
In his analysis of the motives behind the extensive Soviet rapes Norman Naimark singles out "hate propaganda, personal experiences of suffering at home, and a fully demeaning picture of German women in the press, not to mention among the soldiers themselves" as a part reason for the widespread rapes.<ref name="Occupation108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108-109.</ref> Naimark also noted the effect that the Russian tendency to binge-drink alcohol (of which much was available in Germany) had on the propensity of Russian soldiers to commit rape, especially rape-murder.<ref name="Occupation112">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 112.</ref> Naimark also notes the patriarchal nature of Russian culture, and of the Asian societies comprising the Soviet Union, where dishonor was in the past repaid by raping the women of the enemy.<ref name="Occupation114">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 114-115.</ref> The fact that the Germans had a much higher standard of living (with things such as indoor toilets), visible even when in ruins "may well have contributed to a national inferiority complex among Russians". Combining Russian feelings of inferiority and the resulting need to restore his honor and their desire for revenge may be the reason many women were raped in public as well as in front of husbands before both were killed.<ref name="Occupation114"/>

According to Anthony Beevor revenge played very little role in the frequent rapes; according to him the main reason for the rapes was the Soviet troops' feeling of entitlement to all types of booty, including women. Beevor exemplifies this with his discovery that Soviet troops also raped Russian and Polish girls and women that were liberated from Nazi concentration camps.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html] Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps, 24 Jan 2002, The Telegraph</ref>

==War crime==
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2011}}
At the Nuremberg trials, where only Axis defendants could be tried, no defendant was tried for rape as a "war crime under customary international law". Rape was however prosecuted as a war-crime in the trials against Japanese in Tokyo, and General Yamashita was found guilty of permitting rape. In 1946 rape was made a "crime against humanity".{{Fact|date=January 2011}}
==Discourse==
In postwar Germany, especially in West Germany, the war time rape stories became an essential part of political discourse.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> The rape of German women (along with the expulsion of Germans from the East and Allied occupation) had been universalized in an attempt to situate the German population on the whole as victims.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> This discourse became wholly discredited by the late 1960s; since 1970s on German leftists conducted politics focused on critical investigation of the Nazi past, the older generations’ unwillingness to face that past, and their tendency to portray themselves as victims rather than as perpetrators, particularly of the Holocaust.<ref name="bos">Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025</ref> Therefore, the frequently reiterated claim that the war time rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence<ref name="sander"/><ref>See also [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/3255081/German-women-break-their-silence-on-horrors-of-Red-Army-rapes.html][http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/raped-by-the-red-army-two-million-german-women-speak-out-1669074.html][http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,680354,00.html]</ref> is probably not correct.<ref name="bos"/>

The way the rapes have been discussed by Sander and Johr in their "''BeFreier und Befreite''"<ref name="sander"/> has been criticized by several scholars. According to Grossmann, the problem is that this is not a "universal" story of women being raped by men, but of German women being abused and violated by an army that fought Nazi Germany and liberated death camps.<ref name="Grossman"/> Such attempts to de-emphasize the historical context of the rape of German women is a serious omission, according to Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson,<ref>Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson. After the Fall: Women in the House of the Hangmen, ''October'', Vol. 72, (Spring, 1995) pp. 4-14</ref> and, according to Pascale Bos, is an example of ahistorical, feminist and sexist approach to the wartime rape issue.<ref name="bos"/>

According to Pascale Bos the feminist attempt to universalize the story of the rapes of German women came into a contradiction with Sander's and Johr's own description of the rapes as a form of genocidal rape: the rape of racially superior German women by racially inferior Russian soldiers, implying that such a rape was especially harmful for the victims.<ref name="bos"/> By contrast, the issue of the rapes of Soviet woman by ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers, that, according to some estimation amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases<ref>Gertjejanssen, Wendy Jo. 2004. “Victims, Heroes, Survivors: Sexual Violence on the Eastern Front during World War II.” PhD diss., University of Minnesota.</ref><ref>A 1942 Wehrmacht document suggested that the Nazi leadership considered implementing a special policy for the eastern front through which the estimated 750,000 babies born through sexual contact between the German soldiers and Russian women (an estimate deemed very conservative) could be identified and reclaimed as racially German. (The suggestion was made to add the middle names Friedrich and Luise to the birth certificates for boy and girl babies, respectively.) Although the plan was not implemented, such documents suggest that the births that resulted from rapes and other forms of sexual contact were deemed as beneficial, as increasing the “Aryan” race rather than as adding to the inferior Slavic race. The underlying ideology suggests that German rape and other forms of sexual contact may need to be seen as conforming to a larger military strategy of racial and territorial dominance. (Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025)</ref> is not treated by the authors as something deserving serious mention.<ref name="bos"/>

==Social Effects==
A number of "Russian babies" were born during the occupation, many of them as the result of rape.[http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,500251,00.html]

According to Norman Naimark we may never know how many German women and girls were raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation, their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as 2 million.<ref name="ReferenceA">N. Naimark "The Russians in Germany" p.132,133</ref> As to the social effects of this sexual violence Naimark notes:
{{Quotation|
:In any case, just as each rape survivor carried the effects of the crime with her till the end of her life, so was the collective anguish nearly unbearable. The social psychology of women and men in the soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the [[GDR]] in the fall of 1949, until—one could argue—the present.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>}}

==Literature==
The Soviet Dissident [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] took part in the invasion of Germany, and wrote a poem about it: [[Prussian Nights]]; "Twenty-two Hoeringstrasse. It's not been burned, just looted, rifled. A moaning by the walls, half muffled: the mother's wounded, half alive. The little daughter's on the mattress, dead. How many have been on it? A platoon, a company perhaps? A girl's been turned into a woman, a woman turned into a corpse. . . . The mother begs, "Soldier, kill me!"<ref>Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ''Prussian Nights: A Poem [Prusskie nochi]'', Robert Conquest, trans. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977).</ref>

==See also==
*[[War rape]]
*[[Rape during the occupation of Japan]]
*[[Marocchinate]]
*[[Soviet war crimes]]
*[[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
*[[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]
==References==
{{Reflist|3}}

{{World War II|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rape During The Occupation Of Germany}}
[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War crimes]]

[[cs:Zločiny Sovětského svazu za druhé světové války]]
[[da:Sovjetiske krigsforbrydelser]]
[[de:Verbrechen der Roten Armee im Zweiten Weltkrieg]]
[[es:Crímenes de guerra del Ejército Rojo]]
[[fr:Crimes de guerre de l'Armée rouge pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale]]
[[it:Crimini di guerra sovietici]]
[[ja:ソビエト連邦による戦争犯罪]]
[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]
[[ru:Насилие в отношении мирного населения Германии (1945)]]
[[tr:Sovyet savaş suçları]]
[[uk:Масові зґвалтування німецьких жінок червоноармійцями]]
[[zh:蘇聯戰爭罪行]]

Benutzer:Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwweeeeeeee/Rape during the occupation of Germany

2011-02-12T09:47:38Z

76.191.230.178: /* Controversy */

{{POV|date=May 2010}}
{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

[[File:US Army Germany occupation zones 1945.jpg|thumb|300px|Territorial changes and occupational zones of Nazi Germany after its defeat. Includes the front-line along the Elbe from which U.S. troops withdrew in July 1945]]
As Allied troops entered and occupied German territory during the later stages of [[World War II]], mass rapes took place, both in connection to combat operations and during the subsequent occupation that was to last many years. Most published and most numerous are the rapes committed by [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] servicemen, for which estimates of rapes committed by them range from tens of thousands to 2 million.
==Historical background: rape in World War II Europe==
As German aggression against Poland started World War II, the first rapes during that conflict were committed by [[Wehrmacht]] forces against Jewish women and girls in September 1939;<ref name="Datner">"55 Dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce" [[Szymon Datner]] Warsaw 1967 page 67 "Zanotowano szereg faktów gwałcenia kobiet i dziewcząt żydowskich" (Numerous facts of cases of rapes made upon Jewish women and girls were reported)</ref> Polish women and girls were also raped during mass executions carried out primarily by the German minority's paramilitary force called [[Selbstschutz]]<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20071029144245/http://www.kki.net.pl/~museum/rozdz3,2.htm</ref>
Later rapes were also committed by German forces on [[Eastern Front]]; although their overall number is difficult to establish due to lack of prosecution of the crime by German courts in Eastern Europe,<ref name="Grossman2007">Atina Grossmann. Jews, Germans, and Allies: close encounters in occupied Germany. Princeton University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-691-08971-X, 9780691089713, p. 290</ref> the recent estimates suggest the number of rapes amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases.<ref name="bos"/><ref>[http://www.mitteleuropa.de/kriegskinder04.htm#*%C2%A0Ebba%20D.%C2%A0Drolshagen Schattendasein der Feindeskinder Die Nachkommen der Wehrmachtssoldaten in den ehemals besetzten Ländern] Neue Zürcher Zeitung 2004</ref>

Extensive rapes by Nazi German troops (besides other numerous atrocities) and revenge for them are given as one of possible explanations for actions during occupation of the former Nazi state.<ref name="Naimark108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108. [[Google Books]]. Chapter 2: [http://books.google.ca/books?id=MVSjHNKUKoEC&pg=PA69&dq=%22Soviet+Soldiers,+German+Women,+and+the+Problem+of+Rape%22&hl=en&ei=9bozTcmJIoqusAO2sZ2FBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Soviet%20Soldiers%2C%20German%20Women%2C%20and%20the%20Problem%20of%20Rape%22&f=false "Soviet Soldiers, German Women, and the Problem of Rape".] </ref> Even Christian Democrat German politicians had to concede that in light of the atrocities committed by the German military in Eastern Europe the degree of discipline demonstrated by the Soviet soldiers was amazing.<ref name="Grossman2007"/>

==Soviet Union==
A wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944–45, as the Western Allies and the Red Army battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The majority of the assaults were committed in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of German women raped by Soviet soldiers range from tens of thousands to 2 million.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref><ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> In many cases women were the victims of repeated rapes, some as many as 60 to 70 times.<ref name="Struggle for Europe">
[http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385497992&view=excerpt William I. Hitchcock ''The Struggle for Europe The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945 to the Present''] ISBN 978-0-385-49799-2 (0-385-49799-7)</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports,<ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath.<ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000.<ref name="sander">Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>{{Citation
| last = Sheehan
| first = Paul
| author-link =
| last2 =
| first2 =
| author2-link =
| title = An orgy of denial in Hitler's bunker
| newspaper = The Sydney Morning Herald
| pages =
| date = 17 May 2003
| url = http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html
| archiveurl =
| archivedate =
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref>

Natalya Gesse claimed that Russian soldiers raped German women regardless of age. <ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11 | location=London | work=The Guardian | title=They raped every German female from eight to 80 | date=1 May 2002 | first=Antony | last=Beevor}}</ref> Soviet<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html Red Army troops raped even Russian women...]</ref> and Jewish<ref>[http://www.usm.maine.edu/crm/faculty/jim/raphael.htm James W. Messerschmidt The forgotten victims...]</ref> women were raped also.

Russian war veteran Vsevolod Olimpiev wrote, "The Soviet soldiers' relations with the German population where it had stayed may be called indifferent and neutral. Nobody, at least from our Regiment, harassed or touched them. Moreover, when we came across an obviously starving German family with kids we would share our food with them with no unnecessary words." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=klpmTGf_GdAC&pg=PA133&dq=On+the+bloody+road+to+Berlin:+frontline+accounts+from+Nor&hl=en&ei=PlRWTZ73BonCsAOmo72iDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false On the bloody road to Berlin: frontline accounts from North-West Europe and By Duncan Rogers, Sarah Rhiannon WilliamsTake our survey New!]</ref>

After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.
===Controversy===
[[File:Germans killed by Soviet army.jpg|thumb|300px|Picture taken by the [[Sicherheitspolizei]], the original caption states that the two women show signs of rape]]
There is dispute in Russia concerning these claims.<ref name="RedArmy">{{Cite news | last = Summers| first = Chris| title = Red Army rapists exposed| pages = | newspaper = [[BBC News Online]]| location = | date = 29 April 2002| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1939174.stm| archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = 27 May 2010}}</ref> They have encountered vast criticism from historians in Russia and the Russian government.<ref>{{Cite news
| last = Johnson
| first = Daniel
| coauthors =
| title = Russians angry at war rape claims
| newspaper = The Telegraph
| location = United Kingdom
| pages =
| language =
| publisher =
| date = 25 January 2002
| url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/25/wruss25.xml
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> Critics argue that the numbers are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there were cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect. In his review of ''[[Berlin: The Downfall 1945]]'', O.A. Rzheshevsky, a professor and President of the Russian Association of World War II Historians, has charged that Beevor is merely resurrecting the discredited and racist views of [[Neo-Nazi]] historians, who depicted Soviet troops as subhuman "Asiatic hordes."<ref>[http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor Review of Berlin: 1945] {{ru icon}})</ref> In an interview with ''[[BBC News Online]]'', Rzheshevsky admitted that he had only read excerpts and had not seen the book's source notes. He claimed that Beevor's use of phrases such as "Berliners remember" and "the experiences of the raped German women" were better suited "for pulp fiction, than scientific research." Rzheshevsky states that acts such as robbery and sexual assault are inevitable parts of war, and some men of Soviet and other Allied armies committed them. But in general, the Soviet soldiers treated peaceful Germans with humanity. <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

Colonel Ivan Busik, Director of Russia's Institute of Military History, wrote what Hero of the Soviet Union, Army General Ivan Tretiak said to him that there was not a single case of violence committed by men in his regiment. Tretiak said that although he wanted revenge, Stalin's orders on treating the population humanely were implemented, and discipline in the army strengthened. Tretiak said that in such a huge military group as that in Germany, there was bound to be cases of sexual misconduct, as men had not seen women in years. However, he explains that sexual relations were not always violent, but often involved mutual consent. The work of Beevor and others alleging mass rape is characterized by Tretiak as "filthy cynicism, because the vast majority of those who have been slandered cannot reply to these liars." <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

[[Richard Overy]], a historian from [[King's College London]], has criticized the viewpoint held by some Russians, asserting that they refuse to acknowledge [[Soviet war crimes]] committed during the war, "Partly this is because they felt that much of it was justified vengeance against an enemy who committed much worse, and partly it was because they were writing the victors' history."<ref name="RedArmy"/>

==US==
In ''[[Taken by Force (book)|Taken by Force]]'' J Robert Lilly estimates the number of rapes committed by U.S. servicemen in Germany to be 11,040.<ref>Taken by Force: Rape and American GIs in Europe during World War II. J Robert Lilly. ISBN 978-0-230-50647-3 p.12</ref> In a letter to Time Magazine, an American Army sergeant wrote "Our own Army and the British Army ... have done their share of looting and raping.... It is also common knowledge that American soldiers are persona non grata in the homes of decent girls in many of the liberated countries because of their attitude that any foreign girl is automatically a prostitute.... This offensive attitude among our troops is not at all general, but the percentage is large enough to have given our Army a pretty black name, and we too are considered an army of rapists."<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854433-3,00.html Letter to the editor in Time magazine for November 12, 1945]</ref>

==France==
French troops took part in the invasion of Germany, and France was assigned an occupation zone in Germany. According to Perry Biddiscombe the French for instance committed "385 rapes in the [[Constance]] area; 600 in [[Bruchsal]]; and 500 in [[Freudenstadt]]."<ref>Perry Biddiscombe, Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948 Journal of Social History, Vol. 34, No. 3, (2001) p.635</ref>

According to [[Norman Naimark]] French Moroccan troops matched the behavior of Soviet troops when it came to rape, in particular in the early occupation of Baden and Württemberg.<ref name="Naimark106">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 106-7.</ref>
==Poland==
"With nearly two million Russian deserters and former POWs at large in Soviet-occupied Europe, it is no wonder that banditry on their part became a serious problem for the occupation."<ref name="Occupation1"/> Concerned with carrying out the [[expulsion of Germans]] from Silesia, the communist Polish administrators as a consequence could do little to protect the German population from Russian rapists.<ref name="Occupation1">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 74-75.</ref> A single Soviet report had alleged that presumably "Polish soldiers ... 'relate to German women as to free booty'."<ref name="Occupation1"/>

Polish women in Silesia were also subject to rape by Soviet soldiers, who did not always bother to differentiate along ethnic lines, or between victims and occupiers.<ref name="Naimark106"/>

==Analysis==
In his analysis of the motives behind the extensive Soviet rapes Norman Naimark singles out "hate propaganda, personal experiences of suffering at home, and a fully demeaning picture of German women in the press, not to mention among the soldiers themselves" as a part reason for the widespread rapes.<ref name="Occupation108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108-109.</ref> Naimark also noted the effect that the Russian tendency to binge-drink alcohol (of which much was available in Germany) had on the propensity of Russian soldiers to commit rape, especially rape-murder.<ref name="Occupation112">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 112.</ref> Naimark also notes the patriarchal nature of Russian culture, and of the Asian societies comprising the Soviet Union, where dishonor was in the past repaid by raping the women of the enemy.<ref name="Occupation114">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 114-115.</ref> The fact that the Germans had a much higher standard of living (with things such as indoor toilets), visible even when in ruins "may well have contributed to a national inferiority complex among Russians". Combining Russian feelings of inferiority and the resulting need to restore his honor and their desire for revenge may be the reason many women were raped in public as well as in front of husbands before both were killed.<ref name="Occupation114"/>

According to Anthony Beevor revenge played very little role in the frequent rapes; according to him the main reason for the rapes was the Soviet troops' feeling of entitlement to all types of booty, including women. Beevor exemplifies this with his discovery that Soviet troops also raped Russian and Polish girls and women that were liberated from Nazi concentration camps.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html] Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps, 24 Jan 2002, The Telegraph</ref>

==War crime==
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2011}}
At the Nuremberg trials, where only Axis defendants could be tried, no defendant was tried for rape as a "war crime under customary international law". Rape was however prosecuted as a war-crime in the trials against Japanese in Tokyo, and General Yamashita was found guilty of permitting rape. In 1946 rape was made a "crime against humanity".{{Fact|date=January 2011}}
==Discourse==
In postwar Germany, especially in West Germany, the war time rape stories became an essential part of political discourse.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> The rape of German women (along with the expulsion of Germans from the East and Allied occupation) had been universalized in an attempt to situate the German population on the whole as victims.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> This discourse became wholly discredited by the late 1960s; since 1970s on German leftists conducted politics focused on critical investigation of the Nazi past, the older generations’ unwillingness to face that past, and their tendency to portray themselves as victims rather than as perpetrators, particularly of the Holocaust.<ref name="bos">Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025</ref> Therefore, the frequently reiterated claim that the war time rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence<ref name="sander"/><ref>See also [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/3255081/German-women-break-their-silence-on-horrors-of-Red-Army-rapes.html][http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/raped-by-the-red-army-two-million-german-women-speak-out-1669074.html][http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,680354,00.html]</ref> is probably not correct.<ref name="bos"/>

The way the rapes have been discussed by Sander and Johr in their "''BeFreier und Befreite''"<ref name="sander"/> has been criticized by several scholars. According to Grossmann, the problem is that this is not a "universal" story of women being raped by men, but of German women being abused and violated by an army that fought Nazi Germany and liberated death camps.<ref name="Grossman"/> Such attempts to de-emphasize the historical context of the rape of German women is a serious omission, according to Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson,<ref>Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson. After the Fall: Women in the House of the Hangmen, ''October'', Vol. 72, (Spring, 1995) pp. 4-14</ref> and, according to Pascale Bos, is an example of ahistorical, feminist and sexist approach to the wartime rape issue.<ref name="bos"/>

According to Pascale Bos the feminist attempt to universalize the story of the rapes of German women came into a contradiction with Sander's and Johr's own description of the rapes as a form of genocidal rape: the rape of racially superior German women by racially inferior Russian soldiers, implying that such a rape was especially harmful for the victims.<ref name="bos"/> By contrast, the issue of the rapes of Soviet woman by ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers, that, according to some estimation amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases<ref>Gertjejanssen, Wendy Jo. 2004. “Victims, Heroes, Survivors: Sexual Violence on the Eastern Front during World War II.” PhD diss., University of Minnesota.</ref><ref>A 1942 Wehrmacht document suggested that the Nazi leadership considered implementing a special policy for the eastern front through which the estimated 750,000 babies born through sexual contact between the German soldiers and Russian women (an estimate deemed very conservative) could be identified and reclaimed as racially German. (The suggestion was made to add the middle names Friedrich and Luise to the birth certificates for boy and girl babies, respectively.) Although the plan was not implemented, such documents suggest that the births that resulted from rapes and other forms of sexual contact were deemed as beneficial, as increasing the “Aryan” race rather than as adding to the inferior Slavic race. The underlying ideology suggests that German rape and other forms of sexual contact may need to be seen as conforming to a larger military strategy of racial and territorial dominance. (Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025)</ref> is not treated by the authors as something deserving serious mention.<ref name="bos"/>

==Social Effects==
A number of "Russian babies" were born during the occupation, many of them as the result of rape.[http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,500251,00.html]

According to Norman Naimark we may never know how many German women and girls were raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation, their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as 2 million.<ref name="ReferenceA">N. Naimark "The Russians in Germany" p.132,133</ref> As to the social effects of this sexual violence Naimark notes:
{{Quotation|
:In any case, just as each rape survivor carried the effects of the crime with her till the end of her life, so was the collective anguish nearly unbearable. The social psychology of women and men in the soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the [[GDR]] in the fall of 1949, until—one could argue—the present.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>}}

==Literature==
The Soviet Dissident [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] took part in the invasion of Germany, and wrote a poem about it: [[Prussian Nights]]; "Twenty-two Hoeringstrasse. It's not been burned, just looted, rifled. A moaning by the walls, half muffled: the mother's wounded, half alive. The little daughter's on the mattress, dead. How many have been on it? A platoon, a company perhaps? A girl's been turned into a woman, a woman turned into a corpse. . . . The mother begs, "Soldier, kill me!"<ref>Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ''Prussian Nights: A Poem [Prusskie nochi]'', Robert Conquest, trans. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977).</ref>

==See also==
*[[War rape]]
*[[Rape during the occupation of Japan]]
*[[Marocchinate]]
*[[Soviet war crimes]]
*[[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
*[[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]
==References==
{{Reflist|3}}

{{World War II|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rape During The Occupation Of Germany}}
[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War crimes]]

[[cs:Zločiny Sovětského svazu za druhé světové války]]
[[da:Sovjetiske krigsforbrydelser]]
[[de:Verbrechen der Roten Armee im Zweiten Weltkrieg]]
[[es:Crímenes de guerra del Ejército Rojo]]
[[fr:Crimes de guerre de l'Armée rouge pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale]]
[[it:Crimini di guerra sovietici]]
[[ja:ソビエト連邦による戦争犯罪]]
[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]
[[ru:Насилие в отношении мирного населения Германии (1945)]]
[[tr:Sovyet savaş suçları]]
[[uk:Масові зґвалтування німецьких жінок червоноармійцями]]
[[zh:蘇聯戰爭罪行]]

Sexuelle Gewalt im Zweiten Weltkrieg

2011-02-12T09:47:38Z

76.191.230.178: /* Controversy */

{{POV|date=May 2010}}
{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

[[File:US Army Germany occupation zones 1945.jpg|thumb|300px|Territorial changes and occupational zones of Nazi Germany after its defeat. Includes the front-line along the Elbe from which U.S. troops withdrew in July 1945]]
As Allied troops entered and occupied German territory during the later stages of [[World War II]], mass rapes took place, both in connection to combat operations and during the subsequent occupation that was to last many years. Most published and most numerous are the rapes committed by [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] servicemen, for which estimates of rapes committed by them range from tens of thousands to 2 million.
==Historical background: rape in World War II Europe==
As German aggression against Poland started World War II, the first rapes during that conflict were committed by [[Wehrmacht]] forces against Jewish women and girls in September 1939;<ref name="Datner">"55 Dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce" [[Szymon Datner]] Warsaw 1967 page 67 "Zanotowano szereg faktów gwałcenia kobiet i dziewcząt żydowskich" (Numerous facts of cases of rapes made upon Jewish women and girls were reported)</ref> Polish women and girls were also raped during mass executions carried out primarily by the German minority's paramilitary force called [[Selbstschutz]]<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20071029144245/http://www.kki.net.pl/~museum/rozdz3,2.htm</ref>
Later rapes were also committed by German forces on [[Eastern Front]]; although their overall number is difficult to establish due to lack of prosecution of the crime by German courts in Eastern Europe,<ref name="Grossman2007">Atina Grossmann. Jews, Germans, and Allies: close encounters in occupied Germany. Princeton University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-691-08971-X, 9780691089713, p. 290</ref> the recent estimates suggest the number of rapes amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases.<ref name="bos"/><ref>[http://www.mitteleuropa.de/kriegskinder04.htm#*%C2%A0Ebba%20D.%C2%A0Drolshagen Schattendasein der Feindeskinder Die Nachkommen der Wehrmachtssoldaten in den ehemals besetzten Ländern] Neue Zürcher Zeitung 2004</ref>

Extensive rapes by Nazi German troops (besides other numerous atrocities) and revenge for them are given as one of possible explanations for actions during occupation of the former Nazi state.<ref name="Naimark108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108. [[Google Books]]. Chapter 2: [http://books.google.ca/books?id=MVSjHNKUKoEC&pg=PA69&dq=%22Soviet+Soldiers,+German+Women,+and+the+Problem+of+Rape%22&hl=en&ei=9bozTcmJIoqusAO2sZ2FBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Soviet%20Soldiers%2C%20German%20Women%2C%20and%20the%20Problem%20of%20Rape%22&f=false "Soviet Soldiers, German Women, and the Problem of Rape".] </ref> Even Christian Democrat German politicians had to concede that in light of the atrocities committed by the German military in Eastern Europe the degree of discipline demonstrated by the Soviet soldiers was amazing.<ref name="Grossman2007"/>

==Soviet Union==
A wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944–45, as the Western Allies and the Red Army battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The majority of the assaults were committed in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of German women raped by Soviet soldiers range from tens of thousands to 2 million.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref><ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> In many cases women were the victims of repeated rapes, some as many as 60 to 70 times.<ref name="Struggle for Europe">
[http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385497992&view=excerpt William I. Hitchcock ''The Struggle for Europe The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945 to the Present''] ISBN 978-0-385-49799-2 (0-385-49799-7)</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports,<ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath.<ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000.<ref name="sander">Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>{{Citation
| last = Sheehan
| first = Paul
| author-link =
| last2 =
| first2 =
| author2-link =
| title = An orgy of denial in Hitler's bunker
| newspaper = The Sydney Morning Herald
| pages =
| date = 17 May 2003
| url = http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html
| archiveurl =
| archivedate =
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref>

Natalya Gesse claimed that Russian soldiers raped German women regardless of age. <ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11 | location=London | work=The Guardian | title=They raped every German female from eight to 80 | date=1 May 2002 | first=Antony | last=Beevor}}</ref> Soviet<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html Red Army troops raped even Russian women...]</ref> and Jewish<ref>[http://www.usm.maine.edu/crm/faculty/jim/raphael.htm James W. Messerschmidt The forgotten victims...]</ref> women were raped also.

Russian war veteran Vsevolod Olimpiev wrote, "The Soviet soldiers' relations with the German population where it had stayed may be called indifferent and neutral. Nobody, at least from our Regiment, harassed or touched them. Moreover, when we came across an obviously starving German family with kids we would share our food with them with no unnecessary words." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=klpmTGf_GdAC&pg=PA133&dq=On+the+bloody+road+to+Berlin:+frontline+accounts+from+Nor&hl=en&ei=PlRWTZ73BonCsAOmo72iDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false On the bloody road to Berlin: frontline accounts from North-West Europe and By Duncan Rogers, Sarah Rhiannon WilliamsTake our survey New!]</ref>

After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.
===Controversy===
[[File:Germans killed by Soviet army.jpg|thumb|300px|Picture taken by the [[Sicherheitspolizei]], the original caption states that the two women show signs of rape]]
There is dispute in Russia concerning these claims.<ref name="RedArmy">{{Cite news | last = Summers| first = Chris| title = Red Army rapists exposed| pages = | newspaper = [[BBC News Online]]| location = | date = 29 April 2002| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1939174.stm| archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = 27 May 2010}}</ref> They have encountered vast criticism from historians in Russia and the Russian government.<ref>{{Cite news
| last = Johnson
| first = Daniel
| coauthors =
| title = Russians angry at war rape claims
| newspaper = The Telegraph
| location = United Kingdom
| pages =
| language =
| publisher =
| date = 25 January 2002
| url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/25/wruss25.xml
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> Critics argue that the numbers are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there were cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect. In his review of ''[[Berlin: The Downfall 1945]]'', O.A. Rzheshevsky, a professor and President of the Russian Association of World War II Historians, has charged that Beevor is merely resurrecting the discredited and racist views of [[Neo-Nazi]] historians, who depicted Soviet troops as subhuman "Asiatic hordes."<ref>[http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor Review of Berlin: 1945] {{ru icon}})</ref> In an interview with ''[[BBC News Online]]'', Rzheshevsky admitted that he had only read excerpts and had not seen the book's source notes. He claimed that Beevor's use of phrases such as "Berliners remember" and "the experiences of the raped German women" were better suited "for pulp fiction, than scientific research." Rzheshevsky states that acts such as robbery and sexual assault are inevitable parts of war, and some men of Soviet and other Allied armies committed them. But in general, the Soviet soldiers treated peaceful Germans with humanity. <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

Colonel Ivan Busik, Director of Russia's Institute of Military History, wrote what Hero of the Soviet Union, Army General Ivan Tretiak said to him that there was not a single case of violence committed by men in his regiment. Tretiak said that although he wanted revenge, Stalin's orders on treating the population humanely were implemented, and discipline in the army strengthened. Tretiak said that in such a huge military group as that in Germany, there was bound to be cases of sexual misconduct, as men had not seen women in years. However, he explains that sexual relations were not always violent, but often involved mutual consent. The work of Beevor and others alleging mass rape is characterized by Tretiak as "filthy cynicism, because the vast majority of those who have been slandered cannot reply to these liars." <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

[[Richard Overy]], a historian from [[King's College London]], has criticized the viewpoint held by some Russians, asserting that they refuse to acknowledge [[Soviet war crimes]] committed during the war, "Partly this is because they felt that much of it was justified vengeance against an enemy who committed much worse, and partly it was because they were writing the victors' history."<ref name="RedArmy"/>

==US==
In ''[[Taken by Force (book)|Taken by Force]]'' J Robert Lilly estimates the number of rapes committed by U.S. servicemen in Germany to be 11,040.<ref>Taken by Force: Rape and American GIs in Europe during World War II. J Robert Lilly. ISBN 978-0-230-50647-3 p.12</ref> In a letter to Time Magazine, an American Army sergeant wrote "Our own Army and the British Army ... have done their share of looting and raping.... It is also common knowledge that American soldiers are persona non grata in the homes of decent girls in many of the liberated countries because of their attitude that any foreign girl is automatically a prostitute.... This offensive attitude among our troops is not at all general, but the percentage is large enough to have given our Army a pretty black name, and we too are considered an army of rapists."<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854433-3,00.html Letter to the editor in Time magazine for November 12, 1945]</ref>

==France==
French troops took part in the invasion of Germany, and France was assigned an occupation zone in Germany. According to Perry Biddiscombe the French for instance committed "385 rapes in the [[Constance]] area; 600 in [[Bruchsal]]; and 500 in [[Freudenstadt]]."<ref>Perry Biddiscombe, Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948 Journal of Social History, Vol. 34, No. 3, (2001) p.635</ref>

According to [[Norman Naimark]] French Moroccan troops matched the behavior of Soviet troops when it came to rape, in particular in the early occupation of Baden and Württemberg.<ref name="Naimark106">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 106-7.</ref>
==Poland==
"With nearly two million Russian deserters and former POWs at large in Soviet-occupied Europe, it is no wonder that banditry on their part became a serious problem for the occupation."<ref name="Occupation1"/> Concerned with carrying out the [[expulsion of Germans]] from Silesia, the communist Polish administrators as a consequence could do little to protect the German population from Russian rapists.<ref name="Occupation1">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 74-75.</ref> A single Soviet report had alleged that presumably "Polish soldiers ... 'relate to German women as to free booty'."<ref name="Occupation1"/>

Polish women in Silesia were also subject to rape by Soviet soldiers, who did not always bother to differentiate along ethnic lines, or between victims and occupiers.<ref name="Naimark106"/>

==Analysis==
In his analysis of the motives behind the extensive Soviet rapes Norman Naimark singles out "hate propaganda, personal experiences of suffering at home, and a fully demeaning picture of German women in the press, not to mention among the soldiers themselves" as a part reason for the widespread rapes.<ref name="Occupation108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108-109.</ref> Naimark also noted the effect that the Russian tendency to binge-drink alcohol (of which much was available in Germany) had on the propensity of Russian soldiers to commit rape, especially rape-murder.<ref name="Occupation112">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 112.</ref> Naimark also notes the patriarchal nature of Russian culture, and of the Asian societies comprising the Soviet Union, where dishonor was in the past repaid by raping the women of the enemy.<ref name="Occupation114">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 114-115.</ref> The fact that the Germans had a much higher standard of living (with things such as indoor toilets), visible even when in ruins "may well have contributed to a national inferiority complex among Russians". Combining Russian feelings of inferiority and the resulting need to restore his honor and their desire for revenge may be the reason many women were raped in public as well as in front of husbands before both were killed.<ref name="Occupation114"/>

According to Anthony Beevor revenge played very little role in the frequent rapes; according to him the main reason for the rapes was the Soviet troops' feeling of entitlement to all types of booty, including women. Beevor exemplifies this with his discovery that Soviet troops also raped Russian and Polish girls and women that were liberated from Nazi concentration camps.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html] Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps, 24 Jan 2002, The Telegraph</ref>

==War crime==
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2011}}
At the Nuremberg trials, where only Axis defendants could be tried, no defendant was tried for rape as a "war crime under customary international law". Rape was however prosecuted as a war-crime in the trials against Japanese in Tokyo, and General Yamashita was found guilty of permitting rape. In 1946 rape was made a "crime against humanity".{{Fact|date=January 2011}}
==Discourse==
In postwar Germany, especially in West Germany, the war time rape stories became an essential part of political discourse.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> The rape of German women (along with the expulsion of Germans from the East and Allied occupation) had been universalized in an attempt to situate the German population on the whole as victims.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> This discourse became wholly discredited by the late 1960s; since 1970s on German leftists conducted politics focused on critical investigation of the Nazi past, the older generations’ unwillingness to face that past, and their tendency to portray themselves as victims rather than as perpetrators, particularly of the Holocaust.<ref name="bos">Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025</ref> Therefore, the frequently reiterated claim that the war time rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence<ref name="sander"/><ref>See also [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/3255081/German-women-break-their-silence-on-horrors-of-Red-Army-rapes.html][http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/raped-by-the-red-army-two-million-german-women-speak-out-1669074.html][http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,680354,00.html]</ref> is probably not correct.<ref name="bos"/>

The way the rapes have been discussed by Sander and Johr in their "''BeFreier und Befreite''"<ref name="sander"/> has been criticized by several scholars. According to Grossmann, the problem is that this is not a "universal" story of women being raped by men, but of German women being abused and violated by an army that fought Nazi Germany and liberated death camps.<ref name="Grossman"/> Such attempts to de-emphasize the historical context of the rape of German women is a serious omission, according to Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson,<ref>Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson. After the Fall: Women in the House of the Hangmen, ''October'', Vol. 72, (Spring, 1995) pp. 4-14</ref> and, according to Pascale Bos, is an example of ahistorical, feminist and sexist approach to the wartime rape issue.<ref name="bos"/>

According to Pascale Bos the feminist attempt to universalize the story of the rapes of German women came into a contradiction with Sander's and Johr's own description of the rapes as a form of genocidal rape: the rape of racially superior German women by racially inferior Russian soldiers, implying that such a rape was especially harmful for the victims.<ref name="bos"/> By contrast, the issue of the rapes of Soviet woman by ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers, that, according to some estimation amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases<ref>Gertjejanssen, Wendy Jo. 2004. “Victims, Heroes, Survivors: Sexual Violence on the Eastern Front during World War II.” PhD diss., University of Minnesota.</ref><ref>A 1942 Wehrmacht document suggested that the Nazi leadership considered implementing a special policy for the eastern front through which the estimated 750,000 babies born through sexual contact between the German soldiers and Russian women (an estimate deemed very conservative) could be identified and reclaimed as racially German. (The suggestion was made to add the middle names Friedrich and Luise to the birth certificates for boy and girl babies, respectively.) Although the plan was not implemented, such documents suggest that the births that resulted from rapes and other forms of sexual contact were deemed as beneficial, as increasing the “Aryan” race rather than as adding to the inferior Slavic race. The underlying ideology suggests that German rape and other forms of sexual contact may need to be seen as conforming to a larger military strategy of racial and territorial dominance. (Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025)</ref> is not treated by the authors as something deserving serious mention.<ref name="bos"/>

==Social Effects==
A number of "Russian babies" were born during the occupation, many of them as the result of rape.[http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,500251,00.html]

According to Norman Naimark we may never know how many German women and girls were raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation, their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as 2 million.<ref name="ReferenceA">N. Naimark "The Russians in Germany" p.132,133</ref> As to the social effects of this sexual violence Naimark notes:
{{Quotation|
:In any case, just as each rape survivor carried the effects of the crime with her till the end of her life, so was the collective anguish nearly unbearable. The social psychology of women and men in the soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the [[GDR]] in the fall of 1949, until—one could argue—the present.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>}}

==Literature==
The Soviet Dissident [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] took part in the invasion of Germany, and wrote a poem about it: [[Prussian Nights]]; "Twenty-two Hoeringstrasse. It's not been burned, just looted, rifled. A moaning by the walls, half muffled: the mother's wounded, half alive. The little daughter's on the mattress, dead. How many have been on it? A platoon, a company perhaps? A girl's been turned into a woman, a woman turned into a corpse. . . . The mother begs, "Soldier, kill me!"<ref>Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ''Prussian Nights: A Poem [Prusskie nochi]'', Robert Conquest, trans. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977).</ref>

==See also==
*[[War rape]]
*[[Rape during the occupation of Japan]]
*[[Marocchinate]]
*[[Soviet war crimes]]
*[[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
*[[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]
==References==
{{Reflist|3}}

{{World War II|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rape During The Occupation Of Germany}}
[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War crimes]]

[[cs:Zločiny Sovětského svazu za druhé světové války]]
[[da:Sovjetiske krigsforbrydelser]]
[[de:Verbrechen der Roten Armee im Zweiten Weltkrieg]]
[[es:Crímenes de guerra del Ejército Rojo]]
[[fr:Crimes de guerre de l'Armée rouge pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale]]
[[it:Crimini di guerra sovietici]]
[[ja:ソビエト連邦による戦争犯罪]]
[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]
[[ru:Насилие в отношении мирного населения Германии (1945)]]
[[tr:Sovyet savaş suçları]]
[[uk:Масові зґвалтування німецьких жінок червоноармійцями]]
[[zh:蘇聯戰爭罪行]]

Benutzer:Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwweeeeeeee/Rape during the occupation of Germany

2011-02-12T09:35:27Z

76.191.230.178: /* Soviet Union */

{{POV|date=May 2010}}
{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

[[File:US Army Germany occupation zones 1945.jpg|thumb|300px|Territorial changes and occupational zones of Nazi Germany after its defeat. Includes the front-line along the Elbe from which U.S. troops withdrew in July 1945]]
As Allied troops entered and occupied German territory during the later stages of [[World War II]], mass rapes took place, both in connection to combat operations and during the subsequent occupation that was to last many years. Most published and most numerous are the rapes committed by [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] servicemen, for which estimates of rapes committed by them range from tens of thousands to 2 million.
==Historical background: rape in World War II Europe==
As German aggression against Poland started World War II, the first rapes during that conflict were committed by [[Wehrmacht]] forces against Jewish women and girls in September 1939;<ref name="Datner">"55 Dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce" [[Szymon Datner]] Warsaw 1967 page 67 "Zanotowano szereg faktów gwałcenia kobiet i dziewcząt żydowskich" (Numerous facts of cases of rapes made upon Jewish women and girls were reported)</ref> Polish women and girls were also raped during mass executions carried out primarily by the German minority's paramilitary force called [[Selbstschutz]]<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20071029144245/http://www.kki.net.pl/~museum/rozdz3,2.htm</ref>
Later rapes were also committed by German forces on [[Eastern Front]]; although their overall number is difficult to establish due to lack of prosecution of the crime by German courts in Eastern Europe,<ref name="Grossman2007">Atina Grossmann. Jews, Germans, and Allies: close encounters in occupied Germany. Princeton University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-691-08971-X, 9780691089713, p. 290</ref> the recent estimates suggest the number of rapes amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases.<ref name="bos"/><ref>[http://www.mitteleuropa.de/kriegskinder04.htm#*%C2%A0Ebba%20D.%C2%A0Drolshagen Schattendasein der Feindeskinder Die Nachkommen der Wehrmachtssoldaten in den ehemals besetzten Ländern] Neue Zürcher Zeitung 2004</ref>

Extensive rapes by Nazi German troops (besides other numerous atrocities) and revenge for them are given as one of possible explanations for actions during occupation of the former Nazi state.<ref name="Naimark108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108. [[Google Books]]. Chapter 2: [http://books.google.ca/books?id=MVSjHNKUKoEC&pg=PA69&dq=%22Soviet+Soldiers,+German+Women,+and+the+Problem+of+Rape%22&hl=en&ei=9bozTcmJIoqusAO2sZ2FBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Soviet%20Soldiers%2C%20German%20Women%2C%20and%20the%20Problem%20of%20Rape%22&f=false "Soviet Soldiers, German Women, and the Problem of Rape".] </ref> Even Christian Democrat German politicians had to concede that in light of the atrocities committed by the German military in Eastern Europe the degree of discipline demonstrated by the Soviet soldiers was amazing.<ref name="Grossman2007"/>

==Soviet Union==
A wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944–45, as the Western Allies and the Red Army battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The majority of the assaults were committed in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of German women raped by Soviet soldiers range from tens of thousands to 2 million.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref><ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> In many cases women were the victims of repeated rapes, some as many as 60 to 70 times.<ref name="Struggle for Europe">
[http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385497992&view=excerpt William I. Hitchcock ''The Struggle for Europe The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945 to the Present''] ISBN 978-0-385-49799-2 (0-385-49799-7)</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports,<ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath.<ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000.<ref name="sander">Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>{{Citation
| last = Sheehan
| first = Paul
| author-link =
| last2 =
| first2 =
| author2-link =
| title = An orgy of denial in Hitler's bunker
| newspaper = The Sydney Morning Herald
| pages =
| date = 17 May 2003
| url = http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html
| archiveurl =
| archivedate =
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref>

Natalya Gesse claimed that Russian soldiers raped German women regardless of age. <ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11 | location=London | work=The Guardian | title=They raped every German female from eight to 80 | date=1 May 2002 | first=Antony | last=Beevor}}</ref> Soviet<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html Red Army troops raped even Russian women...]</ref> and Jewish<ref>[http://www.usm.maine.edu/crm/faculty/jim/raphael.htm James W. Messerschmidt The forgotten victims...]</ref> women were raped also.

Russian war veteran Vsevolod Olimpiev wrote, "The Soviet soldiers' relations with the German population where it had stayed may be called indifferent and neutral. Nobody, at least from our Regiment, harassed or touched them. Moreover, when we came across an obviously starving German family with kids we would share our food with them with no unnecessary words." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=klpmTGf_GdAC&pg=PA133&dq=On+the+bloody+road+to+Berlin:+frontline+accounts+from+Nor&hl=en&ei=PlRWTZ73BonCsAOmo72iDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false On the bloody road to Berlin: frontline accounts from North-West Europe and By Duncan Rogers, Sarah Rhiannon WilliamsTake our survey New!]</ref>

After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.
===Controversy===
[[File:Germans killed by Soviet army.jpg|thumb|300px|Picture taken by the [[Sicherheitspolizei]], the original caption states that the two women show signs of rape]]
There is dispute in Russia concerning these claims.<ref name="RedArmy">{{Cite news | last = Summers| first = Chris| title = Red Army rapists exposed| pages = | newspaper = [[BBC News Online]]| location = | date = 29 April 2002| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1939174.stm| archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = 27 May 2010}}</ref> They have encountered vast criticism from historians in Russia and the Russian government.<ref>{{Cite news
| last = Johnson
| first = Daniel
| coauthors =
| title = Russians angry at war rape claims
| newspaper = The Telegraph
| location = United Kingdom
| pages =
| language =
| publisher =
| date = 25 January 2002
| url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/25/wruss25.xml
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> Critics argue that the numbers are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there were cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect. In his review of ''[[Berlin: The Downfall 1945]]'', O.A. Rzheshevsky, a professor and President of the Russian Association of World War II Historians, has charged that Beevor is merely resurrecting the discredited and racist views of [[Neo-Nazi]] historians, who depicted Soviet troops as subhuman "Asiatic hordes."<ref>[http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor Review of Berlin: 1945] {{ru icon}})</ref> In an interview with ''[[BBC News Online]]'', Rzheshevsky admitted that he had only read excerpts and had not seen the book's source notes. He claimed that Beevor's use of phrases such as "Berliners remember" and "the experiences of the raped German women" were better suited "for pulp fiction, than scientific research." Rzheshevsky states that acts such as robbery and sexual assault are inevitable parts of war, and some men of Soviet and other Allied armies committed them. But in general, the Soviet soldiers treated peaceful Germans with humanity. <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

-Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 345-346</ref>, Communists<ref>Even German Communists were not spared. In Wedding, a left-wing stronghold until 1933, activists from the Julicherstrasse went out to congratulate the Soviet officers commanding the unit to occupy their district, showing party cards, which they had kept hidden during twelve years of illegality. ...the unit's officers raped them "that very evening." -Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 346</ref>, and Poles<ref name="Naimark106"/>.

[[Richard Overy]], a historian from [[King's College London]], has criticized the viewpoint held by some Russians, asserting that they refuse to acknowledge [[Soviet war crimes]] committed during the war, "Partly this is because they felt that much of it was justified vengeance against an enemy who committed much worse, and partly it was because they were writing the victors' history."<ref name="RedArmy"/>

==US==
In ''[[Taken by Force (book)|Taken by Force]]'' J Robert Lilly estimates the number of rapes committed by U.S. servicemen in Germany to be 11,040.<ref>Taken by Force: Rape and American GIs in Europe during World War II. J Robert Lilly. ISBN 978-0-230-50647-3 p.12</ref> In a letter to Time Magazine, an American Army sergeant wrote "Our own Army and the British Army ... have done their share of looting and raping.... It is also common knowledge that American soldiers are persona non grata in the homes of decent girls in many of the liberated countries because of their attitude that any foreign girl is automatically a prostitute.... This offensive attitude among our troops is not at all general, but the percentage is large enough to have given our Army a pretty black name, and we too are considered an army of rapists."<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854433-3,00.html Letter to the editor in Time magazine for November 12, 1945]</ref>

==France==
French troops took part in the invasion of Germany, and France was assigned an occupation zone in Germany. According to Perry Biddiscombe the French for instance committed "385 rapes in the [[Constance]] area; 600 in [[Bruchsal]]; and 500 in [[Freudenstadt]]."<ref>Perry Biddiscombe, Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948 Journal of Social History, Vol. 34, No. 3, (2001) p.635</ref>

According to [[Norman Naimark]] French Moroccan troops matched the behavior of Soviet troops when it came to rape, in particular in the early occupation of Baden and Württemberg.<ref name="Naimark106">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 106-7.</ref>
==Poland==
"With nearly two million Russian deserters and former POWs at large in Soviet-occupied Europe, it is no wonder that banditry on their part became a serious problem for the occupation."<ref name="Occupation1"/> Concerned with carrying out the [[expulsion of Germans]] from Silesia, the communist Polish administrators as a consequence could do little to protect the German population from Russian rapists.<ref name="Occupation1">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 74-75.</ref> A single Soviet report had alleged that presumably "Polish soldiers ... 'relate to German women as to free booty'."<ref name="Occupation1"/>

Polish women in Silesia were also subject to rape by Soviet soldiers, who did not always bother to differentiate along ethnic lines, or between victims and occupiers.<ref name="Naimark106"/>

==Analysis==
In his analysis of the motives behind the extensive Soviet rapes Norman Naimark singles out "hate propaganda, personal experiences of suffering at home, and a fully demeaning picture of German women in the press, not to mention among the soldiers themselves" as a part reason for the widespread rapes.<ref name="Occupation108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108-109.</ref> Naimark also noted the effect that the Russian tendency to binge-drink alcohol (of which much was available in Germany) had on the propensity of Russian soldiers to commit rape, especially rape-murder.<ref name="Occupation112">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 112.</ref> Naimark also notes the patriarchal nature of Russian culture, and of the Asian societies comprising the Soviet Union, where dishonor was in the past repaid by raping the women of the enemy.<ref name="Occupation114">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 114-115.</ref> The fact that the Germans had a much higher standard of living (with things such as indoor toilets), visible even when in ruins "may well have contributed to a national inferiority complex among Russians". Combining Russian feelings of inferiority and the resulting need to restore his honor and their desire for revenge may be the reason many women were raped in public as well as in front of husbands before both were killed.<ref name="Occupation114"/>

According to Anthony Beevor revenge played very little role in the frequent rapes; according to him the main reason for the rapes was the Soviet troops' feeling of entitlement to all types of booty, including women. Beevor exemplifies this with his discovery that Soviet troops also raped Russian and Polish girls and women that were liberated from Nazi concentration camps.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html] Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps, 24 Jan 2002, The Telegraph</ref>

==War crime==
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2011}}
At the Nuremberg trials, where only Axis defendants could be tried, no defendant was tried for rape as a "war crime under customary international law". Rape was however prosecuted as a war-crime in the trials against Japanese in Tokyo, and General Yamashita was found guilty of permitting rape. In 1946 rape was made a "crime against humanity".{{Fact|date=January 2011}}
==Discourse==
In postwar Germany, especially in West Germany, the war time rape stories became an essential part of political discourse.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> The rape of German women (along with the expulsion of Germans from the East and Allied occupation) had been universalized in an attempt to situate the German population on the whole as victims.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> This discourse became wholly discredited by the late 1960s; since 1970s on German leftists conducted politics focused on critical investigation of the Nazi past, the older generations’ unwillingness to face that past, and their tendency to portray themselves as victims rather than as perpetrators, particularly of the Holocaust.<ref name="bos">Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025</ref> Therefore, the frequently reiterated claim that the war time rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence<ref name="sander"/><ref>See also [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/3255081/German-women-break-their-silence-on-horrors-of-Red-Army-rapes.html][http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/raped-by-the-red-army-two-million-german-women-speak-out-1669074.html][http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,680354,00.html]</ref> is probably not correct.<ref name="bos"/>

The way the rapes have been discussed by Sander and Johr in their "''BeFreier und Befreite''"<ref name="sander"/> has been criticized by several scholars. According to Grossmann, the problem is that this is not a "universal" story of women being raped by men, but of German women being abused and violated by an army that fought Nazi Germany and liberated death camps.<ref name="Grossman"/> Such attempts to de-emphasize the historical context of the rape of German women is a serious omission, according to Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson,<ref>Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson. After the Fall: Women in the House of the Hangmen, ''October'', Vol. 72, (Spring, 1995) pp. 4-14</ref> and, according to Pascale Bos, is an example of ahistorical, feminist and sexist approach to the wartime rape issue.<ref name="bos"/>

According to Pascale Bos the feminist attempt to universalize the story of the rapes of German women came into a contradiction with Sander's and Johr's own description of the rapes as a form of genocidal rape: the rape of racially superior German women by racially inferior Russian soldiers, implying that such a rape was especially harmful for the victims.<ref name="bos"/> By contrast, the issue of the rapes of Soviet woman by ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers, that, according to some estimation amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases<ref>Gertjejanssen, Wendy Jo. 2004. “Victims, Heroes, Survivors: Sexual Violence on the Eastern Front during World War II.” PhD diss., University of Minnesota.</ref><ref>A 1942 Wehrmacht document suggested that the Nazi leadership considered implementing a special policy for the eastern front through which the estimated 750,000 babies born through sexual contact between the German soldiers and Russian women (an estimate deemed very conservative) could be identified and reclaimed as racially German. (The suggestion was made to add the middle names Friedrich and Luise to the birth certificates for boy and girl babies, respectively.) Although the plan was not implemented, such documents suggest that the births that resulted from rapes and other forms of sexual contact were deemed as beneficial, as increasing the “Aryan” race rather than as adding to the inferior Slavic race. The underlying ideology suggests that German rape and other forms of sexual contact may need to be seen as conforming to a larger military strategy of racial and territorial dominance. (Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025)</ref> is not treated by the authors as something deserving serious mention.<ref name="bos"/>

==Social Effects==
A number of "Russian babies" were born during the occupation, many of them as the result of rape.[http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,500251,00.html]

According to Norman Naimark we may never know how many German women and girls were raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation, their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as 2 million.<ref name="ReferenceA">N. Naimark "The Russians in Germany" p.132,133</ref> As to the social effects of this sexual violence Naimark notes:
{{Quotation|
:In any case, just as each rape survivor carried the effects of the crime with her till the end of her life, so was the collective anguish nearly unbearable. The social psychology of women and men in the soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the [[GDR]] in the fall of 1949, until—one could argue—the present.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>}}

==Literature==
The Soviet Dissident [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] took part in the invasion of Germany, and wrote a poem about it: [[Prussian Nights]]; "Twenty-two Hoeringstrasse. It's not been burned, just looted, rifled. A moaning by the walls, half muffled: the mother's wounded, half alive. The little daughter's on the mattress, dead. How many have been on it? A platoon, a company perhaps? A girl's been turned into a woman, a woman turned into a corpse. . . . The mother begs, "Soldier, kill me!"<ref>Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ''Prussian Nights: A Poem [Prusskie nochi]'', Robert Conquest, trans. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977).</ref>

==See also==
*[[War rape]]
*[[Rape during the occupation of Japan]]
*[[Marocchinate]]
*[[Soviet war crimes]]
*[[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
*[[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]
==References==
{{Reflist|3}}

{{World War II|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rape During The Occupation Of Germany}}
[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War crimes]]

[[cs:Zločiny Sovětského svazu za druhé světové války]]
[[da:Sovjetiske krigsforbrydelser]]
[[de:Verbrechen der Roten Armee im Zweiten Weltkrieg]]
[[es:Crímenes de guerra del Ejército Rojo]]
[[fr:Crimes de guerre de l'Armée rouge pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale]]
[[it:Crimini di guerra sovietici]]
[[ja:ソビエト連邦による戦争犯罪]]
[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]
[[ru:Насилие в отношении мирного населения Германии (1945)]]
[[tr:Sovyet savaş suçları]]
[[uk:Масові зґвалтування німецьких жінок червоноармійцями]]
[[zh:蘇聯戰爭罪行]]

Sexuelle Gewalt im Zweiten Weltkrieg

2011-02-12T09:35:27Z

76.191.230.178: /* Soviet Union */

{{POV|date=May 2010}}
{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

[[File:US Army Germany occupation zones 1945.jpg|thumb|300px|Territorial changes and occupational zones of Nazi Germany after its defeat. Includes the front-line along the Elbe from which U.S. troops withdrew in July 1945]]
As Allied troops entered and occupied German territory during the later stages of [[World War II]], mass rapes took place, both in connection to combat operations and during the subsequent occupation that was to last many years. Most published and most numerous are the rapes committed by [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] servicemen, for which estimates of rapes committed by them range from tens of thousands to 2 million.
==Historical background: rape in World War II Europe==
As German aggression against Poland started World War II, the first rapes during that conflict were committed by [[Wehrmacht]] forces against Jewish women and girls in September 1939;<ref name="Datner">"55 Dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce" [[Szymon Datner]] Warsaw 1967 page 67 "Zanotowano szereg faktów gwałcenia kobiet i dziewcząt żydowskich" (Numerous facts of cases of rapes made upon Jewish women and girls were reported)</ref> Polish women and girls were also raped during mass executions carried out primarily by the German minority's paramilitary force called [[Selbstschutz]]<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20071029144245/http://www.kki.net.pl/~museum/rozdz3,2.htm</ref>
Later rapes were also committed by German forces on [[Eastern Front]]; although their overall number is difficult to establish due to lack of prosecution of the crime by German courts in Eastern Europe,<ref name="Grossman2007">Atina Grossmann. Jews, Germans, and Allies: close encounters in occupied Germany. Princeton University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-691-08971-X, 9780691089713, p. 290</ref> the recent estimates suggest the number of rapes amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases.<ref name="bos"/><ref>[http://www.mitteleuropa.de/kriegskinder04.htm#*%C2%A0Ebba%20D.%C2%A0Drolshagen Schattendasein der Feindeskinder Die Nachkommen der Wehrmachtssoldaten in den ehemals besetzten Ländern] Neue Zürcher Zeitung 2004</ref>

Extensive rapes by Nazi German troops (besides other numerous atrocities) and revenge for them are given as one of possible explanations for actions during occupation of the former Nazi state.<ref name="Naimark108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108. [[Google Books]]. Chapter 2: [http://books.google.ca/books?id=MVSjHNKUKoEC&pg=PA69&dq=%22Soviet+Soldiers,+German+Women,+and+the+Problem+of+Rape%22&hl=en&ei=9bozTcmJIoqusAO2sZ2FBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Soviet%20Soldiers%2C%20German%20Women%2C%20and%20the%20Problem%20of%20Rape%22&f=false "Soviet Soldiers, German Women, and the Problem of Rape".] </ref> Even Christian Democrat German politicians had to concede that in light of the atrocities committed by the German military in Eastern Europe the degree of discipline demonstrated by the Soviet soldiers was amazing.<ref name="Grossman2007"/>

==Soviet Union==
A wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944–45, as the Western Allies and the Red Army battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The majority of the assaults were committed in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of German women raped by Soviet soldiers range from tens of thousands to 2 million.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref><ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> In many cases women were the victims of repeated rapes, some as many as 60 to 70 times.<ref name="Struggle for Europe">
[http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385497992&view=excerpt William I. Hitchcock ''The Struggle for Europe The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945 to the Present''] ISBN 978-0-385-49799-2 (0-385-49799-7)</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports,<ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath.<ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000.<ref name="sander">Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>{{Citation
| last = Sheehan
| first = Paul
| author-link =
| last2 =
| first2 =
| author2-link =
| title = An orgy of denial in Hitler's bunker
| newspaper = The Sydney Morning Herald
| pages =
| date = 17 May 2003
| url = http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html
| archiveurl =
| archivedate =
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref>

Natalya Gesse claimed that Russian soldiers raped German women regardless of age. <ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11 | location=London | work=The Guardian | title=They raped every German female from eight to 80 | date=1 May 2002 | first=Antony | last=Beevor}}</ref> Soviet<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html Red Army troops raped even Russian women...]</ref> and Jewish<ref>[http://www.usm.maine.edu/crm/faculty/jim/raphael.htm James W. Messerschmidt The forgotten victims...]</ref> women were raped also.

Russian war veteran Vsevolod Olimpiev wrote, "The Soviet soldiers' relations with the German population where it had stayed may be called indifferent and neutral. Nobody, at least from our Regiment, harassed or touched them. Moreover, when we came across an obviously starving German family with kids we would share our food with them with no unnecessary words." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=klpmTGf_GdAC&pg=PA133&dq=On+the+bloody+road+to+Berlin:+frontline+accounts+from+Nor&hl=en&ei=PlRWTZ73BonCsAOmo72iDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false On the bloody road to Berlin: frontline accounts from North-West Europe and By Duncan Rogers, Sarah Rhiannon WilliamsTake our survey New!]</ref>

After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.
===Controversy===
[[File:Germans killed by Soviet army.jpg|thumb|300px|Picture taken by the [[Sicherheitspolizei]], the original caption states that the two women show signs of rape]]
There is dispute in Russia concerning these claims.<ref name="RedArmy">{{Cite news | last = Summers| first = Chris| title = Red Army rapists exposed| pages = | newspaper = [[BBC News Online]]| location = | date = 29 April 2002| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1939174.stm| archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = 27 May 2010}}</ref> They have encountered vast criticism from historians in Russia and the Russian government.<ref>{{Cite news
| last = Johnson
| first = Daniel
| coauthors =
| title = Russians angry at war rape claims
| newspaper = The Telegraph
| location = United Kingdom
| pages =
| language =
| publisher =
| date = 25 January 2002
| url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/25/wruss25.xml
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> Critics argue that the numbers are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there were cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect. In his review of ''[[Berlin: The Downfall 1945]]'', O.A. Rzheshevsky, a professor and President of the Russian Association of World War II Historians, has charged that Beevor is merely resurrecting the discredited and racist views of [[Neo-Nazi]] historians, who depicted Soviet troops as subhuman "Asiatic hordes."<ref>[http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor Review of Berlin: 1945] {{ru icon}})</ref> In an interview with ''[[BBC News Online]]'', Rzheshevsky admitted that he had only read excerpts and had not seen the book's source notes. He claimed that Beevor's use of phrases such as "Berliners remember" and "the experiences of the raped German women" were better suited "for pulp fiction, than scientific research." Rzheshevsky states that acts such as robbery and sexual assault are inevitable parts of war, and some men of Soviet and other Allied armies committed them. But in general, the Soviet soldiers treated peaceful Germans with humanity. <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

-Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 345-346</ref>, Communists<ref>Even German Communists were not spared. In Wedding, a left-wing stronghold until 1933, activists from the Julicherstrasse went out to congratulate the Soviet officers commanding the unit to occupy their district, showing party cards, which they had kept hidden during twelve years of illegality. ...the unit's officers raped them "that very evening." -Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 346</ref>, and Poles<ref name="Naimark106"/>.

[[Richard Overy]], a historian from [[King's College London]], has criticized the viewpoint held by some Russians, asserting that they refuse to acknowledge [[Soviet war crimes]] committed during the war, "Partly this is because they felt that much of it was justified vengeance against an enemy who committed much worse, and partly it was because they were writing the victors' history."<ref name="RedArmy"/>

==US==
In ''[[Taken by Force (book)|Taken by Force]]'' J Robert Lilly estimates the number of rapes committed by U.S. servicemen in Germany to be 11,040.<ref>Taken by Force: Rape and American GIs in Europe during World War II. J Robert Lilly. ISBN 978-0-230-50647-3 p.12</ref> In a letter to Time Magazine, an American Army sergeant wrote "Our own Army and the British Army ... have done their share of looting and raping.... It is also common knowledge that American soldiers are persona non grata in the homes of decent girls in many of the liberated countries because of their attitude that any foreign girl is automatically a prostitute.... This offensive attitude among our troops is not at all general, but the percentage is large enough to have given our Army a pretty black name, and we too are considered an army of rapists."<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854433-3,00.html Letter to the editor in Time magazine for November 12, 1945]</ref>

==France==
French troops took part in the invasion of Germany, and France was assigned an occupation zone in Germany. According to Perry Biddiscombe the French for instance committed "385 rapes in the [[Constance]] area; 600 in [[Bruchsal]]; and 500 in [[Freudenstadt]]."<ref>Perry Biddiscombe, Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948 Journal of Social History, Vol. 34, No. 3, (2001) p.635</ref>

According to [[Norman Naimark]] French Moroccan troops matched the behavior of Soviet troops when it came to rape, in particular in the early occupation of Baden and Württemberg.<ref name="Naimark106">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 106-7.</ref>
==Poland==
"With nearly two million Russian deserters and former POWs at large in Soviet-occupied Europe, it is no wonder that banditry on their part became a serious problem for the occupation."<ref name="Occupation1"/> Concerned with carrying out the [[expulsion of Germans]] from Silesia, the communist Polish administrators as a consequence could do little to protect the German population from Russian rapists.<ref name="Occupation1">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 74-75.</ref> A single Soviet report had alleged that presumably "Polish soldiers ... 'relate to German women as to free booty'."<ref name="Occupation1"/>

Polish women in Silesia were also subject to rape by Soviet soldiers, who did not always bother to differentiate along ethnic lines, or between victims and occupiers.<ref name="Naimark106"/>

==Analysis==
In his analysis of the motives behind the extensive Soviet rapes Norman Naimark singles out "hate propaganda, personal experiences of suffering at home, and a fully demeaning picture of German women in the press, not to mention among the soldiers themselves" as a part reason for the widespread rapes.<ref name="Occupation108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108-109.</ref> Naimark also noted the effect that the Russian tendency to binge-drink alcohol (of which much was available in Germany) had on the propensity of Russian soldiers to commit rape, especially rape-murder.<ref name="Occupation112">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 112.</ref> Naimark also notes the patriarchal nature of Russian culture, and of the Asian societies comprising the Soviet Union, where dishonor was in the past repaid by raping the women of the enemy.<ref name="Occupation114">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 114-115.</ref> The fact that the Germans had a much higher standard of living (with things such as indoor toilets), visible even when in ruins "may well have contributed to a national inferiority complex among Russians". Combining Russian feelings of inferiority and the resulting need to restore his honor and their desire for revenge may be the reason many women were raped in public as well as in front of husbands before both were killed.<ref name="Occupation114"/>

According to Anthony Beevor revenge played very little role in the frequent rapes; according to him the main reason for the rapes was the Soviet troops' feeling of entitlement to all types of booty, including women. Beevor exemplifies this with his discovery that Soviet troops also raped Russian and Polish girls and women that were liberated from Nazi concentration camps.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html] Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps, 24 Jan 2002, The Telegraph</ref>

==War crime==
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2011}}
At the Nuremberg trials, where only Axis defendants could be tried, no defendant was tried for rape as a "war crime under customary international law". Rape was however prosecuted as a war-crime in the trials against Japanese in Tokyo, and General Yamashita was found guilty of permitting rape. In 1946 rape was made a "crime against humanity".{{Fact|date=January 2011}}
==Discourse==
In postwar Germany, especially in West Germany, the war time rape stories became an essential part of political discourse.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> The rape of German women (along with the expulsion of Germans from the East and Allied occupation) had been universalized in an attempt to situate the German population on the whole as victims.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> This discourse became wholly discredited by the late 1960s; since 1970s on German leftists conducted politics focused on critical investigation of the Nazi past, the older generations’ unwillingness to face that past, and their tendency to portray themselves as victims rather than as perpetrators, particularly of the Holocaust.<ref name="bos">Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025</ref> Therefore, the frequently reiterated claim that the war time rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence<ref name="sander"/><ref>See also [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/3255081/German-women-break-their-silence-on-horrors-of-Red-Army-rapes.html][http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/raped-by-the-red-army-two-million-german-women-speak-out-1669074.html][http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,680354,00.html]</ref> is probably not correct.<ref name="bos"/>

The way the rapes have been discussed by Sander and Johr in their "''BeFreier und Befreite''"<ref name="sander"/> has been criticized by several scholars. According to Grossmann, the problem is that this is not a "universal" story of women being raped by men, but of German women being abused and violated by an army that fought Nazi Germany and liberated death camps.<ref name="Grossman"/> Such attempts to de-emphasize the historical context of the rape of German women is a serious omission, according to Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson,<ref>Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson. After the Fall: Women in the House of the Hangmen, ''October'', Vol. 72, (Spring, 1995) pp. 4-14</ref> and, according to Pascale Bos, is an example of ahistorical, feminist and sexist approach to the wartime rape issue.<ref name="bos"/>

According to Pascale Bos the feminist attempt to universalize the story of the rapes of German women came into a contradiction with Sander's and Johr's own description of the rapes as a form of genocidal rape: the rape of racially superior German women by racially inferior Russian soldiers, implying that such a rape was especially harmful for the victims.<ref name="bos"/> By contrast, the issue of the rapes of Soviet woman by ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers, that, according to some estimation amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases<ref>Gertjejanssen, Wendy Jo. 2004. “Victims, Heroes, Survivors: Sexual Violence on the Eastern Front during World War II.” PhD diss., University of Minnesota.</ref><ref>A 1942 Wehrmacht document suggested that the Nazi leadership considered implementing a special policy for the eastern front through which the estimated 750,000 babies born through sexual contact between the German soldiers and Russian women (an estimate deemed very conservative) could be identified and reclaimed as racially German. (The suggestion was made to add the middle names Friedrich and Luise to the birth certificates for boy and girl babies, respectively.) Although the plan was not implemented, such documents suggest that the births that resulted from rapes and other forms of sexual contact were deemed as beneficial, as increasing the “Aryan” race rather than as adding to the inferior Slavic race. The underlying ideology suggests that German rape and other forms of sexual contact may need to be seen as conforming to a larger military strategy of racial and territorial dominance. (Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025)</ref> is not treated by the authors as something deserving serious mention.<ref name="bos"/>

==Social Effects==
A number of "Russian babies" were born during the occupation, many of them as the result of rape.[http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,500251,00.html]

According to Norman Naimark we may never know how many German women and girls were raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation, their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as 2 million.<ref name="ReferenceA">N. Naimark "The Russians in Germany" p.132,133</ref> As to the social effects of this sexual violence Naimark notes:
{{Quotation|
:In any case, just as each rape survivor carried the effects of the crime with her till the end of her life, so was the collective anguish nearly unbearable. The social psychology of women and men in the soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the [[GDR]] in the fall of 1949, until—one could argue—the present.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>}}

==Literature==
The Soviet Dissident [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] took part in the invasion of Germany, and wrote a poem about it: [[Prussian Nights]]; "Twenty-two Hoeringstrasse. It's not been burned, just looted, rifled. A moaning by the walls, half muffled: the mother's wounded, half alive. The little daughter's on the mattress, dead. How many have been on it? A platoon, a company perhaps? A girl's been turned into a woman, a woman turned into a corpse. . . . The mother begs, "Soldier, kill me!"<ref>Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ''Prussian Nights: A Poem [Prusskie nochi]'', Robert Conquest, trans. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977).</ref>

==See also==
*[[War rape]]
*[[Rape during the occupation of Japan]]
*[[Marocchinate]]
*[[Soviet war crimes]]
*[[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
*[[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]
==References==
{{Reflist|3}}

{{World War II|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rape During The Occupation Of Germany}}
[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War crimes]]

[[cs:Zločiny Sovětského svazu za druhé světové války]]
[[da:Sovjetiske krigsforbrydelser]]
[[de:Verbrechen der Roten Armee im Zweiten Weltkrieg]]
[[es:Crímenes de guerra del Ejército Rojo]]
[[fr:Crimes de guerre de l'Armée rouge pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale]]
[[it:Crimini di guerra sovietici]]
[[ja:ソビエト連邦による戦争犯罪]]
[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]
[[ru:Насилие в отношении мирного населения Германии (1945)]]
[[tr:Sovyet savaş suçları]]
[[uk:Масові зґвалтування німецьких жінок червоноармійцями]]
[[zh:蘇聯戰爭罪行]]

Benutzer:Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwweeeeeeee/Rape during the occupation of Germany

2011-02-12T09:32:18Z

76.191.230.178: /* Controversy */

{{POV|date=May 2010}}
{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

[[File:US Army Germany occupation zones 1945.jpg|thumb|300px|Territorial changes and occupational zones of Nazi Germany after its defeat. Includes the front-line along the Elbe from which U.S. troops withdrew in July 1945]]
As Allied troops entered and occupied German territory during the later stages of [[World War II]], mass rapes took place, both in connection to combat operations and during the subsequent occupation that was to last many years. Most published and most numerous are the rapes committed by [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] servicemen, for which estimates of rapes committed by them range from tens of thousands to 2 million.
==Historical background: rape in World War II Europe==
As German aggression against Poland started World War II, the first rapes during that conflict were committed by [[Wehrmacht]] forces against Jewish women and girls in September 1939;<ref name="Datner">"55 Dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce" [[Szymon Datner]] Warsaw 1967 page 67 "Zanotowano szereg faktów gwałcenia kobiet i dziewcząt żydowskich" (Numerous facts of cases of rapes made upon Jewish women and girls were reported)</ref> Polish women and girls were also raped during mass executions carried out primarily by the German minority's paramilitary force called [[Selbstschutz]]<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20071029144245/http://www.kki.net.pl/~museum/rozdz3,2.htm</ref>
Later rapes were also committed by German forces on [[Eastern Front]]; although their overall number is difficult to establish due to lack of prosecution of the crime by German courts in Eastern Europe,<ref name="Grossman2007">Atina Grossmann. Jews, Germans, and Allies: close encounters in occupied Germany. Princeton University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-691-08971-X, 9780691089713, p. 290</ref> the recent estimates suggest the number of rapes amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases.<ref name="bos"/><ref>[http://www.mitteleuropa.de/kriegskinder04.htm#*%C2%A0Ebba%20D.%C2%A0Drolshagen Schattendasein der Feindeskinder Die Nachkommen der Wehrmachtssoldaten in den ehemals besetzten Ländern] Neue Zürcher Zeitung 2004</ref>

Extensive rapes by Nazi German troops (besides other numerous atrocities) and revenge for them are given as one of possible explanations for actions during occupation of the former Nazi state.<ref name="Naimark108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108. [[Google Books]]. Chapter 2: [http://books.google.ca/books?id=MVSjHNKUKoEC&pg=PA69&dq=%22Soviet+Soldiers,+German+Women,+and+the+Problem+of+Rape%22&hl=en&ei=9bozTcmJIoqusAO2sZ2FBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Soviet%20Soldiers%2C%20German%20Women%2C%20and%20the%20Problem%20of%20Rape%22&f=false "Soviet Soldiers, German Women, and the Problem of Rape".] </ref> Even Christian Democrat German politicians had to concede that in light of the atrocities committed by the German military in Eastern Europe the degree of discipline demonstrated by the Soviet soldiers was amazing.<ref name="Grossman2007"/>

==Soviet Union==
A wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944–45, as the Western Allies and the Red Army battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The majority of the assaults were committed in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of German women raped by Soviet soldiers range from tens of thousands to 2 million.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref><ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> In many cases women were the victims of repeated rapes, some as many as 60 to 70 times.<ref name="Struggle for Europe">
[http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385497992&view=excerpt William I. Hitchcock ''The Struggle for Europe The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945 to the Present''] ISBN 978-0-385-49799-2 (0-385-49799-7)</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports,<ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath.<ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000.<ref name="sander">Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>{{Citation
| last = Sheehan
| first = Paul
| author-link =
| last2 =
| first2 =
| author2-link =
| title = An orgy of denial in Hitler's bunker
| newspaper = The Sydney Morning Herald
| pages =
| date = 17 May 2003
| url = http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html
| archiveurl =
| archivedate =
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> According to Natalya Gesse, "the Russian soldiers were raping every German female from eight to eighty."<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11 | location=London | work=The Guardian | title=They raped every German female from eight to 80 | date=1 May 2002 | first=Antony | last=Beevor}}</ref> Soviet<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html Red Army troops raped even Russian women...]</ref> and Jewish<ref>[http://www.usm.maine.edu/crm/faculty/jim/raphael.htm James W. Messerschmidt The forgotten victims...]</ref> women were raped also.

After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.
===Controversy===
[[File:Germans killed by Soviet army.jpg|thumb|300px|Picture taken by the [[Sicherheitspolizei]], the original caption states that the two women show signs of rape]]
There is dispute in Russia concerning these claims.<ref name="RedArmy">{{Cite news | last = Summers| first = Chris| title = Red Army rapists exposed| pages = | newspaper = [[BBC News Online]]| location = | date = 29 April 2002| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1939174.stm| archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = 27 May 2010}}</ref> They have encountered vast criticism from historians in Russia and the Russian government.<ref>{{Cite news
| last = Johnson
| first = Daniel
| coauthors =
| title = Russians angry at war rape claims
| newspaper = The Telegraph
| location = United Kingdom
| pages =
| language =
| publisher =
| date = 25 January 2002
| url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/25/wruss25.xml
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> Critics argue that the numbers are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there were cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect. In his review of ''[[Berlin: The Downfall 1945]]'', O.A. Rzheshevsky, a professor and President of the Russian Association of World War II Historians, has charged that Beevor is merely resurrecting the discredited and racist views of [[Neo-Nazi]] historians, who depicted Soviet troops as subhuman "Asiatic hordes."<ref>[http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor Review of Berlin: 1945] {{ru icon}})</ref> In an interview with ''[[BBC News Online]]'', Rzheshevsky admitted that he had only read excerpts and had not seen the book's source notes. He claimed that Beevor's use of phrases such as "Berliners remember" and "the experiences of the raped German women" were better suited "for pulp fiction, than scientific research." Rzheshevsky states that acts such as robbery and sexual assault are inevitable parts of war, and some men of Soviet and other Allied armies committed them. But in general, the Soviet soldiers treated peaceful Germans with humanity. <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

-Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 345-346</ref>, Communists<ref>Even German Communists were not spared. In Wedding, a left-wing stronghold until 1933, activists from the Julicherstrasse went out to congratulate the Soviet officers commanding the unit to occupy their district, showing party cards, which they had kept hidden during twelve years of illegality. ...the unit's officers raped them "that very evening." -Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 346</ref>, and Poles<ref name="Naimark106"/>.

[[Richard Overy]], a historian from [[King's College London]], has criticized the viewpoint held by some Russians, asserting that they refuse to acknowledge [[Soviet war crimes]] committed during the war, "Partly this is because they felt that much of it was justified vengeance against an enemy who committed much worse, and partly it was because they were writing the victors' history."<ref name="RedArmy"/>

==US==
In ''[[Taken by Force (book)|Taken by Force]]'' J Robert Lilly estimates the number of rapes committed by U.S. servicemen in Germany to be 11,040.<ref>Taken by Force: Rape and American GIs in Europe during World War II. J Robert Lilly. ISBN 978-0-230-50647-3 p.12</ref> In a letter to Time Magazine, an American Army sergeant wrote "Our own Army and the British Army ... have done their share of looting and raping.... It is also common knowledge that American soldiers are persona non grata in the homes of decent girls in many of the liberated countries because of their attitude that any foreign girl is automatically a prostitute.... This offensive attitude among our troops is not at all general, but the percentage is large enough to have given our Army a pretty black name, and we too are considered an army of rapists."<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854433-3,00.html Letter to the editor in Time magazine for November 12, 1945]</ref>

==France==
French troops took part in the invasion of Germany, and France was assigned an occupation zone in Germany. According to Perry Biddiscombe the French for instance committed "385 rapes in the [[Constance]] area; 600 in [[Bruchsal]]; and 500 in [[Freudenstadt]]."<ref>Perry Biddiscombe, Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948 Journal of Social History, Vol. 34, No. 3, (2001) p.635</ref>

According to [[Norman Naimark]] French Moroccan troops matched the behavior of Soviet troops when it came to rape, in particular in the early occupation of Baden and Württemberg.<ref name="Naimark106">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 106-7.</ref>
==Poland==
"With nearly two million Russian deserters and former POWs at large in Soviet-occupied Europe, it is no wonder that banditry on their part became a serious problem for the occupation."<ref name="Occupation1"/> Concerned with carrying out the [[expulsion of Germans]] from Silesia, the communist Polish administrators as a consequence could do little to protect the German population from Russian rapists.<ref name="Occupation1">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 74-75.</ref> A single Soviet report had alleged that presumably "Polish soldiers ... 'relate to German women as to free booty'."<ref name="Occupation1"/>

Polish women in Silesia were also subject to rape by Soviet soldiers, who did not always bother to differentiate along ethnic lines, or between victims and occupiers.<ref name="Naimark106"/>

==Analysis==
In his analysis of the motives behind the extensive Soviet rapes Norman Naimark singles out "hate propaganda, personal experiences of suffering at home, and a fully demeaning picture of German women in the press, not to mention among the soldiers themselves" as a part reason for the widespread rapes.<ref name="Occupation108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108-109.</ref> Naimark also noted the effect that the Russian tendency to binge-drink alcohol (of which much was available in Germany) had on the propensity of Russian soldiers to commit rape, especially rape-murder.<ref name="Occupation112">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 112.</ref> Naimark also notes the patriarchal nature of Russian culture, and of the Asian societies comprising the Soviet Union, where dishonor was in the past repaid by raping the women of the enemy.<ref name="Occupation114">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 114-115.</ref> The fact that the Germans had a much higher standard of living (with things such as indoor toilets), visible even when in ruins "may well have contributed to a national inferiority complex among Russians". Combining Russian feelings of inferiority and the resulting need to restore his honor and their desire for revenge may be the reason many women were raped in public as well as in front of husbands before both were killed.<ref name="Occupation114"/>

According to Anthony Beevor revenge played very little role in the frequent rapes; according to him the main reason for the rapes was the Soviet troops' feeling of entitlement to all types of booty, including women. Beevor exemplifies this with his discovery that Soviet troops also raped Russian and Polish girls and women that were liberated from Nazi concentration camps.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html] Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps, 24 Jan 2002, The Telegraph</ref>

==War crime==
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2011}}
At the Nuremberg trials, where only Axis defendants could be tried, no defendant was tried for rape as a "war crime under customary international law". Rape was however prosecuted as a war-crime in the trials against Japanese in Tokyo, and General Yamashita was found guilty of permitting rape. In 1946 rape was made a "crime against humanity".{{Fact|date=January 2011}}
==Discourse==
In postwar Germany, especially in West Germany, the war time rape stories became an essential part of political discourse.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> The rape of German women (along with the expulsion of Germans from the East and Allied occupation) had been universalized in an attempt to situate the German population on the whole as victims.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> This discourse became wholly discredited by the late 1960s; since 1970s on German leftists conducted politics focused on critical investigation of the Nazi past, the older generations’ unwillingness to face that past, and their tendency to portray themselves as victims rather than as perpetrators, particularly of the Holocaust.<ref name="bos">Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025</ref> Therefore, the frequently reiterated claim that the war time rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence<ref name="sander"/><ref>See also [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/3255081/German-women-break-their-silence-on-horrors-of-Red-Army-rapes.html][http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/raped-by-the-red-army-two-million-german-women-speak-out-1669074.html][http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,680354,00.html]</ref> is probably not correct.<ref name="bos"/>

The way the rapes have been discussed by Sander and Johr in their "''BeFreier und Befreite''"<ref name="sander"/> has been criticized by several scholars. According to Grossmann, the problem is that this is not a "universal" story of women being raped by men, but of German women being abused and violated by an army that fought Nazi Germany and liberated death camps.<ref name="Grossman"/> Such attempts to de-emphasize the historical context of the rape of German women is a serious omission, according to Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson,<ref>Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson. After the Fall: Women in the House of the Hangmen, ''October'', Vol. 72, (Spring, 1995) pp. 4-14</ref> and, according to Pascale Bos, is an example of ahistorical, feminist and sexist approach to the wartime rape issue.<ref name="bos"/>

According to Pascale Bos the feminist attempt to universalize the story of the rapes of German women came into a contradiction with Sander's and Johr's own description of the rapes as a form of genocidal rape: the rape of racially superior German women by racially inferior Russian soldiers, implying that such a rape was especially harmful for the victims.<ref name="bos"/> By contrast, the issue of the rapes of Soviet woman by ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers, that, according to some estimation amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases<ref>Gertjejanssen, Wendy Jo. 2004. “Victims, Heroes, Survivors: Sexual Violence on the Eastern Front during World War II.” PhD diss., University of Minnesota.</ref><ref>A 1942 Wehrmacht document suggested that the Nazi leadership considered implementing a special policy for the eastern front through which the estimated 750,000 babies born through sexual contact between the German soldiers and Russian women (an estimate deemed very conservative) could be identified and reclaimed as racially German. (The suggestion was made to add the middle names Friedrich and Luise to the birth certificates for boy and girl babies, respectively.) Although the plan was not implemented, such documents suggest that the births that resulted from rapes and other forms of sexual contact were deemed as beneficial, as increasing the “Aryan” race rather than as adding to the inferior Slavic race. The underlying ideology suggests that German rape and other forms of sexual contact may need to be seen as conforming to a larger military strategy of racial and territorial dominance. (Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025)</ref> is not treated by the authors as something deserving serious mention.<ref name="bos"/>

==Social Effects==
A number of "Russian babies" were born during the occupation, many of them as the result of rape.[http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,500251,00.html]

According to Norman Naimark we may never know how many German women and girls were raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation, their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as 2 million.<ref name="ReferenceA">N. Naimark "The Russians in Germany" p.132,133</ref> As to the social effects of this sexual violence Naimark notes:
{{Quotation|
:In any case, just as each rape survivor carried the effects of the crime with her till the end of her life, so was the collective anguish nearly unbearable. The social psychology of women and men in the soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the [[GDR]] in the fall of 1949, until—one could argue—the present.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>}}

==Literature==
The Soviet Dissident [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] took part in the invasion of Germany, and wrote a poem about it: [[Prussian Nights]]; "Twenty-two Hoeringstrasse. It's not been burned, just looted, rifled. A moaning by the walls, half muffled: the mother's wounded, half alive. The little daughter's on the mattress, dead. How many have been on it? A platoon, a company perhaps? A girl's been turned into a woman, a woman turned into a corpse. . . . The mother begs, "Soldier, kill me!"<ref>Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ''Prussian Nights: A Poem [Prusskie nochi]'', Robert Conquest, trans. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977).</ref>

==See also==
*[[War rape]]
*[[Rape during the occupation of Japan]]
*[[Marocchinate]]
*[[Soviet war crimes]]
*[[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
*[[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]
==References==
{{Reflist|3}}

{{World War II|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rape During The Occupation Of Germany}}
[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War crimes]]

[[cs:Zločiny Sovětského svazu za druhé světové války]]
[[da:Sovjetiske krigsforbrydelser]]
[[de:Verbrechen der Roten Armee im Zweiten Weltkrieg]]
[[es:Crímenes de guerra del Ejército Rojo]]
[[fr:Crimes de guerre de l'Armée rouge pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale]]
[[it:Crimini di guerra sovietici]]
[[ja:ソビエト連邦による戦争犯罪]]
[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]
[[ru:Насилие в отношении мирного населения Германии (1945)]]
[[tr:Sovyet savaş suçları]]
[[uk:Масові зґвалтування німецьких жінок червоноармійцями]]
[[zh:蘇聯戰爭罪行]]

Sexuelle Gewalt im Zweiten Weltkrieg

2011-02-12T09:32:18Z

76.191.230.178: /* Controversy */

{{POV|date=May 2010}}
{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

[[File:US Army Germany occupation zones 1945.jpg|thumb|300px|Territorial changes and occupational zones of Nazi Germany after its defeat. Includes the front-line along the Elbe from which U.S. troops withdrew in July 1945]]
As Allied troops entered and occupied German territory during the later stages of [[World War II]], mass rapes took place, both in connection to combat operations and during the subsequent occupation that was to last many years. Most published and most numerous are the rapes committed by [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] servicemen, for which estimates of rapes committed by them range from tens of thousands to 2 million.
==Historical background: rape in World War II Europe==
As German aggression against Poland started World War II, the first rapes during that conflict were committed by [[Wehrmacht]] forces against Jewish women and girls in September 1939;<ref name="Datner">"55 Dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce" [[Szymon Datner]] Warsaw 1967 page 67 "Zanotowano szereg faktów gwałcenia kobiet i dziewcząt żydowskich" (Numerous facts of cases of rapes made upon Jewish women and girls were reported)</ref> Polish women and girls were also raped during mass executions carried out primarily by the German minority's paramilitary force called [[Selbstschutz]]<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20071029144245/http://www.kki.net.pl/~museum/rozdz3,2.htm</ref>
Later rapes were also committed by German forces on [[Eastern Front]]; although their overall number is difficult to establish due to lack of prosecution of the crime by German courts in Eastern Europe,<ref name="Grossman2007">Atina Grossmann. Jews, Germans, and Allies: close encounters in occupied Germany. Princeton University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-691-08971-X, 9780691089713, p. 290</ref> the recent estimates suggest the number of rapes amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases.<ref name="bos"/><ref>[http://www.mitteleuropa.de/kriegskinder04.htm#*%C2%A0Ebba%20D.%C2%A0Drolshagen Schattendasein der Feindeskinder Die Nachkommen der Wehrmachtssoldaten in den ehemals besetzten Ländern] Neue Zürcher Zeitung 2004</ref>

Extensive rapes by Nazi German troops (besides other numerous atrocities) and revenge for them are given as one of possible explanations for actions during occupation of the former Nazi state.<ref name="Naimark108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108. [[Google Books]]. Chapter 2: [http://books.google.ca/books?id=MVSjHNKUKoEC&pg=PA69&dq=%22Soviet+Soldiers,+German+Women,+and+the+Problem+of+Rape%22&hl=en&ei=9bozTcmJIoqusAO2sZ2FBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Soviet%20Soldiers%2C%20German%20Women%2C%20and%20the%20Problem%20of%20Rape%22&f=false "Soviet Soldiers, German Women, and the Problem of Rape".] </ref> Even Christian Democrat German politicians had to concede that in light of the atrocities committed by the German military in Eastern Europe the degree of discipline demonstrated by the Soviet soldiers was amazing.<ref name="Grossman2007"/>

==Soviet Union==
A wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944–45, as the Western Allies and the Red Army battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The majority of the assaults were committed in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of German women raped by Soviet soldiers range from tens of thousands to 2 million.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref><ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> In many cases women were the victims of repeated rapes, some as many as 60 to 70 times.<ref name="Struggle for Europe">
[http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385497992&view=excerpt William I. Hitchcock ''The Struggle for Europe The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945 to the Present''] ISBN 978-0-385-49799-2 (0-385-49799-7)</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports,<ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath.<ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000.<ref name="sander">Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>{{Citation
| last = Sheehan
| first = Paul
| author-link =
| last2 =
| first2 =
| author2-link =
| title = An orgy of denial in Hitler's bunker
| newspaper = The Sydney Morning Herald
| pages =
| date = 17 May 2003
| url = http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html
| archiveurl =
| archivedate =
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> According to Natalya Gesse, "the Russian soldiers were raping every German female from eight to eighty."<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11 | location=London | work=The Guardian | title=They raped every German female from eight to 80 | date=1 May 2002 | first=Antony | last=Beevor}}</ref> Soviet<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html Red Army troops raped even Russian women...]</ref> and Jewish<ref>[http://www.usm.maine.edu/crm/faculty/jim/raphael.htm James W. Messerschmidt The forgotten victims...]</ref> women were raped also.

After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.
===Controversy===
[[File:Germans killed by Soviet army.jpg|thumb|300px|Picture taken by the [[Sicherheitspolizei]], the original caption states that the two women show signs of rape]]
There is dispute in Russia concerning these claims.<ref name="RedArmy">{{Cite news | last = Summers| first = Chris| title = Red Army rapists exposed| pages = | newspaper = [[BBC News Online]]| location = | date = 29 April 2002| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1939174.stm| archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = 27 May 2010}}</ref> They have encountered vast criticism from historians in Russia and the Russian government.<ref>{{Cite news
| last = Johnson
| first = Daniel
| coauthors =
| title = Russians angry at war rape claims
| newspaper = The Telegraph
| location = United Kingdom
| pages =
| language =
| publisher =
| date = 25 January 2002
| url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/25/wruss25.xml
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> Critics argue that the numbers are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there were cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect. In his review of ''[[Berlin: The Downfall 1945]]'', O.A. Rzheshevsky, a professor and President of the Russian Association of World War II Historians, has charged that Beevor is merely resurrecting the discredited and racist views of [[Neo-Nazi]] historians, who depicted Soviet troops as subhuman "Asiatic hordes."<ref>[http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor Review of Berlin: 1945] {{ru icon}})</ref> In an interview with ''[[BBC News Online]]'', Rzheshevsky admitted that he had only read excerpts and had not seen the book's source notes. He claimed that Beevor's use of phrases such as "Berliners remember" and "the experiences of the raped German women" were better suited "for pulp fiction, than scientific research." Rzheshevsky states that acts such as robbery and sexual assault are inevitable parts of war, and some men of Soviet and other Allied armies committed them. But in general, the Soviet soldiers treated peaceful Germans with humanity. <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

-Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 345-346</ref>, Communists<ref>Even German Communists were not spared. In Wedding, a left-wing stronghold until 1933, activists from the Julicherstrasse went out to congratulate the Soviet officers commanding the unit to occupy their district, showing party cards, which they had kept hidden during twelve years of illegality. ...the unit's officers raped them "that very evening." -Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 346</ref>, and Poles<ref name="Naimark106"/>.

[[Richard Overy]], a historian from [[King's College London]], has criticized the viewpoint held by some Russians, asserting that they refuse to acknowledge [[Soviet war crimes]] committed during the war, "Partly this is because they felt that much of it was justified vengeance against an enemy who committed much worse, and partly it was because they were writing the victors' history."<ref name="RedArmy"/>

==US==
In ''[[Taken by Force (book)|Taken by Force]]'' J Robert Lilly estimates the number of rapes committed by U.S. servicemen in Germany to be 11,040.<ref>Taken by Force: Rape and American GIs in Europe during World War II. J Robert Lilly. ISBN 978-0-230-50647-3 p.12</ref> In a letter to Time Magazine, an American Army sergeant wrote "Our own Army and the British Army ... have done their share of looting and raping.... It is also common knowledge that American soldiers are persona non grata in the homes of decent girls in many of the liberated countries because of their attitude that any foreign girl is automatically a prostitute.... This offensive attitude among our troops is not at all general, but the percentage is large enough to have given our Army a pretty black name, and we too are considered an army of rapists."<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854433-3,00.html Letter to the editor in Time magazine for November 12, 1945]</ref>

==France==
French troops took part in the invasion of Germany, and France was assigned an occupation zone in Germany. According to Perry Biddiscombe the French for instance committed "385 rapes in the [[Constance]] area; 600 in [[Bruchsal]]; and 500 in [[Freudenstadt]]."<ref>Perry Biddiscombe, Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948 Journal of Social History, Vol. 34, No. 3, (2001) p.635</ref>

According to [[Norman Naimark]] French Moroccan troops matched the behavior of Soviet troops when it came to rape, in particular in the early occupation of Baden and Württemberg.<ref name="Naimark106">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 106-7.</ref>
==Poland==
"With nearly two million Russian deserters and former POWs at large in Soviet-occupied Europe, it is no wonder that banditry on their part became a serious problem for the occupation."<ref name="Occupation1"/> Concerned with carrying out the [[expulsion of Germans]] from Silesia, the communist Polish administrators as a consequence could do little to protect the German population from Russian rapists.<ref name="Occupation1">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 74-75.</ref> A single Soviet report had alleged that presumably "Polish soldiers ... 'relate to German women as to free booty'."<ref name="Occupation1"/>

Polish women in Silesia were also subject to rape by Soviet soldiers, who did not always bother to differentiate along ethnic lines, or between victims and occupiers.<ref name="Naimark106"/>

==Analysis==
In his analysis of the motives behind the extensive Soviet rapes Norman Naimark singles out "hate propaganda, personal experiences of suffering at home, and a fully demeaning picture of German women in the press, not to mention among the soldiers themselves" as a part reason for the widespread rapes.<ref name="Occupation108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108-109.</ref> Naimark also noted the effect that the Russian tendency to binge-drink alcohol (of which much was available in Germany) had on the propensity of Russian soldiers to commit rape, especially rape-murder.<ref name="Occupation112">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 112.</ref> Naimark also notes the patriarchal nature of Russian culture, and of the Asian societies comprising the Soviet Union, where dishonor was in the past repaid by raping the women of the enemy.<ref name="Occupation114">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 114-115.</ref> The fact that the Germans had a much higher standard of living (with things such as indoor toilets), visible even when in ruins "may well have contributed to a national inferiority complex among Russians". Combining Russian feelings of inferiority and the resulting need to restore his honor and their desire for revenge may be the reason many women were raped in public as well as in front of husbands before both were killed.<ref name="Occupation114"/>

According to Anthony Beevor revenge played very little role in the frequent rapes; according to him the main reason for the rapes was the Soviet troops' feeling of entitlement to all types of booty, including women. Beevor exemplifies this with his discovery that Soviet troops also raped Russian and Polish girls and women that were liberated from Nazi concentration camps.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html] Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps, 24 Jan 2002, The Telegraph</ref>

==War crime==
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2011}}
At the Nuremberg trials, where only Axis defendants could be tried, no defendant was tried for rape as a "war crime under customary international law". Rape was however prosecuted as a war-crime in the trials against Japanese in Tokyo, and General Yamashita was found guilty of permitting rape. In 1946 rape was made a "crime against humanity".{{Fact|date=January 2011}}
==Discourse==
In postwar Germany, especially in West Germany, the war time rape stories became an essential part of political discourse.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> The rape of German women (along with the expulsion of Germans from the East and Allied occupation) had been universalized in an attempt to situate the German population on the whole as victims.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> This discourse became wholly discredited by the late 1960s; since 1970s on German leftists conducted politics focused on critical investigation of the Nazi past, the older generations’ unwillingness to face that past, and their tendency to portray themselves as victims rather than as perpetrators, particularly of the Holocaust.<ref name="bos">Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025</ref> Therefore, the frequently reiterated claim that the war time rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence<ref name="sander"/><ref>See also [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/3255081/German-women-break-their-silence-on-horrors-of-Red-Army-rapes.html][http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/raped-by-the-red-army-two-million-german-women-speak-out-1669074.html][http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,680354,00.html]</ref> is probably not correct.<ref name="bos"/>

The way the rapes have been discussed by Sander and Johr in their "''BeFreier und Befreite''"<ref name="sander"/> has been criticized by several scholars. According to Grossmann, the problem is that this is not a "universal" story of women being raped by men, but of German women being abused and violated by an army that fought Nazi Germany and liberated death camps.<ref name="Grossman"/> Such attempts to de-emphasize the historical context of the rape of German women is a serious omission, according to Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson,<ref>Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson. After the Fall: Women in the House of the Hangmen, ''October'', Vol. 72, (Spring, 1995) pp. 4-14</ref> and, according to Pascale Bos, is an example of ahistorical, feminist and sexist approach to the wartime rape issue.<ref name="bos"/>

According to Pascale Bos the feminist attempt to universalize the story of the rapes of German women came into a contradiction with Sander's and Johr's own description of the rapes as a form of genocidal rape: the rape of racially superior German women by racially inferior Russian soldiers, implying that such a rape was especially harmful for the victims.<ref name="bos"/> By contrast, the issue of the rapes of Soviet woman by ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers, that, according to some estimation amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases<ref>Gertjejanssen, Wendy Jo. 2004. “Victims, Heroes, Survivors: Sexual Violence on the Eastern Front during World War II.” PhD diss., University of Minnesota.</ref><ref>A 1942 Wehrmacht document suggested that the Nazi leadership considered implementing a special policy for the eastern front through which the estimated 750,000 babies born through sexual contact between the German soldiers and Russian women (an estimate deemed very conservative) could be identified and reclaimed as racially German. (The suggestion was made to add the middle names Friedrich and Luise to the birth certificates for boy and girl babies, respectively.) Although the plan was not implemented, such documents suggest that the births that resulted from rapes and other forms of sexual contact were deemed as beneficial, as increasing the “Aryan” race rather than as adding to the inferior Slavic race. The underlying ideology suggests that German rape and other forms of sexual contact may need to be seen as conforming to a larger military strategy of racial and territorial dominance. (Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025)</ref> is not treated by the authors as something deserving serious mention.<ref name="bos"/>

==Social Effects==
A number of "Russian babies" were born during the occupation, many of them as the result of rape.[http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,500251,00.html]

According to Norman Naimark we may never know how many German women and girls were raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation, their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as 2 million.<ref name="ReferenceA">N. Naimark "The Russians in Germany" p.132,133</ref> As to the social effects of this sexual violence Naimark notes:
{{Quotation|
:In any case, just as each rape survivor carried the effects of the crime with her till the end of her life, so was the collective anguish nearly unbearable. The social psychology of women and men in the soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the [[GDR]] in the fall of 1949, until—one could argue—the present.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>}}

==Literature==
The Soviet Dissident [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] took part in the invasion of Germany, and wrote a poem about it: [[Prussian Nights]]; "Twenty-two Hoeringstrasse. It's not been burned, just looted, rifled. A moaning by the walls, half muffled: the mother's wounded, half alive. The little daughter's on the mattress, dead. How many have been on it? A platoon, a company perhaps? A girl's been turned into a woman, a woman turned into a corpse. . . . The mother begs, "Soldier, kill me!"<ref>Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ''Prussian Nights: A Poem [Prusskie nochi]'', Robert Conquest, trans. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977).</ref>

==See also==
*[[War rape]]
*[[Rape during the occupation of Japan]]
*[[Marocchinate]]
*[[Soviet war crimes]]
*[[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
*[[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]
==References==
{{Reflist|3}}

{{World War II|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rape During The Occupation Of Germany}}
[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War crimes]]

[[cs:Zločiny Sovětského svazu za druhé světové války]]
[[da:Sovjetiske krigsforbrydelser]]
[[de:Verbrechen der Roten Armee im Zweiten Weltkrieg]]
[[es:Crímenes de guerra del Ejército Rojo]]
[[fr:Crimes de guerre de l'Armée rouge pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale]]
[[it:Crimini di guerra sovietici]]
[[ja:ソビエト連邦による戦争犯罪]]
[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]
[[ru:Насилие в отношении мирного населения Германии (1945)]]
[[tr:Sovyet savaş suçları]]
[[uk:Масові зґвалтування німецьких жінок червоноармійцями]]
[[zh:蘇聯戰爭罪行]]

Benutzer:Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwweeeeeeee/Rape during the occupation of Germany

2011-02-12T09:31:41Z

76.191.230.178: /* Controversy */ Removed original research. Sources do not say that certain views have been debunked

{{POV|date=May 2010}}
{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

[[File:US Army Germany occupation zones 1945.jpg|thumb|300px|Territorial changes and occupational zones of Nazi Germany after its defeat. Includes the front-line along the Elbe from which U.S. troops withdrew in July 1945]]
As Allied troops entered and occupied German territory during the later stages of [[World War II]], mass rapes took place, both in connection to combat operations and during the subsequent occupation that was to last many years. Most published and most numerous are the rapes committed by [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] servicemen, for which estimates of rapes committed by them range from tens of thousands to 2 million.
==Historical background: rape in World War II Europe==
As German aggression against Poland started World War II, the first rapes during that conflict were committed by [[Wehrmacht]] forces against Jewish women and girls in September 1939;<ref name="Datner">"55 Dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce" [[Szymon Datner]] Warsaw 1967 page 67 "Zanotowano szereg faktów gwałcenia kobiet i dziewcząt żydowskich" (Numerous facts of cases of rapes made upon Jewish women and girls were reported)</ref> Polish women and girls were also raped during mass executions carried out primarily by the German minority's paramilitary force called [[Selbstschutz]]<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20071029144245/http://www.kki.net.pl/~museum/rozdz3,2.htm</ref>
Later rapes were also committed by German forces on [[Eastern Front]]; although their overall number is difficult to establish due to lack of prosecution of the crime by German courts in Eastern Europe,<ref name="Grossman2007">Atina Grossmann. Jews, Germans, and Allies: close encounters in occupied Germany. Princeton University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-691-08971-X, 9780691089713, p. 290</ref> the recent estimates suggest the number of rapes amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases.<ref name="bos"/><ref>[http://www.mitteleuropa.de/kriegskinder04.htm#*%C2%A0Ebba%20D.%C2%A0Drolshagen Schattendasein der Feindeskinder Die Nachkommen der Wehrmachtssoldaten in den ehemals besetzten Ländern] Neue Zürcher Zeitung 2004</ref>

Extensive rapes by Nazi German troops (besides other numerous atrocities) and revenge for them are given as one of possible explanations for actions during occupation of the former Nazi state.<ref name="Naimark108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108. [[Google Books]]. Chapter 2: [http://books.google.ca/books?id=MVSjHNKUKoEC&pg=PA69&dq=%22Soviet+Soldiers,+German+Women,+and+the+Problem+of+Rape%22&hl=en&ei=9bozTcmJIoqusAO2sZ2FBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Soviet%20Soldiers%2C%20German%20Women%2C%20and%20the%20Problem%20of%20Rape%22&f=false "Soviet Soldiers, German Women, and the Problem of Rape".] </ref> Even Christian Democrat German politicians had to concede that in light of the atrocities committed by the German military in Eastern Europe the degree of discipline demonstrated by the Soviet soldiers was amazing.<ref name="Grossman2007"/>

==Soviet Union==
A wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944–45, as the Western Allies and the Red Army battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The majority of the assaults were committed in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of German women raped by Soviet soldiers range from tens of thousands to 2 million.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref><ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> In many cases women were the victims of repeated rapes, some as many as 60 to 70 times.<ref name="Struggle for Europe">
[http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385497992&view=excerpt William I. Hitchcock ''The Struggle for Europe The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945 to the Present''] ISBN 978-0-385-49799-2 (0-385-49799-7)</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports,<ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath.<ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000.<ref name="sander">Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>{{Citation
| last = Sheehan
| first = Paul
| author-link =
| last2 =
| first2 =
| author2-link =
| title = An orgy of denial in Hitler's bunker
| newspaper = The Sydney Morning Herald
| pages =
| date = 17 May 2003
| url = http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html
| archiveurl =
| archivedate =
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> According to Natalya Gesse, "the Russian soldiers were raping every German female from eight to eighty."<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11 | location=London | work=The Guardian | title=They raped every German female from eight to 80 | date=1 May 2002 | first=Antony | last=Beevor}}</ref> Soviet<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html Red Army troops raped even Russian women...]</ref> and Jewish<ref>[http://www.usm.maine.edu/crm/faculty/jim/raphael.htm James W. Messerschmidt The forgotten victims...]</ref> women were raped also.

After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.
===Controversy===
[[File:Germans killed by Soviet army.jpg|thumb|300px|Picture taken by the [[Sicherheitspolizei]], the original caption states that the two women show signs of rape]]
There is dispute in Russia concerning these claims.<ref name="RedArmy">{{Cite news | last = Summers| first = Chris| title = Red Army rapists exposed| pages = | newspaper = [[BBC News Online]]| location = | date = 29 April 2002| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1939174.stm| archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = 27 May 2010}}</ref> They have encountered vast criticism from historians in Russia and the Russian government.<ref>{{Cite news
| last = Johnson
| first = Daniel
| coauthors =
| title = Russians angry at war rape claims
| newspaper = The Telegraph
| location = United Kingdom
| pages =
| language =
| publisher =
| date = 25 January 2002
| url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/25/wruss25.xml
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> Critics argue that the numbers are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there were cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect. In his review of ''[[Berlin: The Downfall 1945]]'', O.A. Rzheshevsky, a professor and President of the Russian Association of World War II Historians, has charged that Beevor is merely resurrecting the discredited and racist views of [[Neo-Nazi]] historians, who depicted Soviet troops as subhuman "Asiatic hordes."<ref>[http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor Review of Berlin: 1945] {{ru icon}})</ref> In an interview with ''[[BBC News Online]]'', Rzheshevsky admitted that he had only read excerpts and had not seen the book's source notes. He claimed that Beevor's use of phrases such as "Berliners remember" and "the experiences of the raped German women" were better suited "for pulp fiction, than scientific research." Rzheshevsky also defended Soviet reprisals against Germans, stating that the Germans could have expected an "avalanche of revenge".<ref name="RedArmy"/>

Rzheshevsky states that acts such as robbery and sexual assault are inevitable parts of war, and some men of Soviet and other Allied armies committed them. But in general, the Soviet soldiers treated peaceful Germans with humanity. <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

-Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 345-346</ref>, Communists<ref>Even German Communists were not spared. In Wedding, a left-wing stronghold until 1933, activists from the Julicherstrasse went out to congratulate the Soviet officers commanding the unit to occupy their district, showing party cards, which they had kept hidden during twelve years of illegality. ...the unit's officers raped them "that very evening." -Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 346</ref>, and Poles<ref name="Naimark106"/>.

[[Richard Overy]], a historian from [[King's College London]], has criticized the viewpoint held by some Russians, asserting that they refuse to acknowledge [[Soviet war crimes]] committed during the war, "Partly this is because they felt that much of it was justified vengeance against an enemy who committed much worse, and partly it was because they were writing the victors' history."<ref name="RedArmy"/>

==US==
In ''[[Taken by Force (book)|Taken by Force]]'' J Robert Lilly estimates the number of rapes committed by U.S. servicemen in Germany to be 11,040.<ref>Taken by Force: Rape and American GIs in Europe during World War II. J Robert Lilly. ISBN 978-0-230-50647-3 p.12</ref> In a letter to Time Magazine, an American Army sergeant wrote "Our own Army and the British Army ... have done their share of looting and raping.... It is also common knowledge that American soldiers are persona non grata in the homes of decent girls in many of the liberated countries because of their attitude that any foreign girl is automatically a prostitute.... This offensive attitude among our troops is not at all general, but the percentage is large enough to have given our Army a pretty black name, and we too are considered an army of rapists."<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854433-3,00.html Letter to the editor in Time magazine for November 12, 1945]</ref>

==France==
French troops took part in the invasion of Germany, and France was assigned an occupation zone in Germany. According to Perry Biddiscombe the French for instance committed "385 rapes in the [[Constance]] area; 600 in [[Bruchsal]]; and 500 in [[Freudenstadt]]."<ref>Perry Biddiscombe, Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948 Journal of Social History, Vol. 34, No. 3, (2001) p.635</ref>

According to [[Norman Naimark]] French Moroccan troops matched the behavior of Soviet troops when it came to rape, in particular in the early occupation of Baden and Württemberg.<ref name="Naimark106">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 106-7.</ref>
==Poland==
"With nearly two million Russian deserters and former POWs at large in Soviet-occupied Europe, it is no wonder that banditry on their part became a serious problem for the occupation."<ref name="Occupation1"/> Concerned with carrying out the [[expulsion of Germans]] from Silesia, the communist Polish administrators as a consequence could do little to protect the German population from Russian rapists.<ref name="Occupation1">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 74-75.</ref> A single Soviet report had alleged that presumably "Polish soldiers ... 'relate to German women as to free booty'."<ref name="Occupation1"/>

Polish women in Silesia were also subject to rape by Soviet soldiers, who did not always bother to differentiate along ethnic lines, or between victims and occupiers.<ref name="Naimark106"/>

==Analysis==
In his analysis of the motives behind the extensive Soviet rapes Norman Naimark singles out "hate propaganda, personal experiences of suffering at home, and a fully demeaning picture of German women in the press, not to mention among the soldiers themselves" as a part reason for the widespread rapes.<ref name="Occupation108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108-109.</ref> Naimark also noted the effect that the Russian tendency to binge-drink alcohol (of which much was available in Germany) had on the propensity of Russian soldiers to commit rape, especially rape-murder.<ref name="Occupation112">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 112.</ref> Naimark also notes the patriarchal nature of Russian culture, and of the Asian societies comprising the Soviet Union, where dishonor was in the past repaid by raping the women of the enemy.<ref name="Occupation114">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 114-115.</ref> The fact that the Germans had a much higher standard of living (with things such as indoor toilets), visible even when in ruins "may well have contributed to a national inferiority complex among Russians". Combining Russian feelings of inferiority and the resulting need to restore his honor and their desire for revenge may be the reason many women were raped in public as well as in front of husbands before both were killed.<ref name="Occupation114"/>

According to Anthony Beevor revenge played very little role in the frequent rapes; according to him the main reason for the rapes was the Soviet troops' feeling of entitlement to all types of booty, including women. Beevor exemplifies this with his discovery that Soviet troops also raped Russian and Polish girls and women that were liberated from Nazi concentration camps.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html] Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps, 24 Jan 2002, The Telegraph</ref>

==War crime==
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2011}}
At the Nuremberg trials, where only Axis defendants could be tried, no defendant was tried for rape as a "war crime under customary international law". Rape was however prosecuted as a war-crime in the trials against Japanese in Tokyo, and General Yamashita was found guilty of permitting rape. In 1946 rape was made a "crime against humanity".{{Fact|date=January 2011}}
==Discourse==
In postwar Germany, especially in West Germany, the war time rape stories became an essential part of political discourse.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> The rape of German women (along with the expulsion of Germans from the East and Allied occupation) had been universalized in an attempt to situate the German population on the whole as victims.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> This discourse became wholly discredited by the late 1960s; since 1970s on German leftists conducted politics focused on critical investigation of the Nazi past, the older generations’ unwillingness to face that past, and their tendency to portray themselves as victims rather than as perpetrators, particularly of the Holocaust.<ref name="bos">Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025</ref> Therefore, the frequently reiterated claim that the war time rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence<ref name="sander"/><ref>See also [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/3255081/German-women-break-their-silence-on-horrors-of-Red-Army-rapes.html][http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/raped-by-the-red-army-two-million-german-women-speak-out-1669074.html][http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,680354,00.html]</ref> is probably not correct.<ref name="bos"/>

The way the rapes have been discussed by Sander and Johr in their "''BeFreier und Befreite''"<ref name="sander"/> has been criticized by several scholars. According to Grossmann, the problem is that this is not a "universal" story of women being raped by men, but of German women being abused and violated by an army that fought Nazi Germany and liberated death camps.<ref name="Grossman"/> Such attempts to de-emphasize the historical context of the rape of German women is a serious omission, according to Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson,<ref>Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson. After the Fall: Women in the House of the Hangmen, ''October'', Vol. 72, (Spring, 1995) pp. 4-14</ref> and, according to Pascale Bos, is an example of ahistorical, feminist and sexist approach to the wartime rape issue.<ref name="bos"/>

According to Pascale Bos the feminist attempt to universalize the story of the rapes of German women came into a contradiction with Sander's and Johr's own description of the rapes as a form of genocidal rape: the rape of racially superior German women by racially inferior Russian soldiers, implying that such a rape was especially harmful for the victims.<ref name="bos"/> By contrast, the issue of the rapes of Soviet woman by ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers, that, according to some estimation amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases<ref>Gertjejanssen, Wendy Jo. 2004. “Victims, Heroes, Survivors: Sexual Violence on the Eastern Front during World War II.” PhD diss., University of Minnesota.</ref><ref>A 1942 Wehrmacht document suggested that the Nazi leadership considered implementing a special policy for the eastern front through which the estimated 750,000 babies born through sexual contact between the German soldiers and Russian women (an estimate deemed very conservative) could be identified and reclaimed as racially German. (The suggestion was made to add the middle names Friedrich and Luise to the birth certificates for boy and girl babies, respectively.) Although the plan was not implemented, such documents suggest that the births that resulted from rapes and other forms of sexual contact were deemed as beneficial, as increasing the “Aryan” race rather than as adding to the inferior Slavic race. The underlying ideology suggests that German rape and other forms of sexual contact may need to be seen as conforming to a larger military strategy of racial and territorial dominance. (Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025)</ref> is not treated by the authors as something deserving serious mention.<ref name="bos"/>

==Social Effects==
A number of "Russian babies" were born during the occupation, many of them as the result of rape.[http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,500251,00.html]

According to Norman Naimark we may never know how many German women and girls were raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation, their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as 2 million.<ref name="ReferenceA">N. Naimark "The Russians in Germany" p.132,133</ref> As to the social effects of this sexual violence Naimark notes:
{{Quotation|
:In any case, just as each rape survivor carried the effects of the crime with her till the end of her life, so was the collective anguish nearly unbearable. The social psychology of women and men in the soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the [[GDR]] in the fall of 1949, until—one could argue—the present.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>}}

==Literature==
The Soviet Dissident [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] took part in the invasion of Germany, and wrote a poem about it: [[Prussian Nights]]; "Twenty-two Hoeringstrasse. It's not been burned, just looted, rifled. A moaning by the walls, half muffled: the mother's wounded, half alive. The little daughter's on the mattress, dead. How many have been on it? A platoon, a company perhaps? A girl's been turned into a woman, a woman turned into a corpse. . . . The mother begs, "Soldier, kill me!"<ref>Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ''Prussian Nights: A Poem [Prusskie nochi]'', Robert Conquest, trans. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977).</ref>

==See also==
*[[War rape]]
*[[Rape during the occupation of Japan]]
*[[Marocchinate]]
*[[Soviet war crimes]]
*[[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
*[[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]
==References==
{{Reflist|3}}

{{World War II|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rape During The Occupation Of Germany}}
[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War crimes]]

[[cs:Zločiny Sovětského svazu za druhé světové války]]
[[da:Sovjetiske krigsforbrydelser]]
[[de:Verbrechen der Roten Armee im Zweiten Weltkrieg]]
[[es:Crímenes de guerra del Ejército Rojo]]
[[fr:Crimes de guerre de l'Armée rouge pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale]]
[[it:Crimini di guerra sovietici]]
[[ja:ソビエト連邦による戦争犯罪]]
[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]
[[ru:Насилие в отношении мирного населения Германии (1945)]]
[[tr:Sovyet savaş suçları]]
[[uk:Масові зґвалтування німецьких жінок червоноармійцями]]
[[zh:蘇聯戰爭罪行]]

Sexuelle Gewalt im Zweiten Weltkrieg

2011-02-12T09:31:41Z

76.191.230.178: /* Controversy */ Removed original research. Sources do not say that certain views have been debunked

{{POV|date=May 2010}}
{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

[[File:US Army Germany occupation zones 1945.jpg|thumb|300px|Territorial changes and occupational zones of Nazi Germany after its defeat. Includes the front-line along the Elbe from which U.S. troops withdrew in July 1945]]
As Allied troops entered and occupied German territory during the later stages of [[World War II]], mass rapes took place, both in connection to combat operations and during the subsequent occupation that was to last many years. Most published and most numerous are the rapes committed by [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] servicemen, for which estimates of rapes committed by them range from tens of thousands to 2 million.
==Historical background: rape in World War II Europe==
As German aggression against Poland started World War II, the first rapes during that conflict were committed by [[Wehrmacht]] forces against Jewish women and girls in September 1939;<ref name="Datner">"55 Dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce" [[Szymon Datner]] Warsaw 1967 page 67 "Zanotowano szereg faktów gwałcenia kobiet i dziewcząt żydowskich" (Numerous facts of cases of rapes made upon Jewish women and girls were reported)</ref> Polish women and girls were also raped during mass executions carried out primarily by the German minority's paramilitary force called [[Selbstschutz]]<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20071029144245/http://www.kki.net.pl/~museum/rozdz3,2.htm</ref>
Later rapes were also committed by German forces on [[Eastern Front]]; although their overall number is difficult to establish due to lack of prosecution of the crime by German courts in Eastern Europe,<ref name="Grossman2007">Atina Grossmann. Jews, Germans, and Allies: close encounters in occupied Germany. Princeton University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-691-08971-X, 9780691089713, p. 290</ref> the recent estimates suggest the number of rapes amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases.<ref name="bos"/><ref>[http://www.mitteleuropa.de/kriegskinder04.htm#*%C2%A0Ebba%20D.%C2%A0Drolshagen Schattendasein der Feindeskinder Die Nachkommen der Wehrmachtssoldaten in den ehemals besetzten Ländern] Neue Zürcher Zeitung 2004</ref>

Extensive rapes by Nazi German troops (besides other numerous atrocities) and revenge for them are given as one of possible explanations for actions during occupation of the former Nazi state.<ref name="Naimark108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108. [[Google Books]]. Chapter 2: [http://books.google.ca/books?id=MVSjHNKUKoEC&pg=PA69&dq=%22Soviet+Soldiers,+German+Women,+and+the+Problem+of+Rape%22&hl=en&ei=9bozTcmJIoqusAO2sZ2FBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Soviet%20Soldiers%2C%20German%20Women%2C%20and%20the%20Problem%20of%20Rape%22&f=false "Soviet Soldiers, German Women, and the Problem of Rape".] </ref> Even Christian Democrat German politicians had to concede that in light of the atrocities committed by the German military in Eastern Europe the degree of discipline demonstrated by the Soviet soldiers was amazing.<ref name="Grossman2007"/>

==Soviet Union==
A wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944–45, as the Western Allies and the Red Army battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The majority of the assaults were committed in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of German women raped by Soviet soldiers range from tens of thousands to 2 million.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref><ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> In many cases women were the victims of repeated rapes, some as many as 60 to 70 times.<ref name="Struggle for Europe">
[http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385497992&view=excerpt William I. Hitchcock ''The Struggle for Europe The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945 to the Present''] ISBN 978-0-385-49799-2 (0-385-49799-7)</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports,<ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath.<ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000.<ref name="sander">Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>{{Citation
| last = Sheehan
| first = Paul
| author-link =
| last2 =
| first2 =
| author2-link =
| title = An orgy of denial in Hitler's bunker
| newspaper = The Sydney Morning Herald
| pages =
| date = 17 May 2003
| url = http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html
| archiveurl =
| archivedate =
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> According to Natalya Gesse, "the Russian soldiers were raping every German female from eight to eighty."<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11 | location=London | work=The Guardian | title=They raped every German female from eight to 80 | date=1 May 2002 | first=Antony | last=Beevor}}</ref> Soviet<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html Red Army troops raped even Russian women...]</ref> and Jewish<ref>[http://www.usm.maine.edu/crm/faculty/jim/raphael.htm James W. Messerschmidt The forgotten victims...]</ref> women were raped also.

After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.
===Controversy===
[[File:Germans killed by Soviet army.jpg|thumb|300px|Picture taken by the [[Sicherheitspolizei]], the original caption states that the two women show signs of rape]]
There is dispute in Russia concerning these claims.<ref name="RedArmy">{{Cite news | last = Summers| first = Chris| title = Red Army rapists exposed| pages = | newspaper = [[BBC News Online]]| location = | date = 29 April 2002| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1939174.stm| archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = 27 May 2010}}</ref> They have encountered vast criticism from historians in Russia and the Russian government.<ref>{{Cite news
| last = Johnson
| first = Daniel
| coauthors =
| title = Russians angry at war rape claims
| newspaper = The Telegraph
| location = United Kingdom
| pages =
| language =
| publisher =
| date = 25 January 2002
| url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/25/wruss25.xml
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> Critics argue that the numbers are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there were cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect. In his review of ''[[Berlin: The Downfall 1945]]'', O.A. Rzheshevsky, a professor and President of the Russian Association of World War II Historians, has charged that Beevor is merely resurrecting the discredited and racist views of [[Neo-Nazi]] historians, who depicted Soviet troops as subhuman "Asiatic hordes."<ref>[http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor Review of Berlin: 1945] {{ru icon}})</ref> In an interview with ''[[BBC News Online]]'', Rzheshevsky admitted that he had only read excerpts and had not seen the book's source notes. He claimed that Beevor's use of phrases such as "Berliners remember" and "the experiences of the raped German women" were better suited "for pulp fiction, than scientific research." Rzheshevsky also defended Soviet reprisals against Germans, stating that the Germans could have expected an "avalanche of revenge".<ref name="RedArmy"/>

Rzheshevsky states that acts such as robbery and sexual assault are inevitable parts of war, and some men of Soviet and other Allied armies committed them. But in general, the Soviet soldiers treated peaceful Germans with humanity. <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

-Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 345-346</ref>, Communists<ref>Even German Communists were not spared. In Wedding, a left-wing stronghold until 1933, activists from the Julicherstrasse went out to congratulate the Soviet officers commanding the unit to occupy their district, showing party cards, which they had kept hidden during twelve years of illegality. ...the unit's officers raped them "that very evening." -Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 346</ref>, and Poles<ref name="Naimark106"/>.

[[Richard Overy]], a historian from [[King's College London]], has criticized the viewpoint held by some Russians, asserting that they refuse to acknowledge [[Soviet war crimes]] committed during the war, "Partly this is because they felt that much of it was justified vengeance against an enemy who committed much worse, and partly it was because they were writing the victors' history."<ref name="RedArmy"/>

==US==
In ''[[Taken by Force (book)|Taken by Force]]'' J Robert Lilly estimates the number of rapes committed by U.S. servicemen in Germany to be 11,040.<ref>Taken by Force: Rape and American GIs in Europe during World War II. J Robert Lilly. ISBN 978-0-230-50647-3 p.12</ref> In a letter to Time Magazine, an American Army sergeant wrote "Our own Army and the British Army ... have done their share of looting and raping.... It is also common knowledge that American soldiers are persona non grata in the homes of decent girls in many of the liberated countries because of their attitude that any foreign girl is automatically a prostitute.... This offensive attitude among our troops is not at all general, but the percentage is large enough to have given our Army a pretty black name, and we too are considered an army of rapists."<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854433-3,00.html Letter to the editor in Time magazine for November 12, 1945]</ref>

==France==
French troops took part in the invasion of Germany, and France was assigned an occupation zone in Germany. According to Perry Biddiscombe the French for instance committed "385 rapes in the [[Constance]] area; 600 in [[Bruchsal]]; and 500 in [[Freudenstadt]]."<ref>Perry Biddiscombe, Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948 Journal of Social History, Vol. 34, No. 3, (2001) p.635</ref>

According to [[Norman Naimark]] French Moroccan troops matched the behavior of Soviet troops when it came to rape, in particular in the early occupation of Baden and Württemberg.<ref name="Naimark106">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 106-7.</ref>
==Poland==
"With nearly two million Russian deserters and former POWs at large in Soviet-occupied Europe, it is no wonder that banditry on their part became a serious problem for the occupation."<ref name="Occupation1"/> Concerned with carrying out the [[expulsion of Germans]] from Silesia, the communist Polish administrators as a consequence could do little to protect the German population from Russian rapists.<ref name="Occupation1">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 74-75.</ref> A single Soviet report had alleged that presumably "Polish soldiers ... 'relate to German women as to free booty'."<ref name="Occupation1"/>

Polish women in Silesia were also subject to rape by Soviet soldiers, who did not always bother to differentiate along ethnic lines, or between victims and occupiers.<ref name="Naimark106"/>

==Analysis==
In his analysis of the motives behind the extensive Soviet rapes Norman Naimark singles out "hate propaganda, personal experiences of suffering at home, and a fully demeaning picture of German women in the press, not to mention among the soldiers themselves" as a part reason for the widespread rapes.<ref name="Occupation108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108-109.</ref> Naimark also noted the effect that the Russian tendency to binge-drink alcohol (of which much was available in Germany) had on the propensity of Russian soldiers to commit rape, especially rape-murder.<ref name="Occupation112">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 112.</ref> Naimark also notes the patriarchal nature of Russian culture, and of the Asian societies comprising the Soviet Union, where dishonor was in the past repaid by raping the women of the enemy.<ref name="Occupation114">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 114-115.</ref> The fact that the Germans had a much higher standard of living (with things such as indoor toilets), visible even when in ruins "may well have contributed to a national inferiority complex among Russians". Combining Russian feelings of inferiority and the resulting need to restore his honor and their desire for revenge may be the reason many women were raped in public as well as in front of husbands before both were killed.<ref name="Occupation114"/>

According to Anthony Beevor revenge played very little role in the frequent rapes; according to him the main reason for the rapes was the Soviet troops' feeling of entitlement to all types of booty, including women. Beevor exemplifies this with his discovery that Soviet troops also raped Russian and Polish girls and women that were liberated from Nazi concentration camps.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html] Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps, 24 Jan 2002, The Telegraph</ref>

==War crime==
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2011}}
At the Nuremberg trials, where only Axis defendants could be tried, no defendant was tried for rape as a "war crime under customary international law". Rape was however prosecuted as a war-crime in the trials against Japanese in Tokyo, and General Yamashita was found guilty of permitting rape. In 1946 rape was made a "crime against humanity".{{Fact|date=January 2011}}
==Discourse==
In postwar Germany, especially in West Germany, the war time rape stories became an essential part of political discourse.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> The rape of German women (along with the expulsion of Germans from the East and Allied occupation) had been universalized in an attempt to situate the German population on the whole as victims.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> This discourse became wholly discredited by the late 1960s; since 1970s on German leftists conducted politics focused on critical investigation of the Nazi past, the older generations’ unwillingness to face that past, and their tendency to portray themselves as victims rather than as perpetrators, particularly of the Holocaust.<ref name="bos">Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025</ref> Therefore, the frequently reiterated claim that the war time rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence<ref name="sander"/><ref>See also [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/3255081/German-women-break-their-silence-on-horrors-of-Red-Army-rapes.html][http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/raped-by-the-red-army-two-million-german-women-speak-out-1669074.html][http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,680354,00.html]</ref> is probably not correct.<ref name="bos"/>

The way the rapes have been discussed by Sander and Johr in their "''BeFreier und Befreite''"<ref name="sander"/> has been criticized by several scholars. According to Grossmann, the problem is that this is not a "universal" story of women being raped by men, but of German women being abused and violated by an army that fought Nazi Germany and liberated death camps.<ref name="Grossman"/> Such attempts to de-emphasize the historical context of the rape of German women is a serious omission, according to Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson,<ref>Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson. After the Fall: Women in the House of the Hangmen, ''October'', Vol. 72, (Spring, 1995) pp. 4-14</ref> and, according to Pascale Bos, is an example of ahistorical, feminist and sexist approach to the wartime rape issue.<ref name="bos"/>

According to Pascale Bos the feminist attempt to universalize the story of the rapes of German women came into a contradiction with Sander's and Johr's own description of the rapes as a form of genocidal rape: the rape of racially superior German women by racially inferior Russian soldiers, implying that such a rape was especially harmful for the victims.<ref name="bos"/> By contrast, the issue of the rapes of Soviet woman by ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers, that, according to some estimation amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases<ref>Gertjejanssen, Wendy Jo. 2004. “Victims, Heroes, Survivors: Sexual Violence on the Eastern Front during World War II.” PhD diss., University of Minnesota.</ref><ref>A 1942 Wehrmacht document suggested that the Nazi leadership considered implementing a special policy for the eastern front through which the estimated 750,000 babies born through sexual contact between the German soldiers and Russian women (an estimate deemed very conservative) could be identified and reclaimed as racially German. (The suggestion was made to add the middle names Friedrich and Luise to the birth certificates for boy and girl babies, respectively.) Although the plan was not implemented, such documents suggest that the births that resulted from rapes and other forms of sexual contact were deemed as beneficial, as increasing the “Aryan” race rather than as adding to the inferior Slavic race. The underlying ideology suggests that German rape and other forms of sexual contact may need to be seen as conforming to a larger military strategy of racial and territorial dominance. (Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025)</ref> is not treated by the authors as something deserving serious mention.<ref name="bos"/>

==Social Effects==
A number of "Russian babies" were born during the occupation, many of them as the result of rape.[http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,500251,00.html]

According to Norman Naimark we may never know how many German women and girls were raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation, their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as 2 million.<ref name="ReferenceA">N. Naimark "The Russians in Germany" p.132,133</ref> As to the social effects of this sexual violence Naimark notes:
{{Quotation|
:In any case, just as each rape survivor carried the effects of the crime with her till the end of her life, so was the collective anguish nearly unbearable. The social psychology of women and men in the soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the [[GDR]] in the fall of 1949, until—one could argue—the present.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>}}

==Literature==
The Soviet Dissident [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] took part in the invasion of Germany, and wrote a poem about it: [[Prussian Nights]]; "Twenty-two Hoeringstrasse. It's not been burned, just looted, rifled. A moaning by the walls, half muffled: the mother's wounded, half alive. The little daughter's on the mattress, dead. How many have been on it? A platoon, a company perhaps? A girl's been turned into a woman, a woman turned into a corpse. . . . The mother begs, "Soldier, kill me!"<ref>Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ''Prussian Nights: A Poem [Prusskie nochi]'', Robert Conquest, trans. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977).</ref>

==See also==
*[[War rape]]
*[[Rape during the occupation of Japan]]
*[[Marocchinate]]
*[[Soviet war crimes]]
*[[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
*[[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]
==References==
{{Reflist|3}}

{{World War II|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rape During The Occupation Of Germany}}
[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War crimes]]

[[cs:Zločiny Sovětského svazu za druhé světové války]]
[[da:Sovjetiske krigsforbrydelser]]
[[de:Verbrechen der Roten Armee im Zweiten Weltkrieg]]
[[es:Crímenes de guerra del Ejército Rojo]]
[[fr:Crimes de guerre de l'Armée rouge pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale]]
[[it:Crimini di guerra sovietici]]
[[ja:ソビエト連邦による戦争犯罪]]
[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]
[[ru:Насилие в отношении мирного населения Германии (1945)]]
[[tr:Sovyet savaş suçları]]
[[uk:Масові зґвалтування німецьких жінок червоноармійцями]]
[[zh:蘇聯戰爭罪行]]

Benutzer:Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwweeeeeeee/Rape during the occupation of Germany

2011-02-12T09:30:46Z

76.191.230.178: /* Controversy */

{{POV|date=May 2010}}
{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

[[File:US Army Germany occupation zones 1945.jpg|thumb|300px|Territorial changes and occupational zones of Nazi Germany after its defeat. Includes the front-line along the Elbe from which U.S. troops withdrew in July 1945]]
As Allied troops entered and occupied German territory during the later stages of [[World War II]], mass rapes took place, both in connection to combat operations and during the subsequent occupation that was to last many years. Most published and most numerous are the rapes committed by [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] servicemen, for which estimates of rapes committed by them range from tens of thousands to 2 million.
==Historical background: rape in World War II Europe==
As German aggression against Poland started World War II, the first rapes during that conflict were committed by [[Wehrmacht]] forces against Jewish women and girls in September 1939;<ref name="Datner">"55 Dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce" [[Szymon Datner]] Warsaw 1967 page 67 "Zanotowano szereg faktów gwałcenia kobiet i dziewcząt żydowskich" (Numerous facts of cases of rapes made upon Jewish women and girls were reported)</ref> Polish women and girls were also raped during mass executions carried out primarily by the German minority's paramilitary force called [[Selbstschutz]]<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20071029144245/http://www.kki.net.pl/~museum/rozdz3,2.htm</ref>
Later rapes were also committed by German forces on [[Eastern Front]]; although their overall number is difficult to establish due to lack of prosecution of the crime by German courts in Eastern Europe,<ref name="Grossman2007">Atina Grossmann. Jews, Germans, and Allies: close encounters in occupied Germany. Princeton University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-691-08971-X, 9780691089713, p. 290</ref> the recent estimates suggest the number of rapes amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases.<ref name="bos"/><ref>[http://www.mitteleuropa.de/kriegskinder04.htm#*%C2%A0Ebba%20D.%C2%A0Drolshagen Schattendasein der Feindeskinder Die Nachkommen der Wehrmachtssoldaten in den ehemals besetzten Ländern] Neue Zürcher Zeitung 2004</ref>

Extensive rapes by Nazi German troops (besides other numerous atrocities) and revenge for them are given as one of possible explanations for actions during occupation of the former Nazi state.<ref name="Naimark108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108. [[Google Books]]. Chapter 2: [http://books.google.ca/books?id=MVSjHNKUKoEC&pg=PA69&dq=%22Soviet+Soldiers,+German+Women,+and+the+Problem+of+Rape%22&hl=en&ei=9bozTcmJIoqusAO2sZ2FBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Soviet%20Soldiers%2C%20German%20Women%2C%20and%20the%20Problem%20of%20Rape%22&f=false "Soviet Soldiers, German Women, and the Problem of Rape".] </ref> Even Christian Democrat German politicians had to concede that in light of the atrocities committed by the German military in Eastern Europe the degree of discipline demonstrated by the Soviet soldiers was amazing.<ref name="Grossman2007"/>

==Soviet Union==
A wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944–45, as the Western Allies and the Red Army battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The majority of the assaults were committed in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of German women raped by Soviet soldiers range from tens of thousands to 2 million.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref><ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> In many cases women were the victims of repeated rapes, some as many as 60 to 70 times.<ref name="Struggle for Europe">
[http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385497992&view=excerpt William I. Hitchcock ''The Struggle for Europe The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945 to the Present''] ISBN 978-0-385-49799-2 (0-385-49799-7)</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports,<ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath.<ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000.<ref name="sander">Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>{{Citation
| last = Sheehan
| first = Paul
| author-link =
| last2 =
| first2 =
| author2-link =
| title = An orgy of denial in Hitler's bunker
| newspaper = The Sydney Morning Herald
| pages =
| date = 17 May 2003
| url = http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html
| archiveurl =
| archivedate =
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> According to Natalya Gesse, "the Russian soldiers were raping every German female from eight to eighty."<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11 | location=London | work=The Guardian | title=They raped every German female from eight to 80 | date=1 May 2002 | first=Antony | last=Beevor}}</ref> Soviet<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html Red Army troops raped even Russian women...]</ref> and Jewish<ref>[http://www.usm.maine.edu/crm/faculty/jim/raphael.htm James W. Messerschmidt The forgotten victims...]</ref> women were raped also.

After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.
===Controversy===
[[File:Germans killed by Soviet army.jpg|thumb|300px|Picture taken by the [[Sicherheitspolizei]], the original caption states that the two women show signs of rape]]
There is dispute in Russia concerning these claims.<ref name="RedArmy">{{Cite news | last = Summers| first = Chris| title = Red Army rapists exposed| pages = | newspaper = [[BBC News Online]]| location = | date = 29 April 2002| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1939174.stm| archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = 27 May 2010}}</ref> They have encountered vast criticism from historians in Russia and the Russian government.<ref>{{Cite news
| last = Johnson
| first = Daniel
| coauthors =
| title = Russians angry at war rape claims
| newspaper = The Telegraph
| location = United Kingdom
| pages =
| language =
| publisher =
| date = 25 January 2002
| url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/25/wruss25.xml
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> Critics argue that the numbers are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there were cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect. In his review of ''[[Berlin: The Downfall 1945]]'', O.A. Rzheshevsky, a professor and President of the Russian Association of World War II Historians, has charged that Beevor is merely resurrecting the discredited and racist views of [[Neo-Nazi]] historians, who depicted Soviet troops as subhuman "Asiatic hordes."<ref>[http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor Review of Berlin: 1945] {{ru icon}})</ref> In an interview with ''[[BBC News Online]]'', Rzheshevsky admitted that he had only read excerpts and had not seen the book's source notes. He claimed that Beevor's use of phrases such as "Berliners remember" and "the experiences of the raped German women" were better suited "for pulp fiction, than scientific research." Rzheshevsky also defended Soviet reprisals against Germans, stating that the Germans could have expected an "avalanche of revenge".<ref name="RedArmy"/> However, this myth of revenge as justification has been debunked{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}} by exposure of Russian crimes against Jews<ref name=Goetz>In the celler, Ellen Goetz, a Jewish friend of Magda's who had sought shelter there when she escaped from the Lehrterstrasse prison after a heavy bombardment, was also dragged out and raped. When other Germans tried to explain to the Russians that she was Jewish and had been persecuted, they received the terse retort, "Frau ist Frau." Russian officers arrived later. ...they did nothing to control their men."

Rzheshevsky states that acts such as robbery and sexual assault are inevitable parts of war, and some men of Soviet and other Allied armies committed them. But in general, the Soviet soldiers treated peaceful Germans with humanity. <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

-Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 345-346</ref>, Communists<ref>Even German Communists were not spared. In Wedding, a left-wing stronghold until 1933, activists from the Julicherstrasse went out to congratulate the Soviet officers commanding the unit to occupy their district, showing party cards, which they had kept hidden during twelve years of illegality. ...the unit's officers raped them "that very evening." -Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 346</ref>, and Poles<ref name="Naimark106"/>.

[[Richard Overy]], a historian from [[King's College London]], has criticized the viewpoint held by some Russians, asserting that they refuse to acknowledge [[Soviet war crimes]] committed during the war, "Partly this is because they felt that much of it was justified vengeance against an enemy who committed much worse, and partly it was because they were writing the victors' history."<ref name="RedArmy"/>

==US==
In ''[[Taken by Force (book)|Taken by Force]]'' J Robert Lilly estimates the number of rapes committed by U.S. servicemen in Germany to be 11,040.<ref>Taken by Force: Rape and American GIs in Europe during World War II. J Robert Lilly. ISBN 978-0-230-50647-3 p.12</ref> In a letter to Time Magazine, an American Army sergeant wrote "Our own Army and the British Army ... have done their share of looting and raping.... It is also common knowledge that American soldiers are persona non grata in the homes of decent girls in many of the liberated countries because of their attitude that any foreign girl is automatically a prostitute.... This offensive attitude among our troops is not at all general, but the percentage is large enough to have given our Army a pretty black name, and we too are considered an army of rapists."<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854433-3,00.html Letter to the editor in Time magazine for November 12, 1945]</ref>

==France==
French troops took part in the invasion of Germany, and France was assigned an occupation zone in Germany. According to Perry Biddiscombe the French for instance committed "385 rapes in the [[Constance]] area; 600 in [[Bruchsal]]; and 500 in [[Freudenstadt]]."<ref>Perry Biddiscombe, Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948 Journal of Social History, Vol. 34, No. 3, (2001) p.635</ref>

According to [[Norman Naimark]] French Moroccan troops matched the behavior of Soviet troops when it came to rape, in particular in the early occupation of Baden and Württemberg.<ref name="Naimark106">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 106-7.</ref>
==Poland==
"With nearly two million Russian deserters and former POWs at large in Soviet-occupied Europe, it is no wonder that banditry on their part became a serious problem for the occupation."<ref name="Occupation1"/> Concerned with carrying out the [[expulsion of Germans]] from Silesia, the communist Polish administrators as a consequence could do little to protect the German population from Russian rapists.<ref name="Occupation1">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 74-75.</ref> A single Soviet report had alleged that presumably "Polish soldiers ... 'relate to German women as to free booty'."<ref name="Occupation1"/>

Polish women in Silesia were also subject to rape by Soviet soldiers, who did not always bother to differentiate along ethnic lines, or between victims and occupiers.<ref name="Naimark106"/>

==Analysis==
In his analysis of the motives behind the extensive Soviet rapes Norman Naimark singles out "hate propaganda, personal experiences of suffering at home, and a fully demeaning picture of German women in the press, not to mention among the soldiers themselves" as a part reason for the widespread rapes.<ref name="Occupation108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108-109.</ref> Naimark also noted the effect that the Russian tendency to binge-drink alcohol (of which much was available in Germany) had on the propensity of Russian soldiers to commit rape, especially rape-murder.<ref name="Occupation112">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 112.</ref> Naimark also notes the patriarchal nature of Russian culture, and of the Asian societies comprising the Soviet Union, where dishonor was in the past repaid by raping the women of the enemy.<ref name="Occupation114">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 114-115.</ref> The fact that the Germans had a much higher standard of living (with things such as indoor toilets), visible even when in ruins "may well have contributed to a national inferiority complex among Russians". Combining Russian feelings of inferiority and the resulting need to restore his honor and their desire for revenge may be the reason many women were raped in public as well as in front of husbands before both were killed.<ref name="Occupation114"/>

According to Anthony Beevor revenge played very little role in the frequent rapes; according to him the main reason for the rapes was the Soviet troops' feeling of entitlement to all types of booty, including women. Beevor exemplifies this with his discovery that Soviet troops also raped Russian and Polish girls and women that were liberated from Nazi concentration camps.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html] Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps, 24 Jan 2002, The Telegraph</ref>

==War crime==
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2011}}
At the Nuremberg trials, where only Axis defendants could be tried, no defendant was tried for rape as a "war crime under customary international law". Rape was however prosecuted as a war-crime in the trials against Japanese in Tokyo, and General Yamashita was found guilty of permitting rape. In 1946 rape was made a "crime against humanity".{{Fact|date=January 2011}}
==Discourse==
In postwar Germany, especially in West Germany, the war time rape stories became an essential part of political discourse.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> The rape of German women (along with the expulsion of Germans from the East and Allied occupation) had been universalized in an attempt to situate the German population on the whole as victims.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> This discourse became wholly discredited by the late 1960s; since 1970s on German leftists conducted politics focused on critical investigation of the Nazi past, the older generations’ unwillingness to face that past, and their tendency to portray themselves as victims rather than as perpetrators, particularly of the Holocaust.<ref name="bos">Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025</ref> Therefore, the frequently reiterated claim that the war time rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence<ref name="sander"/><ref>See also [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/3255081/German-women-break-their-silence-on-horrors-of-Red-Army-rapes.html][http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/raped-by-the-red-army-two-million-german-women-speak-out-1669074.html][http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,680354,00.html]</ref> is probably not correct.<ref name="bos"/>

The way the rapes have been discussed by Sander and Johr in their "''BeFreier und Befreite''"<ref name="sander"/> has been criticized by several scholars. According to Grossmann, the problem is that this is not a "universal" story of women being raped by men, but of German women being abused and violated by an army that fought Nazi Germany and liberated death camps.<ref name="Grossman"/> Such attempts to de-emphasize the historical context of the rape of German women is a serious omission, according to Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson,<ref>Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson. After the Fall: Women in the House of the Hangmen, ''October'', Vol. 72, (Spring, 1995) pp. 4-14</ref> and, according to Pascale Bos, is an example of ahistorical, feminist and sexist approach to the wartime rape issue.<ref name="bos"/>

According to Pascale Bos the feminist attempt to universalize the story of the rapes of German women came into a contradiction with Sander's and Johr's own description of the rapes as a form of genocidal rape: the rape of racially superior German women by racially inferior Russian soldiers, implying that such a rape was especially harmful for the victims.<ref name="bos"/> By contrast, the issue of the rapes of Soviet woman by ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers, that, according to some estimation amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases<ref>Gertjejanssen, Wendy Jo. 2004. “Victims, Heroes, Survivors: Sexual Violence on the Eastern Front during World War II.” PhD diss., University of Minnesota.</ref><ref>A 1942 Wehrmacht document suggested that the Nazi leadership considered implementing a special policy for the eastern front through which the estimated 750,000 babies born through sexual contact between the German soldiers and Russian women (an estimate deemed very conservative) could be identified and reclaimed as racially German. (The suggestion was made to add the middle names Friedrich and Luise to the birth certificates for boy and girl babies, respectively.) Although the plan was not implemented, such documents suggest that the births that resulted from rapes and other forms of sexual contact were deemed as beneficial, as increasing the “Aryan” race rather than as adding to the inferior Slavic race. The underlying ideology suggests that German rape and other forms of sexual contact may need to be seen as conforming to a larger military strategy of racial and territorial dominance. (Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025)</ref> is not treated by the authors as something deserving serious mention.<ref name="bos"/>

==Social Effects==
A number of "Russian babies" were born during the occupation, many of them as the result of rape.[http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,500251,00.html]

According to Norman Naimark we may never know how many German women and girls were raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation, their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as 2 million.<ref name="ReferenceA">N. Naimark "The Russians in Germany" p.132,133</ref> As to the social effects of this sexual violence Naimark notes:
{{Quotation|
:In any case, just as each rape survivor carried the effects of the crime with her till the end of her life, so was the collective anguish nearly unbearable. The social psychology of women and men in the soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the [[GDR]] in the fall of 1949, until—one could argue—the present.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>}}

==Literature==
The Soviet Dissident [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] took part in the invasion of Germany, and wrote a poem about it: [[Prussian Nights]]; "Twenty-two Hoeringstrasse. It's not been burned, just looted, rifled. A moaning by the walls, half muffled: the mother's wounded, half alive. The little daughter's on the mattress, dead. How many have been on it? A platoon, a company perhaps? A girl's been turned into a woman, a woman turned into a corpse. . . . The mother begs, "Soldier, kill me!"<ref>Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ''Prussian Nights: A Poem [Prusskie nochi]'', Robert Conquest, trans. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977).</ref>

==See also==
*[[War rape]]
*[[Rape during the occupation of Japan]]
*[[Marocchinate]]
*[[Soviet war crimes]]
*[[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
*[[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]
==References==
{{Reflist|3}}

{{World War II|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rape During The Occupation Of Germany}}
[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War crimes]]

[[cs:Zločiny Sovětského svazu za druhé světové války]]
[[da:Sovjetiske krigsforbrydelser]]
[[de:Verbrechen der Roten Armee im Zweiten Weltkrieg]]
[[es:Crímenes de guerra del Ejército Rojo]]
[[fr:Crimes de guerre de l'Armée rouge pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale]]
[[it:Crimini di guerra sovietici]]
[[ja:ソビエト連邦による戦争犯罪]]
[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]
[[ru:Насилие в отношении мирного населения Германии (1945)]]
[[tr:Sovyet savaş suçları]]
[[uk:Масові зґвалтування німецьких жінок червоноармійцями]]
[[zh:蘇聯戰爭罪行]]

Sexuelle Gewalt im Zweiten Weltkrieg

2011-02-12T09:30:46Z

76.191.230.178: /* Controversy */

{{POV|date=May 2010}}
{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

[[File:US Army Germany occupation zones 1945.jpg|thumb|300px|Territorial changes and occupational zones of Nazi Germany after its defeat. Includes the front-line along the Elbe from which U.S. troops withdrew in July 1945]]
As Allied troops entered and occupied German territory during the later stages of [[World War II]], mass rapes took place, both in connection to combat operations and during the subsequent occupation that was to last many years. Most published and most numerous are the rapes committed by [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] servicemen, for which estimates of rapes committed by them range from tens of thousands to 2 million.
==Historical background: rape in World War II Europe==
As German aggression against Poland started World War II, the first rapes during that conflict were committed by [[Wehrmacht]] forces against Jewish women and girls in September 1939;<ref name="Datner">"55 Dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce" [[Szymon Datner]] Warsaw 1967 page 67 "Zanotowano szereg faktów gwałcenia kobiet i dziewcząt żydowskich" (Numerous facts of cases of rapes made upon Jewish women and girls were reported)</ref> Polish women and girls were also raped during mass executions carried out primarily by the German minority's paramilitary force called [[Selbstschutz]]<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20071029144245/http://www.kki.net.pl/~museum/rozdz3,2.htm</ref>
Later rapes were also committed by German forces on [[Eastern Front]]; although their overall number is difficult to establish due to lack of prosecution of the crime by German courts in Eastern Europe,<ref name="Grossman2007">Atina Grossmann. Jews, Germans, and Allies: close encounters in occupied Germany. Princeton University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-691-08971-X, 9780691089713, p. 290</ref> the recent estimates suggest the number of rapes amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases.<ref name="bos"/><ref>[http://www.mitteleuropa.de/kriegskinder04.htm#*%C2%A0Ebba%20D.%C2%A0Drolshagen Schattendasein der Feindeskinder Die Nachkommen der Wehrmachtssoldaten in den ehemals besetzten Ländern] Neue Zürcher Zeitung 2004</ref>

Extensive rapes by Nazi German troops (besides other numerous atrocities) and revenge for them are given as one of possible explanations for actions during occupation of the former Nazi state.<ref name="Naimark108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108. [[Google Books]]. Chapter 2: [http://books.google.ca/books?id=MVSjHNKUKoEC&pg=PA69&dq=%22Soviet+Soldiers,+German+Women,+and+the+Problem+of+Rape%22&hl=en&ei=9bozTcmJIoqusAO2sZ2FBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Soviet%20Soldiers%2C%20German%20Women%2C%20and%20the%20Problem%20of%20Rape%22&f=false "Soviet Soldiers, German Women, and the Problem of Rape".] </ref> Even Christian Democrat German politicians had to concede that in light of the atrocities committed by the German military in Eastern Europe the degree of discipline demonstrated by the Soviet soldiers was amazing.<ref name="Grossman2007"/>

==Soviet Union==
A wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944–45, as the Western Allies and the Red Army battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The majority of the assaults were committed in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of German women raped by Soviet soldiers range from tens of thousands to 2 million.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref><ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> In many cases women were the victims of repeated rapes, some as many as 60 to 70 times.<ref name="Struggle for Europe">
[http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385497992&view=excerpt William I. Hitchcock ''The Struggle for Europe The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945 to the Present''] ISBN 978-0-385-49799-2 (0-385-49799-7)</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports,<ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath.<ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000.<ref name="sander">Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>{{Citation
| last = Sheehan
| first = Paul
| author-link =
| last2 =
| first2 =
| author2-link =
| title = An orgy of denial in Hitler's bunker
| newspaper = The Sydney Morning Herald
| pages =
| date = 17 May 2003
| url = http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html
| archiveurl =
| archivedate =
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> According to Natalya Gesse, "the Russian soldiers were raping every German female from eight to eighty."<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11 | location=London | work=The Guardian | title=They raped every German female from eight to 80 | date=1 May 2002 | first=Antony | last=Beevor}}</ref> Soviet<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html Red Army troops raped even Russian women...]</ref> and Jewish<ref>[http://www.usm.maine.edu/crm/faculty/jim/raphael.htm James W. Messerschmidt The forgotten victims...]</ref> women were raped also.

After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.
===Controversy===
[[File:Germans killed by Soviet army.jpg|thumb|300px|Picture taken by the [[Sicherheitspolizei]], the original caption states that the two women show signs of rape]]
There is dispute in Russia concerning these claims.<ref name="RedArmy">{{Cite news | last = Summers| first = Chris| title = Red Army rapists exposed| pages = | newspaper = [[BBC News Online]]| location = | date = 29 April 2002| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1939174.stm| archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = 27 May 2010}}</ref> They have encountered vast criticism from historians in Russia and the Russian government.<ref>{{Cite news
| last = Johnson
| first = Daniel
| coauthors =
| title = Russians angry at war rape claims
| newspaper = The Telegraph
| location = United Kingdom
| pages =
| language =
| publisher =
| date = 25 January 2002
| url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/25/wruss25.xml
| accessdate = 7 December 2010}}</ref> Critics argue that the numbers are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there were cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect. In his review of ''[[Berlin: The Downfall 1945]]'', O.A. Rzheshevsky, a professor and President of the Russian Association of World War II Historians, has charged that Beevor is merely resurrecting the discredited and racist views of [[Neo-Nazi]] historians, who depicted Soviet troops as subhuman "Asiatic hordes."<ref>[http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor Review of Berlin: 1945] {{ru icon}})</ref> In an interview with ''[[BBC News Online]]'', Rzheshevsky admitted that he had only read excerpts and had not seen the book's source notes. He claimed that Beevor's use of phrases such as "Berliners remember" and "the experiences of the raped German women" were better suited "for pulp fiction, than scientific research." Rzheshevsky also defended Soviet reprisals against Germans, stating that the Germans could have expected an "avalanche of revenge".<ref name="RedArmy"/> However, this myth of revenge as justification has been debunked{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}} by exposure of Russian crimes against Jews<ref name=Goetz>In the celler, Ellen Goetz, a Jewish friend of Magda's who had sought shelter there when she escaped from the Lehrterstrasse prison after a heavy bombardment, was also dragged out and raped. When other Germans tried to explain to the Russians that she was Jewish and had been persecuted, they received the terse retort, "Frau ist Frau." Russian officers arrived later. ...they did nothing to control their men."

Rzheshevsky states that acts such as robbery and sexual assault are inevitable parts of war, and some men of Soviet and other Allied armies committed them. But in general, the Soviet soldiers treated peaceful Germans with humanity. <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/</ref>

-Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 345-346</ref>, Communists<ref>Even German Communists were not spared. In Wedding, a left-wing stronghold until 1933, activists from the Julicherstrasse went out to congratulate the Soviet officers commanding the unit to occupy their district, showing party cards, which they had kept hidden during twelve years of illegality. ...the unit's officers raped them "that very evening." -Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945, Page 346</ref>, and Poles<ref name="Naimark106"/>.

[[Richard Overy]], a historian from [[King's College London]], has criticized the viewpoint held by some Russians, asserting that they refuse to acknowledge [[Soviet war crimes]] committed during the war, "Partly this is because they felt that much of it was justified vengeance against an enemy who committed much worse, and partly it was because they were writing the victors' history."<ref name="RedArmy"/>

==US==
In ''[[Taken by Force (book)|Taken by Force]]'' J Robert Lilly estimates the number of rapes committed by U.S. servicemen in Germany to be 11,040.<ref>Taken by Force: Rape and American GIs in Europe during World War II. J Robert Lilly. ISBN 978-0-230-50647-3 p.12</ref> In a letter to Time Magazine, an American Army sergeant wrote "Our own Army and the British Army ... have done their share of looting and raping.... It is also common knowledge that American soldiers are persona non grata in the homes of decent girls in many of the liberated countries because of their attitude that any foreign girl is automatically a prostitute.... This offensive attitude among our troops is not at all general, but the percentage is large enough to have given our Army a pretty black name, and we too are considered an army of rapists."<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854433-3,00.html Letter to the editor in Time magazine for November 12, 1945]</ref>

==France==
French troops took part in the invasion of Germany, and France was assigned an occupation zone in Germany. According to Perry Biddiscombe the French for instance committed "385 rapes in the [[Constance]] area; 600 in [[Bruchsal]]; and 500 in [[Freudenstadt]]."<ref>Perry Biddiscombe, Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948 Journal of Social History, Vol. 34, No. 3, (2001) p.635</ref>

According to [[Norman Naimark]] French Moroccan troops matched the behavior of Soviet troops when it came to rape, in particular in the early occupation of Baden and Württemberg.<ref name="Naimark106">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 106-7.</ref>
==Poland==
"With nearly two million Russian deserters and former POWs at large in Soviet-occupied Europe, it is no wonder that banditry on their part became a serious problem for the occupation."<ref name="Occupation1"/> Concerned with carrying out the [[expulsion of Germans]] from Silesia, the communist Polish administrators as a consequence could do little to protect the German population from Russian rapists.<ref name="Occupation1">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 74-75.</ref> A single Soviet report had alleged that presumably "Polish soldiers ... 'relate to German women as to free booty'."<ref name="Occupation1"/>

Polish women in Silesia were also subject to rape by Soviet soldiers, who did not always bother to differentiate along ethnic lines, or between victims and occupiers.<ref name="Naimark106"/>

==Analysis==
In his analysis of the motives behind the extensive Soviet rapes Norman Naimark singles out "hate propaganda, personal experiences of suffering at home, and a fully demeaning picture of German women in the press, not to mention among the soldiers themselves" as a part reason for the widespread rapes.<ref name="Occupation108">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 108-109.</ref> Naimark also noted the effect that the Russian tendency to binge-drink alcohol (of which much was available in Germany) had on the propensity of Russian soldiers to commit rape, especially rape-murder.<ref name="Occupation112">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 112.</ref> Naimark also notes the patriarchal nature of Russian culture, and of the Asian societies comprising the Soviet Union, where dishonor was in the past repaid by raping the women of the enemy.<ref name="Occupation114">Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 114-115.</ref> The fact that the Germans had a much higher standard of living (with things such as indoor toilets), visible even when in ruins "may well have contributed to a national inferiority complex among Russians". Combining Russian feelings of inferiority and the resulting need to restore his honor and their desire for revenge may be the reason many women were raped in public as well as in front of husbands before both were killed.<ref name="Occupation114"/>

According to Anthony Beevor revenge played very little role in the frequent rapes; according to him the main reason for the rapes was the Soviet troops' feeling of entitlement to all types of booty, including women. Beevor exemplifies this with his discovery that Soviet troops also raped Russian and Polish girls and women that were liberated from Nazi concentration camps.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html] Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps, 24 Jan 2002, The Telegraph</ref>

==War crime==
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2011}}
At the Nuremberg trials, where only Axis defendants could be tried, no defendant was tried for rape as a "war crime under customary international law". Rape was however prosecuted as a war-crime in the trials against Japanese in Tokyo, and General Yamashita was found guilty of permitting rape. In 1946 rape was made a "crime against humanity".{{Fact|date=January 2011}}
==Discourse==
In postwar Germany, especially in West Germany, the war time rape stories became an essential part of political discourse.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> The rape of German women (along with the expulsion of Germans from the East and Allied occupation) had been universalized in an attempt to situate the German population on the whole as victims.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> This discourse became wholly discredited by the late 1960s; since 1970s on German leftists conducted politics focused on critical investigation of the Nazi past, the older generations’ unwillingness to face that past, and their tendency to portray themselves as victims rather than as perpetrators, particularly of the Holocaust.<ref name="bos">Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025</ref> Therefore, the frequently reiterated claim that the war time rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence<ref name="sander"/><ref>See also [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/3255081/German-women-break-their-silence-on-horrors-of-Red-Army-rapes.html][http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/raped-by-the-red-army-two-million-german-women-speak-out-1669074.html][http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,680354,00.html]</ref> is probably not correct.<ref name="bos"/>

The way the rapes have been discussed by Sander and Johr in their "''BeFreier und Befreite''"<ref name="sander"/> has been criticized by several scholars. According to Grossmann, the problem is that this is not a "universal" story of women being raped by men, but of German women being abused and violated by an army that fought Nazi Germany and liberated death camps.<ref name="Grossman"/> Such attempts to de-emphasize the historical context of the rape of German women is a serious omission, according to Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson,<ref>Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson. After the Fall: Women in the House of the Hangmen, ''October'', Vol. 72, (Spring, 1995) pp. 4-14</ref> and, according to Pascale Bos, is an example of ahistorical, feminist and sexist approach to the wartime rape issue.<ref name="bos"/>

According to Pascale Bos the feminist attempt to universalize the story of the rapes of German women came into a contradiction with Sander's and Johr's own description of the rapes as a form of genocidal rape: the rape of racially superior German women by racially inferior Russian soldiers, implying that such a rape was especially harmful for the victims.<ref name="bos"/> By contrast, the issue of the rapes of Soviet woman by ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers, that, according to some estimation amounted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cases<ref>Gertjejanssen, Wendy Jo. 2004. “Victims, Heroes, Survivors: Sexual Violence on the Eastern Front during World War II.” PhD diss., University of Minnesota.</ref><ref>A 1942 Wehrmacht document suggested that the Nazi leadership considered implementing a special policy for the eastern front through which the estimated 750,000 babies born through sexual contact between the German soldiers and Russian women (an estimate deemed very conservative) could be identified and reclaimed as racially German. (The suggestion was made to add the middle names Friedrich and Luise to the birth certificates for boy and girl babies, respectively.) Although the plan was not implemented, such documents suggest that the births that resulted from rapes and other forms of sexual contact were deemed as beneficial, as increasing the “Aryan” race rather than as adding to the inferior Slavic race. The underlying ideology suggests that German rape and other forms of sexual contact may need to be seen as conforming to a larger military strategy of racial and territorial dominance. (Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025)</ref> is not treated by the authors as something deserving serious mention.<ref name="bos"/>

==Social Effects==
A number of "Russian babies" were born during the occupation, many of them as the result of rape.[http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,500251,00.html]

According to Norman Naimark we may never know how many German women and girls were raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation, their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as 2 million.<ref name="ReferenceA">N. Naimark "The Russians in Germany" p.132,133</ref> As to the social effects of this sexual violence Naimark notes:
{{Quotation|
:In any case, just as each rape survivor carried the effects of the crime with her till the end of her life, so was the collective anguish nearly unbearable. The social psychology of women and men in the soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the [[GDR]] in the fall of 1949, until—one could argue—the present.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>}}

==Literature==
The Soviet Dissident [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] took part in the invasion of Germany, and wrote a poem about it: [[Prussian Nights]]; "Twenty-two Hoeringstrasse. It's not been burned, just looted, rifled. A moaning by the walls, half muffled: the mother's wounded, half alive. The little daughter's on the mattress, dead. How many have been on it? A platoon, a company perhaps? A girl's been turned into a woman, a woman turned into a corpse. . . . The mother begs, "Soldier, kill me!"<ref>Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ''Prussian Nights: A Poem [Prusskie nochi]'', Robert Conquest, trans. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977).</ref>

==See also==
*[[War rape]]
*[[Rape during the occupation of Japan]]
*[[Marocchinate]]
*[[Soviet war crimes]]
*[[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
*[[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]
==References==
{{Reflist|3}}

{{World War II|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rape During The Occupation Of Germany}}
[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War crimes]]

[[cs:Zločiny Sovětského svazu za druhé světové války]]
[[da:Sovjetiske krigsforbrydelser]]
[[de:Verbrechen der Roten Armee im Zweiten Weltkrieg]]
[[es:Crímenes de guerra del Ejército Rojo]]
[[fr:Crimes de guerre de l'Armée rouge pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale]]
[[it:Crimini di guerra sovietici]]
[[ja:ソビエト連邦による戦争犯罪]]
[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]
[[ru:Насилие в отношении мирного населения Германии (1945)]]
[[tr:Sovyet savaş suçları]]
[[uk:Масові зґвалтування німецьких жінок червоноармійцями]]
[[zh:蘇聯戰爭罪行]]

Benutzer:Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwweeeeeeee/Rape during the occupation of Germany

2010-06-07T04:15:31Z

76.191.230.178: Reverted back to Paul Siebert

{{POV|date=May 2010}}
{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

A wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944–45, as the Western Allies and the Red Army battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The majority of the assaults were committed in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of rapes committed by Soviet soldiers range from tens of thousands to 2 million.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref><ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports,<ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath.<ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000.<ref name="sander">Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html</ref>

According to Natalya Gesse, "the Russian soldiers were raping every German female from eight to eighty."<ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11</ref> A war veteran recalled: "The question of seeking revenge on the Nazis dropped out -- it's not the traditions of our people to take reprisals against women, children, and elderly...The attitude of Soviet soldiers to the German population, could be called neutral. Nobody, at least from out regiment, mistreated people.''<ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html {{ru icon}}</ref>

After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.

There is dispute in Russia concerning these claims. <ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html {{ru icon}}</ref><ref>http://actualhistory.ru/51 {{ru icon}}</ref>.<ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/dukov_ar/index.html {{ru icon}}</ref> <ref>http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor {{ru icon}}</ref> <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/ {{ru icon}}</ref> Critics argue that the numbers are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect and loyalty. It is also emphasized that the Soviet military leadership discouraged crimes against civilians and took measures to punish offenders. <ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html {{ru icon}}</ref>

In postwar Germany, especially in West Germany, the war time rape stories became an essential part of political discourse.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> The rape of German woman (along with expulsion of Germans from the East and Allied occupation) had been universalized in an attempt to situate the German population as whole as victims.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> This discourse became wholly discredited by the late 1960s; since 1970s on German leftists conducted politics focused on critical investigation of the Nazi past, the older generations’ unwillingness to face that past, and their tendency to portray themselves as victims rather than as perpetrators, particularly of the Holocaust.<ref name="bos">Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025</ref> Therefore, the frequently reiterated claim that the war time rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence<ref name="sander"/> is simply not correct.<ref name="bos"/>

The way the rapes have been discusses by Sander and Johr in their "''BeFreier und Befreite''"<ref name="sander"/> has been criticised by several scholars. According to Grossmann, the problem is that this is not a "universal" story of women being raped by men, but of German women being abused and violated by an army that fought Nazi Germany and liberated death camps.<ref name="Grossman"/> Such attempts to deemphasize the historical context of the rape of German women is a serious omission, according to Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson,<ref>Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson. After the Fall: Women in the House of the Hangmen, ''October'', Vol. 72, (Spring, 1995), pp. 4-14</ref> and, according to Pascale Bos, is an example of ahistorical, feminist and sexist approach to the wartime rape issue.<ref name="bos"/>

According to Pascale Bos the feminist attempt to universalize the story of the rapes of German women came into a contradiction with Sander's and Johr's own description of the rapes as a form of genocidal rape: the rape of racially superior German women by racially inferior Russian soldiers, implying that such a rape was especially harmful for the victims.<ref name="bos"/> By contrast, the issue of the rapes of Soviet woman by ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers, that, according to some estimation amounted hundred of thousands, if not millions cases <ref>Gertjejanssen, Wendy Jo. 2004. “Victims, Heroes, Survivors: Sexual Violence on the Eastern Front during World War II.” PhD diss., University of Minnesota.</ref> <ref>A 1942 Wehrmacht document suggested that the Nazi leadership considered implementing a special policy for the eastern front through which the estimated 750,000 babies born through sexual contact between the German soldiers and Russian women (an estimate deemed very conservative) could be identified and reclaimed as racially German. (The suggestion was made to add the middle names Friedrich and Luise to the birth certificates for boy and girl babies, respectively.) Although the plan was not implemented, such documents suggest that the births that resulted from rapes and other forms of sexual contact were deemed as beneficial, as increasing the “Aryan” race rather than as adding to the inferior Slavic race. The underlying ideology suggests that German rape and other forms of sexual contact may need to be seen as conforming to a larger military strategy of racial and territorial dominance. (Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025)</ref> is not treated by the authors as something deserving serious mention.<ref name="bos"/>

==See also==
* [[Soviet war crimes]]
* [[War rape]]
* [[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
* [[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}



[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War casualties|Rape]]
[[Category:War crimes|Rape]]

[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]

Sexuelle Gewalt im Zweiten Weltkrieg

2010-06-07T04:15:31Z

76.191.230.178: Reverted back to Paul Siebert

Schwarzer Januar

2010-06-06T08:38:18Z

76.191.230.178: /* State of Emergency */

{{infobox military conflict
| conflict = Black January''' {{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}
| partof = [[Azerbaijan#Restoration of independence|Azerbaijani national independence movement]]
| image =
| caption = Soviet tanks in Baku during Black January
| date = January 19-20, 1990
| place = [[Baku]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[Soviet Union]]
| coordinates =
| map_type =
| latitude =
| longitude =
| map_size =
| map_caption =
| map_label =
| territory =
| result = Invasion of Baku and massacre of civilians
| status =
| combatant1 = {{flag|Azerbaijan|}}
| combatant2 = {{flag|Soviet Union}}
*{{flagicon image|Red Army flag.svg}} [[Red Army|Soviet Army]]
*[[File:Emblema KGB.svg|19px|link=]] [[KGB]] [[special forces]]
| combatant3 =
| commander1 =
| commander2 =
| commander3 =
| strength1 =
| strength2 = 26,000 troops
| strength3 =
| casualties1 = 133-137 civilians killed More than 800 injured
| casualties2 =
| casualties3 =
| notes =
}}

'''Black January''' ({{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}), also known as '''Black Saturday''' or the '''January Massacre''' was a violent crackdown of the Azerbaijani independence movement in [[Baku]] on January 19–20, 1990, pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] during the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]].

The [[Memorial Society]] and [[Helsinki Watch]] reported that they had found compelling evidence that the imposition of the state of emergency had led to an unwarranted breach of [[civil liberties]] and that Soviet troops had used unjustified force resulting in many deaths.<ref name="BJ">Robert Kushen, Aryeh Neier. ''Conflict in the Soviet Union: Black January in Azerbaidzhan'', [[Human Rights Watch]], 1991, p. 3</ref> This includes the usage of armoured vehicles, bayonets and firing on clearly marked ambulances.<ref name="BJ"/> In the resolution of January 22, 1990 the [[Supreme Soviet]] of the [[Azerbaijan SSR]] declared that the decree of the [[Presidium of the Supreme Soviet#USSR Supreme Soviet|Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet]] of January 19, used to impose emergency rule in [[Baku]] and military deployment, constituted an act of aggression.<ref>Kushen, Neier, p. 45</ref> Black January is seen as the rebirth of the [[Azerbaijan|Azerbaijan Republic]].

== Events ==
[[File:SV100182.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Victims of Black January.]]
In December 1989, Azerbaijanis living in regions bordering [[Iran]] ripped down the border fences demanding closer ties with ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Iran. Local government of [[Jalilabad]] surrendered to rioters turning over the administration to [[Azerbaijani Popular Front Party|Popular Front of Azerbaijan]]. This was followed by a non-violent turnover of [[Lankaran]] administration to Popular Front two week later.<ref name="NYT">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/29/world/upheaval-east-soviet-union-force-last-resort-armed-power-salvages-moscow-s.html?pagewanted=2
|title= UPHEAVAL IN THE EAST: SOVIET UNION; Force as a Last Resort: Armed Power Salvages Moscow's Facing Authority
|publisher= [[The New York Times]]
|author= Bill Keller
|date= 1990-01-28
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> On January 9, 1990, the parliament of [[Armenia]] voted to include [[Nagorno-Karabakh]] in its budget and allowed its inhabitants vote in Armenian elections thus disregarding Soviet authority and Azerbaijani jurisdiction and causing rage throughout Azerbaijan.<ref name=Croissant>{{Citation
| first = Croissant | last = Michael P.
| author-link =
| title = The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict: causes and implications
| place = United States of America
| publisher = Praeger Publishers
| year = 1998
| page = 36, 37
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=ZeP7OZZswtcC&pg=PP1&dq=Michael+P.+Croissant&lr=&cd=3#v=onepage&q=17000&f=false
| isbn = 0-275-96241-5 }}</ref> This led to demonstrations which demanded the ousting of [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] [[communist]] officials and called for independence from the [[Soviet Union]]. Their rhetoric was, according to a [[Human Rights Watch]] report, "heavily anti-Armenian".<ref name=hrw>[http://hrw.org/reports/1995/communal/ Human Rights Watch. “Playing the "Communal Card": Communal Violence and Human Rights”]</ref> On January 12, the Popular Front organized a national defense committee with branches in factories and offices in Baku to mobilize people for battle with Armenians.<ref name="NYT"/>

Beginning on January 13, 1990, a [[Pogrom of Armenians in Baku|repetition of the pogroms]] of [[Sumgait]] was carried out in Baku against [[Armenians in Azerbaijan|Armenians]]. The initial mass demonstration to oust Armenians from their homes turned violent after the reports of an Azeri man being murdered with an axe by Armenian defending his family reached the crowd.<ref name=Croissant/> Armenians were thrown to their deaths from the balconies of upper-story apartments. Around 90 Armenians were murdered in the [[pogrom]]s. The Popular Front of Azerbaijan claimed that the pogroms were the result of "Armenian aggression." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=pletup86PMQC&pg=PA90&dq=Popular+Front+baku+armenians&lr= Black Garden By Thomas De Waal]</ref> The Popular Front instigated the attacks and local authorities did nothing to stop the violence. These attacks were mainly done by young Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia.<ref name="NYT"/> Baku's 300,000 Armenians hastily escaped.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=cB50CI0Xd5IC&pg=PA399&dq=Baku+300,000+armenians&lr= Highlanders By Yo'av Karny]</ref>

Local Azerbaijan authorities were unable to restore order because of internal quarreling and divisions that paralyzed their ability to act. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=JoGrR_9o3SUC&pg=PA96&dq=gorbachev+baku+1990+yazov+soldiers&lr=&cd=16#v=onepage&q=&f=false On My Country and the World, Mikhail Gorbachev]</ref> Azerbaijan authorities also ordered the 12,000 strong Interior Ministry troops to abstain from intervening in the Baku riots<ref>{{Citation
| first = Singh | last = Anita Inder
| author-link =
| title = Democracy, ethnic diversity, and security in post-communist Europe
| place = Berlin
| publisher = Praeger Publishers
| year = 2001
| page = 61
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=nU3bO8uiBn0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Democracy,+ethnic+diversity,+and+security+in+post-communist+Europe+Anita+Inder+Singh&cd=1#v=snippet&q=Interior%20Ministry&f=false
| isbn = 0-275-97258-5 }}</ref> and numerous Soviet army and fleet units of Baku garrison and [[Caspian Flotilla]] did not intervene to stop riots, claiming that they had no orders from Moscow authorities.<ref name="NYT"/> On January 15, the authorities declared states of emergency in other parts of Azerbaijan (but not in Baku), and the pogrom activity began to subside. At the same time, fearing an intervention of the central Soviet authorities, Popular Front activists began a blockade of military barracks.<ref name=hrw/> They had already taken ''de facto'' control in a number of Azerbaijani regions.<ref name=hrw/> On January 18, the Popular Front ordered supporters to barricade the main access routes into Baku using hundreds of cars, trucks and buses. The next day, Soviet authorities evacuated its representatives and local officials moving them to military command post on the outskirts of the city where Soviet Minister of Defense, [[Dmitry Yazov]] and Interior Minister [[Vadim Bakatin]] positioned.<ref name="NYT"/>

Late at night on January 19, 1990, after blowing up of the central television station and terminating of phone and radio lines by Soviet special forces, heavily armed 26,000 Soviet troops entered Baku smashing through APF-erected barricades in order to crush the Popular Front.<ref name=Croissant/> As claimed by Mikhail Gorbachev, gunmen of the Azerbaijani National Front opened fire on the soldiers<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=JoGrR_9o3SUC&pg=PA96&dq=gorbachev+baku+1990+yazov+soldiers&lr=&cd=16#v=onepage&q=&f=false On My Country and the World, By Mikhail Gorbachev]</ref>; however, findings of Moscow based [[NGO|non-governmental organization]] ''Shield'' found no evidence of "armed combatants of Azerbaijani Popular Front", which had been used as a motive to crush the civilian population on January 20.<ref>{{Citation
| first = | last =
| author-link =
| title = Report of "Shield" union
| place = Moscow
| publisher = Moscow News
| year = August 12, 1990
| page =
| url= }}</ref> The indepedent ''Shield'' organization which consists of group of lawyers and officers in reserve, observing human rights violations in the army and its military operations<ref>{{Cite web
| last = Zverev
| first = Alexei
| title = Этнические конфликты на Кавказе, 1988—1994 г.
| trans_title = Ethnic conflicts in Caucasus, 1988-1994
| url=http://poli.vub.ac.be/publi/ContBorders/rus/ch0102.htm
| accessdate = 25 March 2010 }}</ref>, concluded that the army waged a war on its civilians and demanded to start a criminal investigation against the Minister of Defense, Dmitry Yazov who had personally led the operation.<ref name=Waal>{{Citation
| first = De Waal | last = Thomas
| author-link =
| title = Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through peace and war
| place = New York and London
| publisher = New York University Press
| year = 2003
| page = 93
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=pletup86PMQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Black+Garden&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Shield&f=false
| isbn = 0-275-97258-5 }}</ref> The Azerbaijani Interior Ministry officials had helped Popular Front activists in stirring disorder by providing with weapons, technical facilities, and informing them about the movement of army units.<ref>[''Washington Post'', January 27, 1990, Michael Dobbs</ref> In the course of the storming, the troops attacked the protesters, firing in the crowds. The shooting continued for three days. They acted pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] (which continued on for more than 4 months) declared by the [[USSR]] Supreme Soviet Presidium, signed by President [[Gorbachev]]. The state of emergency was, however, disclosed to the [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] public only several hours<ref name=hrw/> after the beginning of the offensive, when many citizens already laid dead or wounded in the streets, hospitals and morgues of Baku.

According to one report, 93 Azerbaijanis and 29 Soviet soldiers were killed in the street skirmishes. Other reports state that 21 soldiers were killed and 90 wounded in the fighting. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=kiBHkRtRmIIC&pg=PA195&dq=29+soldiers+killed+soviet+1990+baku+January+one+report&lr=&cd=7#v=onepage&q=29%20soldiers%20killed%20soviet%201990%20baku%20January%20one%20report&f=false Remembrance and denial: the case of the Armenian genocide By Richard G. Hovannisian]</ref> <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=0TfIphAdnGwC&pg=PA377&dq=wounded+soldiers+Baku+soviet+1990+January&lr=&cd=2#v=onepage&q=wounded%20soldiers%20Baku%20soviet%201990%20January&f=false Nationalist mobilization and the collapse of the Soviet State By Mark R. Beissinger]</ref> However, how the soldiers died is still disputed. The soldiers' death toll was claimed by Soviet authorities to have resulted from armed resistance, although some of the soldiers could have been victims of [[friendly fire]] from their own.<ref name=Waal/>

Other estimates indicate that between 133<ref>[http://www.january20.net/ 20 January]</ref> and 137<ref name=BBC>
{{cite news
|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1477933.stm
|title= Eyewitness: A republic loses faith
|publisher= [[BBC News]]
|author= Elchin Khalilov
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> civilians died with unofficial number reaching 300.<ref name="Azerbaijan International">
{{cite news
|url= http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html
|title= Black January: Baku (1990). Behind the Scenes - A Photojournalist's Perspective
|publisher= [[Azerbaijan International]]
|month= Spring| year= 1998
|pages= 33–37
|last1= |first1= Reza
|last2= Blair |first2= Betty
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> Up to 800 were injured and 5 went missing.<ref name="Turkish Weekly">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.turkishweekly.net/op-ed/2460/20-january-1990-black-face-of-the-red-terror-in-azerbaijan.html
|title= 20 January 1990: Black Face of the Red Terror in Azerbaijan
|publisher= [[Turkish Weekly]]
|author= Shamkhal Abilov
|date= 2010-01-9
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}</ref> An additional 26 people were killed in [[Neftchala]] and Lankaran regions of the country.<ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://today.az/news/society/59767.html
|title= Azerbaijan commemorates the anniversary of 20th January tragedy
|publisher= Today.az
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> The Soviet army soldiers used [[5.45x39mm#Wounding effects|5.45 mm caliber bullets with a shifted center of gravity]] designed to sheer after entering the body thus causing an excessive physical damage to the body<ref>
{{Cite press release
| title = 20 January Tragedy Monstrous Crime Against Azerbaijani People Humanism and Humanity
| publisher = Embassy of Azerbaijan Republic in Kazakhstan
| date = January 17, 2006
| url = http://www.azembassy.kz/news/images/press-Y3Q1p.pdf
| accessdate = 20 January 2010}}</ref><ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://www.525.az/view.php?lang=ru&menu=17&id=8225
|title= 20 января – день печали и надменности
|trans_title= 20 January - Day of sorrow and disdain
|publisher= 525-ci qazet
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref>. January 20 is marked as the Day of the Nationwide Sorrow in Azerbaijan.<ref>[http://www.president.az/browse.php?sec_id=56 President of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan. Bloody Memories]</ref>

== State of Emergency ==

President Gorbachev and other officials asserted that it was necessary to stop pogroms and violence against the Armenian population and to thwart efforts by extremists to overthrow the Azerbaijani government. The governemnt's decree said: "Extremist groups are organizing mass disorders fanning national enmity. They are committing bold criminal acts, mining roads and bridges, shelling settlements, taking hostages." <ref> Austin American Statesman Jan 16, 1990</ref>

Defense Minister Yazov also said that nationalists were plotting a coup d'etat in Azerbaijan: "a meeting was planned at which it was proposed to declare the transfer of power into the hands of the People's Front." He noted how the "Popular Front" declared its own state of emergency in Baku before the action was taken and how Soviet state organs "ceased to control the situation." <ref>San Francisco Chronicle. Jan 27, 1990.pg. A.11</ref>

Almost the whole population of Baku turned out to bury the dead on the third day - January 22.<ref name=Croissant>{{Citation
| first = Shaffer | last = Brenda
| author-link =
| title = Borders and brethren: Iran and the challenge of Azerbaijani identity
| place = United States of America
| publisher = Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
| year = 2002
| page = 140
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=sHKSh_XltKMC&pg=PA140&dq=Black+January+Azerbaijan&lr=&cd=9#v=onepage&q=Black%20January%20Azerbaijan&f=false
| isbn = 0-262-19477-5 }}</ref> For another 40 days, the country stayed away from work in a sign of mourning and mass protest.<ref name="hrw"/>

== Black January ==
[[File:The tragedy of January 20.jpg|thumb|300px|Azerbaijani stamp with photos of Black January]]
The [[Human Rights Watch]] report entitled "Black January in Azerbaijan" states: "Indeed, the violence used by the Soviet Army on the night of January 19–20 was so out of proportion to the resistance offered by Azerbaijanis as to constitute an exercise in collective punishment. Since Soviet officials have stated publicly that the purpose of the intervention of Soviet troops was to prevent the ouster of the Communist-dominated government of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the nationalist-minded, noncommunist opposition, the punishment inflicted on Baku by Soviet soldiers may have been intended as a warning to nationalists, not only in Azerbaijan, but in the other Republics of the Soviet Union."

"The subsequent events in the Baltic Republics - where, in a remarkable parallel to the events in Baku, alleged civil disorder was cited as justification for violent intervention by Soviet troops -further confirms that the Soviet Government has demonstrated that it will deal harshly with nationalist movements," continues the Human Rights Watch report.

During the Black January crackdown, the Soviets managed to suppress all efforts to disseminate news from Azerbaijan to the local population and the international community. On the eve of the Soviet military invasion in [[Baku]], one of leaders of Popular Front, Ekhtibar Mamedov proposed to Kremlin officials to appear on Azerbaijani TV at 8 PM announcing First Secretary of Azerbaijani Communist Party, [[Abdurrahman Vazirov]] would be leaving and no troops would invade Baku which would restore the order.<ref name="NYT"/> Instead, an energy supply source to Azerbaijani TV and State Radio was blown up by intelligence officers at 7:15 PM in order to cut off the population from any source of information. TV and radio was silent and all print media was banned.<ref name="Turkish Weekly"/> But [[Mirza Khazar]] and his staff at [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] succeeded in broadcasting daily reports from Baku,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html |title= Black January 1990|publisher =Azerbaijan International |author= |accessdate=2009-02-26}}</ref> making it the only source of news to Azerbaijanis within and outside of the country for several days. The Kremlin leadership tried hard to keep the outside world and the population inside Azerbaijan unaware of the military invasion, but Mirza Khazar and his staff foiled this attempt. Thanks to Mirza Khazar and his staff at Radio Liberty, Azerbaijanis in and outside Azerbaijan, as well as the international community, learned about the Soviet invasion and gained a chance to organize protest actions. Shocked by this "surprising" development, the government of the [[USSR]] complained officially to the [[United States]] about Radio Liberty's<ref>[http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-05/entertainment/ca-1371_1_radio-liberty Soviet Officials Charge Voice of America, Radio Liberty Fueled Riots]</ref> coverage of the military invasion of Azerbaijan. The January 20, 1990, broadcasts turned Mirza Khazar into a legend among [[Azerbaijanis]] in and outside Azerbaijan. Malahat Aghajanqizi, a well-known Azerbaijani poetess and writer, described Mirza Khazar’s appearance on radio at the time of the Soviet military invasion as follows: “On January 20, Mirza Khazar with his God-given divine voice, gave hope to the dying Azerbaijani people.”<ref>[http://mirzexezerinsesi.net/articles/2008/11/29/melahet-agacanqizi-mirze-xezerin-sesi Article on Mirza Khazar]</ref>

The Wall Street Journal editorial of January 4, 1995 claimed that Gorbachev chose to use violence against "independence-seeking Azerbaijan." When a year later the world press criticized Gorbachev for violent massacres of civilians in [[January Events (Lithuania)|Lithuania]] and [[January 1991 events in Latvia|Latvia]], Azerbaijani public was embittered for the silence of the world media on Gorbachev's orders a year ealier, during Black January.<ref>{{Citation
| first = Altstadt | last = Audrey L.
| author-link =
| title = The Azerbaijani Turks: power and identity under Russian rule
| place = Standford, CA
| publisher = Standford University. Hoover Institution Press Publication
| year = 1992
| page = 224
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=sZVN2MwWZVAC&pg=PA224&dq=Black+January+Azerbaijan&lr=&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Black%20January%20Azerbaijan&f=false
| isbn = 0-8179-9182-4 }}</ref>

[[File:SV100165-azer genocide memorial.jpg|thumb|200px||A Memorial dedicated to all victims of [[March Days]] and Black January.]]

== Independence ==
On October 18, 1991, the Parliament of Azerbaijan restored the country's independence. Gorbachev later apologized to Azerbaijan by stating: "The declaration of a state emergency in Baku was the biggest mistake of my political career". In 1994, the [[National Assembly of Azerbaijan]] adopted a full political and legal evaluation of the Black January events. According to the decree of the [[President of Azerbaijan]] [[Heydar Aliyev]] from December 16, 1999, all victims of the crackdown were awarded an honorary title of the "Martyr of January 20" ({{lang-az|20 yanvar şəhidi}}).

== See also ==
* [[Martyrs' Lane]]
* [[History of Azerbaijan]]
* [[History of the Soviet Union]]
* [[April 9, 1989 Massacre]]
* [[Jeltoqsan]]
* [[Singing revolution]]
* [[January Events (Lithuania)]]
* [[January 1991 events in Latvia]]

== Notes and references ==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== External links ==
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=3bmVTBIBcREC&pg=PA203&dq=Black+January+Azerbaijan&lr=&cd=25#v=onepage&q=Black%20January%20Azerbaijan&f=false Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe - Working Papers - 2008 Ordinary Session 21. Written Declaration No. 405. Doc. 11499 - 21 January 2008. Massacre of Azerbaijanis by Soviet troops]
* [http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html Black January: Baku (1990) / Azerbaijan International (Spring 1998)]
* http://www.january20.net
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1477933.stm

{{Fall of Communism}}
{{Azerbaijan topics}}
{{Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict}}
{{coord missing|Azerbaijan}}

[[Category:History of Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Massacres in Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Massacres in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Riots in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:1990 in the Soviet Union]]

[[ar:السبت الأسود]]
[[az:Qara Yanvar]]
[[fr:Janvier Noir]]
[[id:Januari Hitam]]
[[ka:შავი იანვარი]]
[[pt:Janeiro Negro]]
[[ro:Ianuarie negru]]
[[ru:Чёрный январь]]
[[tr:Kara Ocak]]

Schwarzer Januar

2010-06-06T08:37:57Z

76.191.230.178: /* State of Emergency */ Added Gorbachev's account.

{{infobox military conflict
| conflict = Black January''' {{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}
| partof = [[Azerbaijan#Restoration of independence|Azerbaijani national independence movement]]
| image =
| caption = Soviet tanks in Baku during Black January
| date = January 19-20, 1990
| place = [[Baku]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[Soviet Union]]
| coordinates =
| map_type =
| latitude =
| longitude =
| map_size =
| map_caption =
| map_label =
| territory =
| result = Invasion of Baku and massacre of civilians
| status =
| combatant1 = {{flag|Azerbaijan|}}
| combatant2 = {{flag|Soviet Union}}
*{{flagicon image|Red Army flag.svg}} [[Red Army|Soviet Army]]
*[[File:Emblema KGB.svg|19px|link=]] [[KGB]] [[special forces]]
| combatant3 =
| commander1 =
| commander2 =
| commander3 =
| strength1 =
| strength2 = 26,000 troops
| strength3 =
| casualties1 = 133-137 civilians killed More than 800 injured
| casualties2 =
| casualties3 =
| notes =
}}

'''Black January''' ({{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}), also known as '''Black Saturday''' or the '''January Massacre''' was a violent crackdown of the Azerbaijani independence movement in [[Baku]] on January 19–20, 1990, pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] during the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]].

The [[Memorial Society]] and [[Helsinki Watch]] reported that they had found compelling evidence that the imposition of the state of emergency had led to an unwarranted breach of [[civil liberties]] and that Soviet troops had used unjustified force resulting in many deaths.<ref name="BJ">Robert Kushen, Aryeh Neier. ''Conflict in the Soviet Union: Black January in Azerbaidzhan'', [[Human Rights Watch]], 1991, p. 3</ref> This includes the usage of armoured vehicles, bayonets and firing on clearly marked ambulances.<ref name="BJ"/> In the resolution of January 22, 1990 the [[Supreme Soviet]] of the [[Azerbaijan SSR]] declared that the decree of the [[Presidium of the Supreme Soviet#USSR Supreme Soviet|Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet]] of January 19, used to impose emergency rule in [[Baku]] and military deployment, constituted an act of aggression.<ref>Kushen, Neier, p. 45</ref> Black January is seen as the rebirth of the [[Azerbaijan|Azerbaijan Republic]].

== Events ==
[[File:SV100182.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Victims of Black January.]]
In December 1989, Azerbaijanis living in regions bordering [[Iran]] ripped down the border fences demanding closer ties with ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Iran. Local government of [[Jalilabad]] surrendered to rioters turning over the administration to [[Azerbaijani Popular Front Party|Popular Front of Azerbaijan]]. This was followed by a non-violent turnover of [[Lankaran]] administration to Popular Front two week later.<ref name="NYT">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/29/world/upheaval-east-soviet-union-force-last-resort-armed-power-salvages-moscow-s.html?pagewanted=2
|title= UPHEAVAL IN THE EAST: SOVIET UNION; Force as a Last Resort: Armed Power Salvages Moscow's Facing Authority
|publisher= [[The New York Times]]
|author= Bill Keller
|date= 1990-01-28
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> On January 9, 1990, the parliament of [[Armenia]] voted to include [[Nagorno-Karabakh]] in its budget and allowed its inhabitants vote in Armenian elections thus disregarding Soviet authority and Azerbaijani jurisdiction and causing rage throughout Azerbaijan.<ref name=Croissant>{{Citation
| first = Croissant | last = Michael P.
| author-link =
| title = The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict: causes and implications
| place = United States of America
| publisher = Praeger Publishers
| year = 1998
| page = 36, 37
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=ZeP7OZZswtcC&pg=PP1&dq=Michael+P.+Croissant&lr=&cd=3#v=onepage&q=17000&f=false
| isbn = 0-275-96241-5 }}</ref> This led to demonstrations which demanded the ousting of [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] [[communist]] officials and called for independence from the [[Soviet Union]]. Their rhetoric was, according to a [[Human Rights Watch]] report, "heavily anti-Armenian".<ref name=hrw>[http://hrw.org/reports/1995/communal/ Human Rights Watch. “Playing the "Communal Card": Communal Violence and Human Rights”]</ref> On January 12, the Popular Front organized a national defense committee with branches in factories and offices in Baku to mobilize people for battle with Armenians.<ref name="NYT"/>

Beginning on January 13, 1990, a [[Pogrom of Armenians in Baku|repetition of the pogroms]] of [[Sumgait]] was carried out in Baku against [[Armenians in Azerbaijan|Armenians]]. The initial mass demonstration to oust Armenians from their homes turned violent after the reports of an Azeri man being murdered with an axe by Armenian defending his family reached the crowd.<ref name=Croissant/> Armenians were thrown to their deaths from the balconies of upper-story apartments. Around 90 Armenians were murdered in the [[pogrom]]s. The Popular Front of Azerbaijan claimed that the pogroms were the result of "Armenian aggression." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=pletup86PMQC&pg=PA90&dq=Popular+Front+baku+armenians&lr= Black Garden By Thomas De Waal]</ref> The Popular Front instigated the attacks and local authorities did nothing to stop the violence. These attacks were mainly done by young Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia.<ref name="NYT"/> Baku's 300,000 Armenians hastily escaped.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=cB50CI0Xd5IC&pg=PA399&dq=Baku+300,000+armenians&lr= Highlanders By Yo'av Karny]</ref>

Local Azerbaijan authorities were unable to restore order because of internal quarreling and divisions that paralyzed their ability to act. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=JoGrR_9o3SUC&pg=PA96&dq=gorbachev+baku+1990+yazov+soldiers&lr=&cd=16#v=onepage&q=&f=false On My Country and the World, Mikhail Gorbachev]</ref> Azerbaijan authorities also ordered the 12,000 strong Interior Ministry troops to abstain from intervening in the Baku riots<ref>{{Citation
| first = Singh | last = Anita Inder
| author-link =
| title = Democracy, ethnic diversity, and security in post-communist Europe
| place = Berlin
| publisher = Praeger Publishers
| year = 2001
| page = 61
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=nU3bO8uiBn0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Democracy,+ethnic+diversity,+and+security+in+post-communist+Europe+Anita+Inder+Singh&cd=1#v=snippet&q=Interior%20Ministry&f=false
| isbn = 0-275-97258-5 }}</ref> and numerous Soviet army and fleet units of Baku garrison and [[Caspian Flotilla]] did not intervene to stop riots, claiming that they had no orders from Moscow authorities.<ref name="NYT"/> On January 15, the authorities declared states of emergency in other parts of Azerbaijan (but not in Baku), and the pogrom activity began to subside. At the same time, fearing an intervention of the central Soviet authorities, Popular Front activists began a blockade of military barracks.<ref name=hrw/> They had already taken ''de facto'' control in a number of Azerbaijani regions.<ref name=hrw/> On January 18, the Popular Front ordered supporters to barricade the main access routes into Baku using hundreds of cars, trucks and buses. The next day, Soviet authorities evacuated its representatives and local officials moving them to military command post on the outskirts of the city where Soviet Minister of Defense, [[Dmitry Yazov]] and Interior Minister [[Vadim Bakatin]] positioned.<ref name="NYT"/>

Late at night on January 19, 1990, after blowing up of the central television station and terminating of phone and radio lines by Soviet special forces, heavily armed 26,000 Soviet troops entered Baku smashing through APF-erected barricades in order to crush the Popular Front.<ref name=Croissant/> As claimed by Mikhail Gorbachev, gunmen of the Azerbaijani National Front opened fire on the soldiers<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=JoGrR_9o3SUC&pg=PA96&dq=gorbachev+baku+1990+yazov+soldiers&lr=&cd=16#v=onepage&q=&f=false On My Country and the World, By Mikhail Gorbachev]</ref>; however, findings of Moscow based [[NGO|non-governmental organization]] ''Shield'' found no evidence of "armed combatants of Azerbaijani Popular Front", which had been used as a motive to crush the civilian population on January 20.<ref>{{Citation
| first = | last =
| author-link =
| title = Report of "Shield" union
| place = Moscow
| publisher = Moscow News
| year = August 12, 1990
| page =
| url= }}</ref> The indepedent ''Shield'' organization which consists of group of lawyers and officers in reserve, observing human rights violations in the army and its military operations<ref>{{Cite web
| last = Zverev
| first = Alexei
| title = Этнические конфликты на Кавказе, 1988—1994 г.
| trans_title = Ethnic conflicts in Caucasus, 1988-1994
| url=http://poli.vub.ac.be/publi/ContBorders/rus/ch0102.htm
| accessdate = 25 March 2010 }}</ref>, concluded that the army waged a war on its civilians and demanded to start a criminal investigation against the Minister of Defense, Dmitry Yazov who had personally led the operation.<ref name=Waal>{{Citation
| first = De Waal | last = Thomas
| author-link =
| title = Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through peace and war
| place = New York and London
| publisher = New York University Press
| year = 2003
| page = 93
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=pletup86PMQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Black+Garden&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Shield&f=false
| isbn = 0-275-97258-5 }}</ref> The Azerbaijani Interior Ministry officials had helped Popular Front activists in stirring disorder by providing with weapons, technical facilities, and informing them about the movement of army units.<ref>[''Washington Post'', January 27, 1990, Michael Dobbs</ref> In the course of the storming, the troops attacked the protesters, firing in the crowds. The shooting continued for three days. They acted pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] (which continued on for more than 4 months) declared by the [[USSR]] Supreme Soviet Presidium, signed by President [[Gorbachev]]. The state of emergency was, however, disclosed to the [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] public only several hours<ref name=hrw/> after the beginning of the offensive, when many citizens already laid dead or wounded in the streets, hospitals and morgues of Baku.

According to one report, 93 Azerbaijanis and 29 Soviet soldiers were killed in the street skirmishes. Other reports state that 21 soldiers were killed and 90 wounded in the fighting. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=kiBHkRtRmIIC&pg=PA195&dq=29+soldiers+killed+soviet+1990+baku+January+one+report&lr=&cd=7#v=onepage&q=29%20soldiers%20killed%20soviet%201990%20baku%20January%20one%20report&f=false Remembrance and denial: the case of the Armenian genocide By Richard G. Hovannisian]</ref> <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=0TfIphAdnGwC&pg=PA377&dq=wounded+soldiers+Baku+soviet+1990+January&lr=&cd=2#v=onepage&q=wounded%20soldiers%20Baku%20soviet%201990%20January&f=false Nationalist mobilization and the collapse of the Soviet State By Mark R. Beissinger]</ref> However, how the soldiers died is still disputed. The soldiers' death toll was claimed by Soviet authorities to have resulted from armed resistance, although some of the soldiers could have been victims of [[friendly fire]] from their own.<ref name=Waal/>

Other estimates indicate that between 133<ref>[http://www.january20.net/ 20 January]</ref> and 137<ref name=BBC>
{{cite news
|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1477933.stm
|title= Eyewitness: A republic loses faith
|publisher= [[BBC News]]
|author= Elchin Khalilov
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> civilians died with unofficial number reaching 300.<ref name="Azerbaijan International">
{{cite news
|url= http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html
|title= Black January: Baku (1990). Behind the Scenes - A Photojournalist's Perspective
|publisher= [[Azerbaijan International]]
|month= Spring| year= 1998
|pages= 33–37
|last1= |first1= Reza
|last2= Blair |first2= Betty
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> Up to 800 were injured and 5 went missing.<ref name="Turkish Weekly">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.turkishweekly.net/op-ed/2460/20-january-1990-black-face-of-the-red-terror-in-azerbaijan.html
|title= 20 January 1990: Black Face of the Red Terror in Azerbaijan
|publisher= [[Turkish Weekly]]
|author= Shamkhal Abilov
|date= 2010-01-9
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}</ref> An additional 26 people were killed in [[Neftchala]] and Lankaran regions of the country.<ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://today.az/news/society/59767.html
|title= Azerbaijan commemorates the anniversary of 20th January tragedy
|publisher= Today.az
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> The Soviet army soldiers used [[5.45x39mm#Wounding effects|5.45 mm caliber bullets with a shifted center of gravity]] designed to sheer after entering the body thus causing an excessive physical damage to the body<ref>
{{Cite press release
| title = 20 January Tragedy Monstrous Crime Against Azerbaijani People Humanism and Humanity
| publisher = Embassy of Azerbaijan Republic in Kazakhstan
| date = January 17, 2006
| url = http://www.azembassy.kz/news/images/press-Y3Q1p.pdf
| accessdate = 20 January 2010}}</ref><ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://www.525.az/view.php?lang=ru&menu=17&id=8225
|title= 20 января – день печали и надменности
|trans_title= 20 January - Day of sorrow and disdain
|publisher= 525-ci qazet
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref>. January 20 is marked as the Day of the Nationwide Sorrow in Azerbaijan.<ref>[http://www.president.az/browse.php?sec_id=56 President of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan. Bloody Memories]</ref>

== State of Emergency ==

President Gorbachev and other officials asserted that it was necessary to stop pogroms and violence against the Armenian population and to thwart efforts by extremists to overthrow the Azerbaijani government. The governemnt's decree said: "Extremist groups are organizing mass disorders fanning national enmity. They are committing bold criminal acts, mining roads and bridges, shelling settlements, taking hostages." <ref> Austin American Statesman Jan 16, 1990</ref>

Defense Minister Yazov also said that nationalists were plotting a coup d'etat in Azerbaijan: "a meeting was planned at which it was proposed to declare the transfer of power into the hands of the People's Front." He noted how the "Popular Front" declared its own state of emergency in Baku before the action was taken and how Soviet state organs "ceased to control the situation." <ref>San Francisco Chronicle. Jan 27, 1990.pg. A.11</ref> <ref>

Almost the whole population of Baku turned out to bury the dead on the third day - January 22.<ref name=Croissant>{{Citation
| first = Shaffer | last = Brenda
| author-link =
| title = Borders and brethren: Iran and the challenge of Azerbaijani identity
| place = United States of America
| publisher = Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
| year = 2002
| page = 140
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=sHKSh_XltKMC&pg=PA140&dq=Black+January+Azerbaijan&lr=&cd=9#v=onepage&q=Black%20January%20Azerbaijan&f=false
| isbn = 0-262-19477-5 }}</ref> For another 40 days, the country stayed away from work in a sign of mourning and mass protest.<ref name="hrw"/>

== Black January ==
[[File:The tragedy of January 20.jpg|thumb|300px|Azerbaijani stamp with photos of Black January]]
The [[Human Rights Watch]] report entitled "Black January in Azerbaijan" states: "Indeed, the violence used by the Soviet Army on the night of January 19–20 was so out of proportion to the resistance offered by Azerbaijanis as to constitute an exercise in collective punishment. Since Soviet officials have stated publicly that the purpose of the intervention of Soviet troops was to prevent the ouster of the Communist-dominated government of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the nationalist-minded, noncommunist opposition, the punishment inflicted on Baku by Soviet soldiers may have been intended as a warning to nationalists, not only in Azerbaijan, but in the other Republics of the Soviet Union."

"The subsequent events in the Baltic Republics - where, in a remarkable parallel to the events in Baku, alleged civil disorder was cited as justification for violent intervention by Soviet troops -further confirms that the Soviet Government has demonstrated that it will deal harshly with nationalist movements," continues the Human Rights Watch report.

During the Black January crackdown, the Soviets managed to suppress all efforts to disseminate news from Azerbaijan to the local population and the international community. On the eve of the Soviet military invasion in [[Baku]], one of leaders of Popular Front, Ekhtibar Mamedov proposed to Kremlin officials to appear on Azerbaijani TV at 8 PM announcing First Secretary of Azerbaijani Communist Party, [[Abdurrahman Vazirov]] would be leaving and no troops would invade Baku which would restore the order.<ref name="NYT"/> Instead, an energy supply source to Azerbaijani TV and State Radio was blown up by intelligence officers at 7:15 PM in order to cut off the population from any source of information. TV and radio was silent and all print media was banned.<ref name="Turkish Weekly"/> But [[Mirza Khazar]] and his staff at [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] succeeded in broadcasting daily reports from Baku,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html |title= Black January 1990|publisher =Azerbaijan International |author= |accessdate=2009-02-26}}</ref> making it the only source of news to Azerbaijanis within and outside of the country for several days. The Kremlin leadership tried hard to keep the outside world and the population inside Azerbaijan unaware of the military invasion, but Mirza Khazar and his staff foiled this attempt. Thanks to Mirza Khazar and his staff at Radio Liberty, Azerbaijanis in and outside Azerbaijan, as well as the international community, learned about the Soviet invasion and gained a chance to organize protest actions. Shocked by this "surprising" development, the government of the [[USSR]] complained officially to the [[United States]] about Radio Liberty's<ref>[http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-05/entertainment/ca-1371_1_radio-liberty Soviet Officials Charge Voice of America, Radio Liberty Fueled Riots]</ref> coverage of the military invasion of Azerbaijan. The January 20, 1990, broadcasts turned Mirza Khazar into a legend among [[Azerbaijanis]] in and outside Azerbaijan. Malahat Aghajanqizi, a well-known Azerbaijani poetess and writer, described Mirza Khazar’s appearance on radio at the time of the Soviet military invasion as follows: “On January 20, Mirza Khazar with his God-given divine voice, gave hope to the dying Azerbaijani people.”<ref>[http://mirzexezerinsesi.net/articles/2008/11/29/melahet-agacanqizi-mirze-xezerin-sesi Article on Mirza Khazar]</ref>

The Wall Street Journal editorial of January 4, 1995 claimed that Gorbachev chose to use violence against "independence-seeking Azerbaijan." When a year later the world press criticized Gorbachev for violent massacres of civilians in [[January Events (Lithuania)|Lithuania]] and [[January 1991 events in Latvia|Latvia]], Azerbaijani public was embittered for the silence of the world media on Gorbachev's orders a year ealier, during Black January.<ref>{{Citation
| first = Altstadt | last = Audrey L.
| author-link =
| title = The Azerbaijani Turks: power and identity under Russian rule
| place = Standford, CA
| publisher = Standford University. Hoover Institution Press Publication
| year = 1992
| page = 224
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=sZVN2MwWZVAC&pg=PA224&dq=Black+January+Azerbaijan&lr=&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Black%20January%20Azerbaijan&f=false
| isbn = 0-8179-9182-4 }}</ref>

[[File:SV100165-azer genocide memorial.jpg|thumb|200px||A Memorial dedicated to all victims of [[March Days]] and Black January.]]

== Independence ==
On October 18, 1991, the Parliament of Azerbaijan restored the country's independence. Gorbachev later apologized to Azerbaijan by stating: "The declaration of a state emergency in Baku was the biggest mistake of my political career". In 1994, the [[National Assembly of Azerbaijan]] adopted a full political and legal evaluation of the Black January events. According to the decree of the [[President of Azerbaijan]] [[Heydar Aliyev]] from December 16, 1999, all victims of the crackdown were awarded an honorary title of the "Martyr of January 20" ({{lang-az|20 yanvar şəhidi}}).

== See also ==
* [[Martyrs' Lane]]
* [[History of Azerbaijan]]
* [[History of the Soviet Union]]
* [[April 9, 1989 Massacre]]
* [[Jeltoqsan]]
* [[Singing revolution]]
* [[January Events (Lithuania)]]
* [[January 1991 events in Latvia]]

== Notes and references ==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== External links ==
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=3bmVTBIBcREC&pg=PA203&dq=Black+January+Azerbaijan&lr=&cd=25#v=onepage&q=Black%20January%20Azerbaijan&f=false Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe - Working Papers - 2008 Ordinary Session 21. Written Declaration No. 405. Doc. 11499 - 21 January 2008. Massacre of Azerbaijanis by Soviet troops]
* [http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html Black January: Baku (1990) / Azerbaijan International (Spring 1998)]
* http://www.january20.net
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1477933.stm

{{Fall of Communism}}
{{Azerbaijan topics}}
{{Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict}}
{{coord missing|Azerbaijan}}

[[Category:History of Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Massacres in Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Massacres in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Riots in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:1990 in the Soviet Union]]

[[ar:السبت الأسود]]
[[az:Qara Yanvar]]
[[fr:Janvier Noir]]
[[id:Januari Hitam]]
[[ka:შავი იანვარი]]
[[pt:Janeiro Negro]]
[[ro:Ianuarie negru]]
[[ru:Чёрный январь]]
[[tr:Kara Ocak]]

Benutzer:Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwweeeeeeee/Rape during the occupation of Germany

2010-05-31T20:20:12Z

76.191.230.178:

{{POV|date=May 2010}}
{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

A wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944–45, as the Western Allies and the Red Army battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The majority of the assaults were committed in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of rapes committed by Soviet soldiers range from tens of thousands to 2 million.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref><ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports,<ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath.<ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000.<ref name="sander">Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html</ref>

According to Natalya Gesse, "the Russian soldiers were raping every German female from eight to eighty."<ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11</ref> A war veteran recalled: "The question of seeking revenge on the Nazis dropped out -- it's not the traditions of our people to take reprisals against women, children, and elderly...The attitude of Soviet soldiers to the German population, could be called neutral. Nobody, at least from out regiment, mistreated people.''<ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html {{ru icon}}</ref>

After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.

There is dispute in Russia concerning these claims. <ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html {{ru icon}}</ref><ref>http://actualhistory.ru/51 {{ru icon}}</ref>.<ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/dukov_ar/index.html {{ru icon}}</ref> <ref>http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor {{ru icon}}</ref> <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/ {{ru icon}}</ref> Critics argue that the numbers are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect and loyalty. It is also emphasized that the Soviet military leadership discouraged crimes against civilians and took measures to punish offenders. <ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html {{ru icon}}</ref>

In postwar Germany, especially in West Germany, the war time rape stories became an essential part of political discourse.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> The rape of German woman (along with expulsion of Germans from the East and Allied occupation) had been universalized in an attempt to situate the German population as whole as victims.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> This discourse became wholly discredited by the late 1960s; since 1970s on German leftists conducted politics focused on critical investigation of the Nazi past, the older generations’ unwillingness to face that past, and their tendency to portray themselves as victims rather than as perpetrators, particularly of the Holocaust.<ref name="bos">Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025</ref> Therefore, the frequently reiterated claim that the war time rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence<ref name="sander"/> is simply not correct.<ref name="bos"/>

The way the rapes have been discusses by Sander and Johr in their "''BeFreier und Befreite''"<ref name="sander"/> has been criticised by several scholars. According to Grossmann, the problem is that this is not a "universal" story of women being raped by men, but of German women being abused and violated by an army that fought Nazi Germany and liberated death camps.<ref name="Grossman"/> Such attempts deempasize the historical context of the rape of German women is a serious omission, according to Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson,<ref>Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson. After the Fall: Women in the House of the Hangmen, ''October'', Vol. 72, (Spring, 1995), pp. 4-14</ref> and, according to Pascale Bos, is an example of feminist revisionist approach to the wartime rape issue.<ref name="bos"/>

According to Pascale Bos the feminist attempt to universalize the story of the rapes of German women came into a contradiction with Sander's and Johr's description of the rapes as a form of genocidal rape: the rape of racially superior German women by racially inferior Russian soldiers, implying that such a rape was especially harmful for the victims.<ref name="bos"/> By contrast, the issue of the rapes of Soviet woman by ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers, that, according to some estimation amounted hundred of thousands, if not millions cases <ref>Gertjejanssen, Wendy Jo. 2004. “Victims, Heroes, Survivors: Sexual Violence on the Eastern Front during World War II.” PhD diss., University of Minnesota.</ref> <ref>A 1942 Wehrmacht document suggested that the Nazi leadership considered implementing a special policy for the eastern front through which the estimated 750,000 babies born through sexual contact between the German soldiers and Russian women (an estimate deemed very conservative) could be identified and reclaimed as racially German. (The suggestion was made to add the middle names Friedrich and Luise to the birth certificates for boy and girl babies, respectively.) Although the plan was not implemented, such documents suggest that the births that resulted from rapes and other forms of sexual contact were deemed as beneficial, as increasing the “Aryan” race rather than as adding to the inferior Slavic race. The underlying ideology suggests that German rape and other forms of sexual contact may need to be seen as conforming to a larger military strategy of racial and territorial dominance. (Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025)</ref> is not treated by the authors as something deserving serious mention.<ref name="bos"/>

==See also==
* [[Soviet war crimes]]
* [[War rape]]
* [[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
* [[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}



[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War casualties|Rape]]
[[Category:War crimes|Rape]]

[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]

Sexuelle Gewalt im Zweiten Weltkrieg

2010-05-31T20:20:12Z

76.191.230.178:

{{POV|date=May 2010}}
{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

A wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944–45, as the Western Allies and the Red Army battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The majority of the assaults were committed in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of rapes committed by Soviet soldiers range from tens of thousands to 2 million.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref><ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports,<ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath.<ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000.<ref name="sander">Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html</ref>

According to Natalya Gesse, "the Russian soldiers were raping every German female from eight to eighty."<ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11</ref> A war veteran recalled: "The question of seeking revenge on the Nazis dropped out -- it's not the traditions of our people to take reprisals against women, children, and elderly...The attitude of Soviet soldiers to the German population, could be called neutral. Nobody, at least from out regiment, mistreated people.''<ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html {{ru icon}}</ref>

After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.

There is dispute in Russia concerning these claims. <ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html {{ru icon}}</ref><ref>http://actualhistory.ru/51 {{ru icon}}</ref>.<ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/dukov_ar/index.html {{ru icon}}</ref> <ref>http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor {{ru icon}}</ref> <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/ {{ru icon}}</ref> Critics argue that the numbers are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect and loyalty. It is also emphasized that the Soviet military leadership discouraged crimes against civilians and took measures to punish offenders. <ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html {{ru icon}}</ref>

In postwar Germany, especially in West Germany, the war time rape stories became an essential part of political discourse.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> The rape of German woman (along with expulsion of Germans from the East and Allied occupation) had been universalized in an attempt to situate the German population as whole as victims.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> This discourse became wholly discredited by the late 1960s; since 1970s on German leftists conducted politics focused on critical investigation of the Nazi past, the older generations’ unwillingness to face that past, and their tendency to portray themselves as victims rather than as perpetrators, particularly of the Holocaust.<ref name="bos">Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025</ref> Therefore, the frequently reiterated claim that the war time rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence<ref name="sander"/> is simply not correct.<ref name="bos"/>

The way the rapes have been discusses by Sander and Johr in their "''BeFreier und Befreite''"<ref name="sander"/> has been criticised by several scholars. According to Grossmann, the problem is that this is not a "universal" story of women being raped by men, but of German women being abused and violated by an army that fought Nazi Germany and liberated death camps.<ref name="Grossman"/> Such attempts deempasize the historical context of the rape of German women is a serious omission, according to Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson,<ref>Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson. After the Fall: Women in the House of the Hangmen, ''October'', Vol. 72, (Spring, 1995), pp. 4-14</ref> and, according to Pascale Bos, is an example of feminist revisionist approach to the wartime rape issue.<ref name="bos"/>

According to Pascale Bos the feminist attempt to universalize the story of the rapes of German women came into a contradiction with Sander's and Johr's description of the rapes as a form of genocidal rape: the rape of racially superior German women by racially inferior Russian soldiers, implying that such a rape was especially harmful for the victims.<ref name="bos"/> By contrast, the issue of the rapes of Soviet woman by ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers, that, according to some estimation amounted hundred of thousands, if not millions cases <ref>Gertjejanssen, Wendy Jo. 2004. “Victims, Heroes, Survivors: Sexual Violence on the Eastern Front during World War II.” PhD diss., University of Minnesota.</ref> <ref>A 1942 Wehrmacht document suggested that the Nazi leadership considered implementing a special policy for the eastern front through which the estimated 750,000 babies born through sexual contact between the German soldiers and Russian women (an estimate deemed very conservative) could be identified and reclaimed as racially German. (The suggestion was made to add the middle names Friedrich and Luise to the birth certificates for boy and girl babies, respectively.) Although the plan was not implemented, such documents suggest that the births that resulted from rapes and other forms of sexual contact were deemed as beneficial, as increasing the “Aryan” race rather than as adding to the inferior Slavic race. The underlying ideology suggests that German rape and other forms of sexual contact may need to be seen as conforming to a larger military strategy of racial and territorial dominance. (Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025)</ref> is not treated by the authors as something deserving serious mention.<ref name="bos"/>

==See also==
* [[Soviet war crimes]]
* [[War rape]]
* [[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
* [[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}



[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War casualties|Rape]]
[[Category:War crimes|Rape]]

[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]

Benutzer:Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwweeeeeeee/Rape during the occupation of Germany

2010-05-31T20:19:13Z

76.191.230.178: Rzheshevsky is not the only one of this view

{{POV|date=May 2010}}
{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

A wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944–45, as the Western Allies and the Red Army battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The majority of the assaults were committed in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of rapes committed by Soviet soldiers range from tens of thousands to 2 million.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref><ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports,<ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath.<ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000.<ref name="sander">Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html</ref> According to Natalya Gesse, "the Russian soldiers were raping every German female from eight to eighty."<ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11</ref>

After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.

There is dispute in Russia concerning these claims. <ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html {{ru icon}}</ref><ref>http://actualhistory.ru/51 {{ru icon}}</ref>.<ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/dukov_ar/index.html {{ru icon}}</ref> <ref>http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor {{ru icon}}</ref> <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/ {{ru icon}}</ref> Critics argue that the numbers are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect and loyalty. It is also emphasized that the Soviet military leadership discouraged crimes against civilians and took measures to punish offenders. <ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html {{ru icon}}</ref> A war veteran recalled: "The question of seeking revenge on the Nazis dropped out -- it's not the traditions of our people to take reprisals against women, children, and elderly...The attitude of Soviet soldiers to the German population, could be called neutral. Nobody, at least from out regiment, mistreated people.''<ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html {{ru icon}}</ref>

In postwar Germany, especially in West Germany, the war time rape stories became an essential part of political discourse.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> The rape of German woman (along with expulsion of Germans from the East and Allied occupation) had been universalized in an attempt to situate the German population as whole as victims.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> This discourse became wholly discredited by the late 1960s; since 1970s on German leftists conducted politics focused on critical investigation of the Nazi past, the older generations’ unwillingness to face that past, and their tendency to portray themselves as victims rather than as perpetrators, particularly of the Holocaust.<ref name="bos">Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025</ref> Therefore, the frequently reiterated claim that the war time rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence<ref name="sander"/> is simply not correct.<ref name="bos"/>

The way the rapes have been discusses by Sander and Johr in their "''BeFreier und Befreite''"<ref name="sander"/> has been criticised by several scholars. According to Grossmann, the problem is that this is not a "universal" story of women being raped by men, but of German women being abused and violated by an army that fought Nazi Germany and liberated death camps.<ref name="Grossman"/> Such attempts deempasize the historical context of the rape of German women is a serious omission, according to Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson,<ref>Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson. After the Fall: Women in the House of the Hangmen, ''October'', Vol. 72, (Spring, 1995), pp. 4-14</ref> and, according to Pascale Bos, is an example of feminist revisionist approach to the wartime rape issue.<ref name="bos"/>

According to Pascale Bos the feminist attempt to universalize the story of the rapes of German women came into a contradiction with Sander's and Johr's description of the rapes as a form of genocidal rape: the rape of racially superior German women by racially inferior Russian soldiers, implying that such a rape was especially harmful for the victims.<ref name="bos"/> By contrast, the issue of the rapes of Soviet woman by ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers, that, according to some estimation amounted hundred of thousands, if not millions cases <ref>Gertjejanssen, Wendy Jo. 2004. “Victims, Heroes, Survivors: Sexual Violence on the Eastern Front during World War II.” PhD diss., University of Minnesota.</ref> <ref>A 1942 Wehrmacht document suggested that the Nazi leadership considered implementing a special policy for the eastern front through which the estimated 750,000 babies born through sexual contact between the German soldiers and Russian women (an estimate deemed very conservative) could be identified and reclaimed as racially German. (The suggestion was made to add the middle names Friedrich and Luise to the birth certificates for boy and girl babies, respectively.) Although the plan was not implemented, such documents suggest that the births that resulted from rapes and other forms of sexual contact were deemed as beneficial, as increasing the “Aryan” race rather than as adding to the inferior Slavic race. The underlying ideology suggests that German rape and other forms of sexual contact may need to be seen as conforming to a larger military strategy of racial and territorial dominance. (Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025)</ref> is not treated by the authors as something deserving serious mention.<ref name="bos"/>

==See also==
* [[Soviet war crimes]]
* [[War rape]]
* [[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
* [[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}



[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War casualties|Rape]]
[[Category:War crimes|Rape]]

[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]

Sexuelle Gewalt im Zweiten Weltkrieg

2010-05-31T20:19:13Z

76.191.230.178: Rzheshevsky is not the only one of this view

{{POV|date=May 2010}}
{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

A wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944–45, as the Western Allies and the Red Army battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The majority of the assaults were committed in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of rapes committed by Soviet soldiers range from tens of thousands to 2 million.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref><ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports,<ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath.<ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000.<ref name="sander">Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html</ref> According to Natalya Gesse, "the Russian soldiers were raping every German female from eight to eighty."<ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11</ref>

After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.

There is dispute in Russia concerning these claims. <ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html {{ru icon}}</ref><ref>http://actualhistory.ru/51 {{ru icon}}</ref>.<ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/dukov_ar/index.html {{ru icon}}</ref> <ref>http://gpw.tellur.ru/page.html?r=books&s=beevor {{ru icon}}</ref> <ref>http://svpressa.ru/war/article/8271/ {{ru icon}}</ref> Critics argue that the numbers are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect and loyalty. It is also emphasized that the Soviet military leadership discouraged crimes against civilians and took measures to punish offenders. <ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html {{ru icon}}</ref> A war veteran recalled: "The question of seeking revenge on the Nazis dropped out -- it's not the traditions of our people to take reprisals against women, children, and elderly...The attitude of Soviet soldiers to the German population, could be called neutral. Nobody, at least from out regiment, mistreated people.''<ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html {{ru icon}}</ref>

In postwar Germany, especially in West Germany, the war time rape stories became an essential part of political discourse.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> The rape of German woman (along with expulsion of Germans from the East and Allied occupation) had been universalized in an attempt to situate the German population as whole as victims.<ref name="ElizabethHeineman"/> This discourse became wholly discredited by the late 1960s; since 1970s on German leftists conducted politics focused on critical investigation of the Nazi past, the older generations’ unwillingness to face that past, and their tendency to portray themselves as victims rather than as perpetrators, particularly of the Holocaust.<ref name="bos">Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025</ref> Therefore, the frequently reiterated claim that the war time rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence<ref name="sander"/> is simply not correct.<ref name="bos"/>

The way the rapes have been discusses by Sander and Johr in their "''BeFreier und Befreite''"<ref name="sander"/> has been criticised by several scholars. According to Grossmann, the problem is that this is not a "universal" story of women being raped by men, but of German women being abused and violated by an army that fought Nazi Germany and liberated death camps.<ref name="Grossman"/> Such attempts deempasize the historical context of the rape of German women is a serious omission, according to Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson,<ref>Stuart Liebman and Annette Michelson. After the Fall: Women in the House of the Hangmen, ''October'', Vol. 72, (Spring, 1995), pp. 4-14</ref> and, according to Pascale Bos, is an example of feminist revisionist approach to the wartime rape issue.<ref name="bos"/>

According to Pascale Bos the feminist attempt to universalize the story of the rapes of German women came into a contradiction with Sander's and Johr's description of the rapes as a form of genocidal rape: the rape of racially superior German women by racially inferior Russian soldiers, implying that such a rape was especially harmful for the victims.<ref name="bos"/> By contrast, the issue of the rapes of Soviet woman by ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers, that, according to some estimation amounted hundred of thousands, if not millions cases <ref>Gertjejanssen, Wendy Jo. 2004. “Victims, Heroes, Survivors: Sexual Violence on the Eastern Front during World War II.” PhD diss., University of Minnesota.</ref> <ref>A 1942 Wehrmacht document suggested that the Nazi leadership considered implementing a special policy for the eastern front through which the estimated 750,000 babies born through sexual contact between the German soldiers and Russian women (an estimate deemed very conservative) could be identified and reclaimed as racially German. (The suggestion was made to add the middle names Friedrich and Luise to the birth certificates for boy and girl babies, respectively.) Although the plan was not implemented, such documents suggest that the births that resulted from rapes and other forms of sexual contact were deemed as beneficial, as increasing the “Aryan” race rather than as adding to the inferior Slavic race. The underlying ideology suggests that German rape and other forms of sexual contact may need to be seen as conforming to a larger military strategy of racial and territorial dominance. (Pascale R . Bos, Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, p.996-1025)</ref> is not treated by the authors as something deserving serious mention.<ref name="bos"/>

==See also==
* [[Soviet war crimes]]
* [[War rape]]
* [[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
* [[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}



[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War casualties|Rape]]
[[Category:War crimes|Rape]]

[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]

Benutzer:Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwweeeeeeee/Rape during the occupation of Germany

2010-05-29T01:51:30Z

76.191.230.178: No justification for the removal of Russian sources

Sexuelle Gewalt im Zweiten Weltkrieg

2010-05-29T01:51:30Z

76.191.230.178: No justification for the removal of Russian sources

Benutzer:Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwweeeeeeee/Rape during the occupation of Germany

2010-05-29T00:00:09Z

76.191.230.178: Rv removal of sourced material

Sexuelle Gewalt im Zweiten Weltkrieg

2010-05-29T00:00:09Z

76.191.230.178: Rv removal of sourced material

Benutzer:Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwweeeeeeee/Rape during the occupation of Germany

2010-05-28T23:14:16Z

76.191.230.178: Red herring. The section is not about opinions of Beevor's book.

Sexuelle Gewalt im Zweiten Weltkrieg

2010-05-28T23:14:16Z

76.191.230.178: Red herring. The section is not about opinions of Beevor's book.

Benutzer:Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwweeeeeeee/Rape during the occupation of Germany

2010-05-16T12:07:38Z

76.191.230.178:

{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

The wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944/45, as Allied and Soviet troops battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The most massive the rapes were in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of rapes committed by Soviet soldiers range widely, from the tens of thousands to 2 million,<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref> with later research showing higher numbers (1.4-1.9 million). <ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports, <ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath. <ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000. <ref>Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html</ref> According to Natalya Gesse, "the Russian soldiers were raping every German female from eight to eighty." <ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11</ref> After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.

These claims are disputed. <ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html</ref><ref>http://actualhistory.ru/51</ref>.<ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/dukov_ar/index.html</ref> Critics believe that claims of mass rape are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect and loyalty. It is also emphasized that the Soviet military leadership discouraged crimes against civilians and took measures to punish offenders. <ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html</ref> A war veteran recalled: "The question of seeking revenge on the Nazis dropped out -- it's not the traditions of our people to take reprisals against women, children, and elderly...The attitude of Soviet soldiers to the German poplation, could be called neutral. Nobody, at least from out regiment, mistreated people."<ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html</ref>

==See also==
* [[Soviet war crimes]]
* [[War rape]]
* [[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
* [[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War casualties|Rape]]
[[Category:War crimes|Rape]]

[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]
[[ru:Массовые изнасилования немецких женщин Советской Красной Армией]]

Sexuelle Gewalt im Zweiten Weltkrieg

2010-05-16T12:07:38Z

76.191.230.178:

Benutzer:Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwweeeeeeee/Rape during the occupation of Germany

2010-05-16T11:54:51Z

76.191.230.178:

{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

The wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944/45, as Allied and Soviet troops battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The most massive the rapes were in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of rapes committed by Soviet soldiers range widely, from the tens of thousands to 2 million,<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref> with later research showing higher numbers (1.4-1.9 million). <ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports, <ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath. <ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000. <ref>Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html</ref> According to Natalya Gesse, "the Russian soldiers were raping every German female from eight to eighty." <ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11</ref> After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.

These claims are disputed. <ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html</ref><ref>http://actualhistory.ru/51</ref>.<ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/dukov_ar/index.html</ref> Critics believe that claims of mass rape are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect and loyalty. It is also emphasized that the Soviet military leadership discouraged crimes against civilians and took measures to punish offenders. <ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html</ref>

==See also==
* [[Soviet war crimes]]
* [[War rape]]
* [[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
* [[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War casualties|Rape]]
[[Category:War crimes|Rape]]

[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]
[[ru:Массовые изнасилования немецких женщин Советской Красной Армией]]

Sexuelle Gewalt im Zweiten Weltkrieg

2010-05-16T11:54:51Z

76.191.230.178:

{{Expand German|Verbrechen_der_Roten_Armee_im_Zweiten_Weltkrieg#Vergewaltigungen|date=January 2010}}

The wave of rapes and sexual violence occurred in Central Europe in 1944/45, as Allied and Soviet troops battered their way into the Third Reich.<ref>Perry Biddiscombe. Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948. ''Journal of Social History'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 611-647. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789820</ref> The most massive the rapes were in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of rapes committed by Soviet soldiers range widely, from the tens of thousands to 2 million,<ref name="ElizabethHeineman">Elizabeth Heineman. The Hour of the Woman: Memories of Germany's "Crisis Years" and West German National Identity. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 354-395. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2170395</ref> with later research showing higher numbers (1.4-1.9 million). <ref>Kuwert, P., & Freyberger, H. (2007). The unspoken secret: Sexual violence in World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(4), 782-784. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005376.</ref><ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/berlin_01.shtml</ref><ref name="Schissler">Hanna Schissler ''The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=00fCzJKt1QMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=soviet+estimates+rape+tens+of+thousands&source=web&ots=xzyKzJm1sj&sig=cy2AfPmp7ZvT7K9YSWPRkXoyp6E]</ref><ref name="NPR">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768</ref> Around 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in [[Berlin]], based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports, <ref name="BBC"/> with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath. <ref name="Grossman">Atina Grossmann. A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers ''October'', Vol. 72, ''Berlin 1945: War and Rape "Liberators Take Liberties"'' (Spring, 1995), pp. 42-63 MIT Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778926</ref> Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000. <ref>Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: ''BeFreier und Befreite'', Fischer, Frankfurt 2005</ref><ref>Seidler/[[Alfred de Zayas|Zayas]]: ''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'', Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002</ref> [[Antony Beevor]] describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass [[rape]] in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.<ref>http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885399546.html</ref> According to Natalya Gesse, "the Russian soldiers were raping every German female from eight to eighty." <ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/01/news.features11</ref> After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution.<ref>Norman M. Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 p. 92 ISBN 0-674-78405-7</ref> The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“<ref>Naimark. ''The Russians in Germany'', p. 79</ref> completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.

These claims are disputed. <ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html</ref><ref>http://actualhistory.ru/51</ref>.<ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/dukov_ar/index.html</ref> Critics believe that claims of mass rape are based on faulty methodology and questionable sources. It is argued that although there cases of excesses and heavy-handed command, the Red Army as a whole treated the population of the former Reich with respect and loyalty. It is also emphasized that the Soviet military leadership discouraged crimes against civilians and took measures to punish offenders. <ref>http://militera.lib.ru/research/pyhalov_dukov/index.html</ref>

==See also==
* [[Soviet war crimes]]
* [[War rape]]
* [[War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Mass_rapes|War crimes of the Wehrmacht: Mass rapes]]
* [[Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:20th century in Germany]]
[[Category:Aftermath of World War II]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War rape]]
[[Category:War casualties|Rape]]
[[Category:War crimes|Rape]]

[[pt:Estupros em massa de mulheres alemãs pelo Exército Vermelho]]
[[ru:Массовые изнасилования немецких женщин Советской Красной Армией]]

Schwarzer Januar

2010-03-25T23:06:48Z

76.191.230.178: /* Black January */ Undue weight. HRW is not a gospel.

{{infobox military conflict
| conflict = Black January''' {{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}
| partof = [[Azerbaijan#Restoration of independence|Azerbaijani national independence movement]]
| image =
| caption = Soviet tanks in Baku during Black January
| date = January 19-20, 1990
| place = [[Baku]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[Soviet Union]]
| coordinates =
| map_type =
| latitude =
| longitude =
| map_size =
| map_caption =
| map_label =
| territory =
| result = Invasion of Baku and massacre of civilians
| status =
| combatant1 = {{flag|Azerbaijan|}}
| combatant2 = {{flag|Soviet Union}}
*{{flagicon image|Red Army flag.svg}} [[Red Army|Soviet Army]]
*[[File:Emblema KGB.svg|19px|link=]] [[KGB]] [[special forces]]
| combatant3 =
| commander1 =
| commander2 =
| commander3 =
| strength1 =
| strength2 = 26,000 troops
| strength3 =
| casualties1 = 133-137 civilians killed More than 800 injured
| casualties2 =
| casualties3 =
| notes =
}}

'''Black January''' ({{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}), also known as '''Black Saturday''' or the '''January Massacre''' was a violent crackdown of the Azerbaijani independence movement in [[Baku]] on January 19–20, 1990, pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] during the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]].

The [[Memorial Society]] and [[Helsinki Watch]] reported that they had found compelling evidence that the imposition of the state of emergency had led to an unwarranted breach of [[civil liberties]] and that Soviet troops had used unjustified force resulting in many deaths.<ref name="BJ">Robert Kushen, Aryeh Neier. ''Conflict in the Soviet Union: Black January in Azerbaidzhan'', [[Human Rights Watch]], 1991, p. 3</ref> This includes the usage of armoured vehicles, bayonets and firing on clearly marked ambulances.<ref name="BJ"/> In the resolution of January 22, 1990 the [[Supreme Soviet]] of the [[Azerbaijan SSR]] declared that the decree of the [[Presidium of the Supreme Soviet#USSR Supreme Soviet|Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet]] of January 19, used to impose emergency rule in [[Baku]] and military deployment, constituted an act of aggression.<ref>Kushen, Neier, p. 45</ref> Black January is seen as the rebirth of the [[Azerbaijan|Azerbaijan Republic]].

== Events ==
[[File:SV100182.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Victims of Black January.]]
In December 1989, Azerbaijanis living in regions bordering [[Iran]] ripped down the border fences demanding closer ties with ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Iran. Local government of [[Jalilabad]] surrendered to rioters turning over the administration to [[Azerbaijani Popular Front Party|Popular Front of Azerbaijan]]. This was followed by a non-violent turnover of [[Lankaran]] administration to Popular Front two week later.<ref name="NYT">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/29/world/upheaval-east-soviet-union-force-last-resort-armed-power-salvages-moscow-s.html?pagewanted=2
|title= UPHEAVAL IN THE EAST: SOVIET UNION; Force as a Last Resort: Armed Power Salvages Moscow's Facing Authority
|publisher= [[The New York Times]]
|author= Bill Keller
|date= 1990-01-28
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> On January 9, 1990, the parliament of [[Armenia]] voted to include [[Nagorno-Karabakh]] in its budget and allowed its inhabitants vote in Armenian elections thus disregarding Soviet authority and Azerbaijani jurisdiction and causing rage throughout Azerbaijan.<ref name=Croissant>{{Citation
| first = Croissant | last = Michael P.
| author-link =
| title = The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict: causes and implications
| place = United States of America
| publisher = Praeger Publishers
| year = 1998
| page = 36, 37
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=ZeP7OZZswtcC&pg=PP1&dq=Michael+P.+Croissant&lr=&cd=3#v=onepage&q=17000&f=false
| isbn = 0-275-96241-5 }}</ref> This led to demonstrations which demanded the ousting of [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] [[communist]] officials and called for independence from the [[Soviet Union]]. Their rhetoric was, according to a [[Human Rights Watch]] report, "heavily anti-Armenian".<ref name=hrw>[http://hrw.org/reports/1995/communal/ Human Rights Watch. “Playing the "Communal Card": Communal Violence and Human Rights”]</ref> On January 12, the Popular Front organized a national defense committee with branches in factories and offices in Baku to mobilize people for battle with Armenians.<ref name="NYT"/>

Beginning on January 13, 1990, a [[Pogrom of Armenians in Baku|repetition of the pogroms]] of [[Sumgait]] was carried out in Baku against [[Armenians in Azerbaijan|Armenians]]. The initial mass demonstration to oust Armenians from their homes turned violent after the reports of an Azeri man being murdered with an axe by Armenian defending his family reached the crowd.<ref name=Croissant/> Armenians were thrown to their deaths from the balconies of upper-story apartments. Around 90 Armenians were murdered in the [[pogrom]]s. The Popular Front of Azerbaijan claimed that the pogroms were the result of "Armenian aggression." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=pletup86PMQC&pg=PA90&dq=Popular+Front+baku+armenians&lr= Black Garden By Thomas De Waal]</ref> The Popular Front instigated the attacks and local authorities did nothing to stop the violence. These attacks were mainly done by young Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia.<ref name="NYT"/> Baku's 300,000 Armenians hastily escaped.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=cB50CI0Xd5IC&pg=PA399&dq=Baku+300,000+armenians&lr= Highlanders By Yo'av Karny]</ref>

Local Azerbaijan authorities were unable to restore order because of internal quarreling and divisions that paralyzed their ability to act. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=JoGrR_9o3SUC&pg=PA96&dq=gorbachev+baku+1990+yazov+soldiers&lr=&cd=16#v=onepage&q=&f=false On My Country and the World, Mikhail Gorbachev]</ref> Azerbaijan authorities also ordered the 12,000 strong Interior Ministry troops to abstain from intervening in the Baku riots<ref>{{Citation
| first = Singh | last = Anita Inder
| author-link =
| title = Democracy, ethnic diversity, and security in post-communist Europe
| place = Berlin
| publisher = Praeger Publishers
| year = 2001
| page = 61
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=nU3bO8uiBn0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Democracy,+ethnic+diversity,+and+security+in+post-communist+Europe+Anita+Inder+Singh&cd=1#v=snippet&q=Interior%20Ministry&f=false
| isbn = 0-275-97258-5 }}</ref> and numerous Soviet army and fleet units of Baku garrison and [[Caspian Flotilla]] did not intervene to stop riots, claiming that they had no orders from Moscow authorities.<ref name="NYT"/> On January 15, the authorities declared states of emergency in other parts of Azerbaijan (but not in Baku), and the pogrom activity began to subside. At the same time, fearing an intervention of the central Soviet authorities, Popular Front activists began a blockade of military barracks.<ref name=hrw/> They had already taken ''de facto'' control in a number of Azerbaijani regions.<ref name=hrw/> On January 18, the Popular Front ordered supporters to barricade the main access routes into Baku using hundreds of cars, trucks and buses. The next day, Soviet authorities evacuated its representatives and local officials moving them to military command post on the outskirts of the city where Soviet Minister of Defense, [[Dmitry Yazov]] and Interior Minister [[Vadim Bakatin]] positioned.<ref name="NYT"/>

Late at night on January 19, 1990, after blowing up of the central television station and terminating of phone and radio lines by Soviet special forces, heavily armed 26,000 Soviet troops entered Baku smashing through APF-erected barricades in order to crush the Popular Front.<ref name=Croissant/> As claimed by Mikhail Gorbachev, gunmen of the Azerbaijani National Front opened fire on the soldiers<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=JoGrR_9o3SUC&pg=PA96&dq=gorbachev+baku+1990+yazov+soldiers&lr=&cd=16#v=onepage&q=&f=false On My Country and the World, By Mikhail Gorbachev]</ref>; however, findings of Moscow based [[NGO|non-governmental organization]] ''Shield'' found no evidence of "armed combatants of Azerbaijani Popular Front", which had been used as a motive to crush the civilian population on January 20.<ref>{{Citation
| first = | last =
| author-link =
| title = Report of "Shield" union
| place = Moscow
| publisher = Moscow News
| year = August 12, 1990
| page =
| url= }}</ref> The indepedent ''Shield'' organization which consists of group of lawyers and officers in reserve, observing human rights violations in the army and its military operations<ref>{{Cite web
| last = Zverev
| first = Alexei
| title = Этнические конфликты на Кавказе, 1988—1994 г.
| trans_title = Ethnic conflicts in Caucasus, 1988-1994
| url=http://poli.vub.ac.be/publi/ContBorders/rus/ch0102.htm
| accessdate = 25 March 2010 }}</ref>, concluded that the army waged a war on its civilians and demanded to start a criminal investigation against the Minister of Defense, Dmitry Yazov who had personally led the operation.<ref name=Waal>{{Citation
| first = De Waal | last = Thomas
| author-link =
| title = Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through peace and war
| place = New York and London
| publisher = New York University Press
| year = 2003
| page = 93
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=pletup86PMQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Black+Garden&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Shield&f=false
| isbn = 0-275-97258-5 }}</ref> The Azerbaijani Interior Ministry officials had helped Popular Front activists in stirring disorder by providing with weapons, technical facilities, and informing them about the movement of army units.<ref>[''Washington Post'', January 27, 1990, Michael Dobbs</ref> In the course of the storming, the troops attacked the protesters, firing in the crowds. The shooting continued for three days. They acted pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] (which continued on for more than 4 months) declared by the [[USSR]] Supreme Soviet Presidium, signed by President [[Gorbachev]]. The state of emergency was, however, disclosed to the [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] public only several hours<ref name=hrw/> after the beginning of the offensive, when many citizens already laid dead or wounded in the streets, hospitals and morgues of Baku.

According to one report, 93 Azerbaijanis and 29 Russian soldiers were killed in the street skirmishes. Other reports state that 21 soldiers were killed and 90 wounded in the fighting. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=kiBHkRtRmIIC&pg=PA195&dq=29+soldiers+killed+soviet+1990+baku+January+one+report&lr=&cd=7#v=onepage&q=29%20soldiers%20killed%20soviet%201990%20baku%20January%20one%20report&f=false Remembrance and denial: the case of the Armenian genocide By Richard G. Hovannisian]</ref> <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=0TfIphAdnGwC&pg=PA377&dq=wounded+soldiers+Baku+soviet+1990+January&lr=&cd=2#v=onepage&q=wounded%20soldiers%20Baku%20soviet%201990%20January&f=false Nationalist mobilization and the collapse of the Soviet State By Mark R. Beissinger]</ref> However, how the soldiers died is still disputed. The soldiers' death toll was claimed by Soviet authorities to have resulted from armed resistance, although some of the soldiers could have been victims of [[friendly fire]] from their own.<ref name=Waal/>

Other estimates indicate that between 133<ref>[http://www.january20.net/ 20 January]</ref> and 137<ref name=BBC>
{{cite news
|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1477933.stm
|title= Eyewitness: A republic loses faith
|publisher= [[BBC News]]
|author= Elchin Khalilov
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> civilians died with unofficial number reaching 300.<ref name="Azerbaijan International">
{{cite news
|url= http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html
|title= Black January: Baku (1990). Behind the Scenes - A Photojournalist's Perspective
|publisher= [[Azerbaijan International]]
|month= Spring| year= 1998
|pages= 33–37
|last1= |first1= Reza
|last2= Blair |first2= Betty
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> Up to 800 were injured and 5 went missing.<ref name="Turkish Weekly">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.turkishweekly.net/op-ed/2460/20-january-1990-black-face-of-the-red-terror-in-azerbaijan.html
|title= 20 January 1990: Black Face of the Red Terror in Azerbaijan
|publisher= [[Turkish Weekly]]
|author= Shamkhal Abilov
|date= 2010-01-9
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}</ref> An additional 26 people were killed in [[Neftchala]] and Lankaran regions of the country.<ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://today.az/news/society/59767.html
|title= Azerbaijan commemorates the anniversary of 20th January tragedy
|publisher= Today.az
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> The Soviet army soldiers used [[5.45x39mm#Wounding effects|5.45 mm caliber bullets with a shifted center of gravity]] designed to sheer after entering the body thus causing an excessive physical damage to the body<ref>
{{Cite press release
| title = 20 January Tragedy Monstrous Crime Against Azerbaijani People Humanism and Humanity
| publisher = Embassy of Azerbaijan Republic in Kazakhstan
| date = January 17, 2006
| url = http://www.azembassy.kz/news/images/press-Y3Q1p.pdf
| accessdate = 20 January 2010}}</ref><ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://www.525.az/view.php?lang=ru&menu=17&id=8225
|title= 20 января – день печали и надменности
|trans_title= 20 January - Day of sorrow and disdain
|publisher= 525-ci qazet
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref>. January 20 is marked as the Day of the Nationwide Sorrow in Azerbaijan.<ref>[http://www.president.az/browse.php?sec_id=56 President of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan. Bloody Memories]</ref>

== State of Emergency ==

President Gorbachev and other officials asserted that it was necessary to stop pogroms and violence against the Armenian population and to thwart efforts by extremists to overthrow the Azerbaijani government. The governemnt's decree said: "Extremist groups are organizing mass disorders fanning national enmity. They are committing bold criminal acts, mining roads and bridges, shelling settlements, taking hostages." <ref> Austin American Statesman Jan 16, 1990</ref>

Almost the whole population of Baku turned out to bury the dead on the third day - January 22.<ref name=Croissant>{{Citation
| first = Shaffer | last = Brenda
| author-link =
| title = Borders and brethren: Iran and the challenge of Azerbaijani identity
| place = United States of America
| publisher = Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
| year = 2002
| page = 140
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=sHKSh_XltKMC&pg=PA140&dq=Black+January+Azerbaijan&lr=&cd=9#v=onepage&q=Black%20January%20Azerbaijan&f=false
| isbn = 0-262-19477-5 }}</ref> For another 40 days, the country stayed away from work in a sign of mourning and mass protest.<ref name="hrw"/>

Defense Minister Yazov also said that nationalists were plotting a coup d'etat in Azerbaijan: "a meeting was planned at which it was proposed to declare the transfer of power into the hands of the People's Front." He noted how the "Popular Front" declared its own state of emergency in Baku before the action was taken and how Soviet state organs "ceased to control the situation." <ref>San Francisco Chronicle. Jan 27, 1990.pg. A.11</ref> <ref>
{{cite news
| url= http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/72560980.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jan+27%2C+1990&author=Michael+Dobbs&pub=The+Washington+Post+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=a.13&desc=Soviets+Say+Troops+Used+To+Avert+Coup+in+Baku%3BNationalists+Said+to+Plan+Seizure+of+Power
| title= Soviets Say Troops Used To Avert Coup in Baku;Nationalists Said to Plan Seizure of Power
| publisher= The Washington Post
| author = Michael Dobbs
| date=1990-01-27
| accessdate=2010-03-05
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
| url= http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/inside/publications/1999_NK_Book.pdf
| title= The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
| publisher= Uppsala University
| work=Department of East European Studies
| author = Svante Cornell
| date=1999
| volume=46
| issue=
| accessdate=2010-03-05
}}</ref><ref>{{Citation
| first1 = Lobell | last1 = Steven E.
| first2 = Mauceri | last2 = Phillip
| author-link =
| title = Ethnic conflict and international politics: explaining diffusion and escalation
| place = The United States
| publisher = Palgrave MacMillan
| year = 2004
| page = 58
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=xVmvbEgcZIQC&pg=PA58&dq=Black+January+Azerbaijan&lr=&cd=15#v=onepage&q=Black%20January%20Azerbaijan&f=false
| isbn = 1-4039-6355-X }}</ref>

A special session of the Supreme Council (Parliament) of [[Azerbaijan SSR]] held on January 22, 1990 at the request of public and by initiative of the group of MPs tried to initially assess the January 20 events and adopted some documents condemning the crackdown operation by Soviet army.

== Black January ==
[[File:The tragedy of January 20.jpg|thumb|300px|Azerbaijani stamp with photos of Black January]]
Human Rights Watch accused the military of action that was "out of proportion". The report surmised that the Soviet leadership was motivated by cracking down on nationalists rather than restoring security and protecting the population.

During the Black January crackdown, the Soviets managed to suppress all efforts to disseminate news from Azerbaijan to the local population and the international community. On the eve of the Soviet military invasion in [[Baku]], one of leaders of Popular Front, Ekhtibar Mamedov proposed to Kremlin officials to appear on Azerbaijani TV at 8 PM announcing First Secretary of Azerbaijani Communist Party, [[Abdurrahman Vazirov]] would be leaving and no troops would invade Baku which would restore the order.<ref name="NYT"/> Instead, an energy supply source to Azerbaijani TV and State Radio was blown up by intelligence officers at 7:15 PM in order to cut off the population from any source of information. TV and radio was silent and all print media was banned.<ref name="Turkish Weekly"/> But [[Mirza Khazar]] and his staff at [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] succeeded in broadcasting daily reports from Baku,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html |title= Black January 1990|publisher =Azerbaijan International |author= |accessdate=2009-02-26}}</ref> making it the only source of news to Azerbaijanis within and outside of the country for several days. The Kremlin leadership tried hard to keep the outside world and the population inside Azerbaijan unaware of the military invasion, but Mirza Khazar and his staff foiled this attempt. Thanks to Mirza Khazar and his staff at Radio Liberty, Azerbaijanis in and outside Azerbaijan, as well as the international community, learned about the Soviet invasion and gained a chance to organize protest actions. Shocked by this "surprising" development, the government of the [[USSR]] complained officially to the [[United States]] about Radio Liberty's<ref>[http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-05/entertainment/ca-1371_1_radio-liberty Soviet Officials Charge Voice of America, Radio Liberty Fueled Riots]</ref> coverage of the military invasion of Azerbaijan. The January 20, 1990, broadcasts turned Mirza Khazar into a legend among [[Azerbaijanis]] in and outside Azerbaijan. Malahat Aghajanqizi, a well-known Azerbaijani poetess and writer, described Mirza Khazar’s appearance on radio at the time of the Soviet military invasion as follows: “On January 20, Mirza Khazar with his God-given divine voice, gave hope to the dying Azerbaijani people.”<ref>[http://mirzexezerinsesi.net/articles/2008/11/29/melahet-agacanqizi-mirze-xezerin-sesi Article on Mirza Khazar]</ref>

The Wall Street Journal editorial of January 4, 1995 claimed that Gorbachev chose to use violence against "independence-seeking Azerbaijan." When a year later the world press criticized Gorbachev for violent massacres of civilians in [[January Events (Lithuania)|Lithuania]] and [[January 1991 events in Latvia|Latvia]], Azerbaijani public was embittered for the silence of the world media on Gorbachev's orders a year ealier, during Black January.<ref>{{Citation
| first = Altstadt | last = Audrey L.
| author-link =
| title = The Azerbaijani Turks: power and identity under Russian rule
| place = Standford, CA
| publisher = Standford University. Hoover Institution Press Publication
| year = 1992
| page = 224
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=sZVN2MwWZVAC&pg=PA224&dq=Black+January+Azerbaijan&lr=&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Black%20January%20Azerbaijan&f=false
| isbn = 0-8179-9182-4 }}</ref>

[[File:SV100165-azer genocide memorial.jpg|thumb|200px||A Memorial dedicated to all victims of [[March Days]] and Black January.]]

== Independence ==
On October 18, 1991, the Parliament of Azerbaijan restored the country's independence. Gorbachev later apologized to Azerbaijan by stating: "The declaration of a state emergency in Baku was the biggest mistake of my political career". In 1994, the [[National Assembly of Azerbaijan]] adopted a full political and legal evaluation of the Black January events. According to the decree of the [[President of Azerbaijan]] [[Heydar Aliyev]] from December 16, 1999, all victims of the crackdown were awarded an honorary title of the "Martyr of January 20" ({{lang-az|20 yanvar şəhidi}}).

== See also ==
* [[History of Azerbaijan]]
* [[History of the Soviet Union]]
* [[April 9, 1989 Massacre]]
* [[Jeltoqsan]]
* [[January Events (Lithuania)]]
* [[January 1991 events in Latvia]]

== Notes and references ==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== External links ==
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=3bmVTBIBcREC&pg=PA203&dq=Black+January+Azerbaijan&lr=&cd=25#v=onepage&q=Black%20January%20Azerbaijan&f=false Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe - Working Papers - 2008 Ordinary Session 21. Written Declaration No. 405. Doc. 11499 - 21 January 2008. Massacre of Azerbaijanis by Soviet troops]
* [http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html Black January: Baku (1990) / Azerbaijan International (Spring 1998)]
* http://www.january20.net
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1477933.stm

{{Fall of Communism}}
{{Azerbaijan topics}}
{{Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict}}
{{coord missing|Azerbaijan}}

[[Category:History of Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Massacres in Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Massacres in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Riots in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:1990 in the Soviet Union]]

[[ar:السبت الأسود]]
[[az:Qara Yanvar]]
[[fr:Janvier Noir]]
[[id:Januari Hitam]]
[[ka:შავი იანვარი]]
[[pt:Janeiro Negro]]
[[ro:Ianuarie negru]]
[[ru:Чёрный январь]]
[[tr:Kara Ocak]]

Schwarzer Januar

2010-03-25T23:01:41Z

76.191.230.178: /* State of Emergency */

{{infobox military conflict
| conflict = Black January''' {{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}
| partof = [[Azerbaijan#Restoration of independence|Azerbaijani national independence movement]]
| image =
| caption = Soviet tanks in Baku during Black January
| date = January 19-20, 1990
| place = [[Baku]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[Soviet Union]]
| coordinates =
| map_type =
| latitude =
| longitude =
| map_size =
| map_caption =
| map_label =
| territory =
| result = Invasion of Baku and massacre of civilians
| status =
| combatant1 = {{flag|Azerbaijan|}}
| combatant2 = {{flag|Soviet Union}}
*{{flagicon image|Red Army flag.svg}} [[Red Army|Soviet Army]]
*[[File:Emblema KGB.svg|19px|link=]] [[KGB]] [[special forces]]
| combatant3 =
| commander1 =
| commander2 =
| commander3 =
| strength1 =
| strength2 = 26,000 troops
| strength3 =
| casualties1 = 133-137 civilians killed More than 800 injured
| casualties2 =
| casualties3 =
| notes =
}}

'''Black January''' ({{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}), also known as '''Black Saturday''' or the '''January Massacre''' was a violent crackdown of the Azerbaijani independence movement in [[Baku]] on January 19–20, 1990, pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] during the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]].

The [[Memorial Society]] and [[Helsinki Watch]] reported that they had found compelling evidence that the imposition of the state of emergency had led to an unwarranted breach of [[civil liberties]] and that Soviet troops had used unjustified force resulting in many deaths.<ref name="BJ">Robert Kushen, Aryeh Neier. ''Conflict in the Soviet Union: Black January in Azerbaidzhan'', [[Human Rights Watch]], 1991, p. 3</ref> This includes the usage of armoured vehicles, bayonets and firing on clearly marked ambulances.<ref name="BJ"/> In the resolution of January 22, 1990 the [[Supreme Soviet]] of the [[Azerbaijan SSR]] declared that the decree of the [[Presidium of the Supreme Soviet#USSR Supreme Soviet|Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet]] of January 19, used to impose emergency rule in [[Baku]] and military deployment, constituted an act of aggression.<ref>Kushen, Neier, p. 45</ref> Black January is seen as the rebirth of the [[Azerbaijan|Azerbaijan Republic]].

== Events ==
[[File:SV100182.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Victims of Black January.]]
In December 1989, Azerbaijanis living in regions bordering [[Iran]] ripped down the border fences demanding closer ties with ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Iran. Local government of [[Jalilabad]] surrendered to rioters turning over the administration to [[Azerbaijani Popular Front Party|Popular Front of Azerbaijan]]. This was followed by a non-violent turnover of [[Lankaran]] administration to Popular Front two week later.<ref name="NYT">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/29/world/upheaval-east-soviet-union-force-last-resort-armed-power-salvages-moscow-s.html?pagewanted=2
|title= UPHEAVAL IN THE EAST: SOVIET UNION; Force as a Last Resort: Armed Power Salvages Moscow's Facing Authority
|publisher= [[The New York Times]]
|author= Bill Keller
|date= 1990-01-28
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> On January 9, 1990, the parliament of [[Armenia]] voted to include [[Nagorno-Karabakh]] in its budget and allowed its inhabitants vote in Armenian elections thus disregarding Soviet authority and Azerbaijani jurisdiction and causing rage throughout Azerbaijan.<ref name=Croissant>{{Citation
| first = Croissant | last = Michael P.
| author-link =
| title = The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict: causes and implications
| place = United States of America
| publisher = Praeger Publishers
| year = 1998
| page = 36, 37
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=ZeP7OZZswtcC&pg=PP1&dq=Michael+P.+Croissant&lr=&cd=3#v=onepage&q=17000&f=false
| isbn = 0-275-96241-5 }}</ref> This led to demonstrations which demanded the ousting of [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] [[communist]] officials and called for independence from the [[Soviet Union]]. Their rhetoric was, according to a [[Human Rights Watch]] report, "heavily anti-Armenian".<ref name=hrw>[http://hrw.org/reports/1995/communal/ Human Rights Watch. “Playing the "Communal Card": Communal Violence and Human Rights”]</ref> On January 12, the Popular Front organized a national defense committee with branches in factories and offices in Baku to mobilize people for battle with Armenians.<ref name="NYT"/>

Beginning on January 13, 1990, a [[Pogrom of Armenians in Baku|repetition of the pogroms]] of [[Sumgait]] was carried out in Baku against [[Armenians in Azerbaijan|Armenians]]. The initial mass demonstration to oust Armenians from their homes turned violent after the reports of an Azeri man being murdered with an axe by Armenian defending his family reached the crowd.<ref name=Croissant/> Armenians were thrown to their deaths from the balconies of upper-story apartments. Around 90 Armenians were murdered in the [[pogrom]]s. The Popular Front of Azerbaijan claimed that the pogroms were the result of "Armenian aggression." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=pletup86PMQC&pg=PA90&dq=Popular+Front+baku+armenians&lr= Black Garden By Thomas De Waal]</ref> The Popular Front instigated the attacks and local authorities did nothing to stop the violence. These attacks were mainly done by young Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia.<ref name="NYT"/> Baku's 300,000 Armenians hastily escaped.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=cB50CI0Xd5IC&pg=PA399&dq=Baku+300,000+armenians&lr= Highlanders By Yo'av Karny]</ref>

Local Azerbaijan authorities were unable to restore order because of internal quarreling and divisions that paralyzed their ability to act. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=JoGrR_9o3SUC&pg=PA96&dq=gorbachev+baku+1990+yazov+soldiers&lr=&cd=16#v=onepage&q=&f=false On My Country and the World, Mikhail Gorbachev]</ref> Azerbaijan authorities also ordered the 12,000 strong Interior Ministry troops to abstain from intervening in the Baku riots<ref>{{Citation
| first = Singh | last = Anita Inder
| author-link =
| title = Democracy, ethnic diversity, and security in post-communist Europe
| place = Berlin
| publisher = Praeger Publishers
| year = 2001
| page = 61
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=nU3bO8uiBn0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Democracy,+ethnic+diversity,+and+security+in+post-communist+Europe+Anita+Inder+Singh&cd=1#v=snippet&q=Interior%20Ministry&f=false
| isbn = 0-275-97258-5 }}</ref> and numerous Soviet army and fleet units of Baku garrison and [[Caspian Flotilla]] did not intervene to stop riots, claiming that they had no orders from Moscow authorities.<ref name="NYT"/> On January 15, the authorities declared states of emergency in other parts of Azerbaijan (but not in Baku), and the pogrom activity began to subside. At the same time, fearing an intervention of the central Soviet authorities, Popular Front activists began a blockade of military barracks.<ref name=hrw/> They had already taken ''de facto'' control in a number of Azerbaijani regions.<ref name=hrw/> On January 18, the Popular Front ordered supporters to barricade the main access routes into Baku using hundreds of cars, trucks and buses. The next day, Soviet authorities evacuated its representatives and local officials moving them to military command post on the outskirts of the city where Soviet Minister of Defense, [[Dmitry Yazov]] and Interior Minister [[Vadim Bakatin]] positioned.<ref name="NYT"/>

Late at night on January 19, 1990, after blowing up of the central television station and terminating of phone and radio lines by Soviet special forces, heavily armed 26,000 Soviet troops entered Baku smashing through APF-erected barricades in order to crush the Popular Front.<ref name=Croissant/> As claimed by Mikhail Gorbachev, gunmen of the Azerbaijani National Front opened fire on the soldiers<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=JoGrR_9o3SUC&pg=PA96&dq=gorbachev+baku+1990+yazov+soldiers&lr=&cd=16#v=onepage&q=&f=false On My Country and the World, By Mikhail Gorbachev]</ref>; however, findings of Moscow based [[NGO|non-governmental organization]] ''Shield'' found no evidence of "armed combatants of Azerbaijani Popular Front", which had been used as a motive to crush the civilian population on January 20.<ref>{{Citation
| first = | last =
| author-link =
| title = Report of "Shield" union
| place = Moscow
| publisher = Moscow News
| year = August 12, 1990
| page =
| url= }}</ref> The indepedent ''Shield'' organization which consists of group of lawyers and officers in reserve, observing human rights violations in the army and its military operations<ref>{{Cite web
| last = Zverev
| first = Alexei
| title = Этнические конфликты на Кавказе, 1988—1994 г.
| trans_title = Ethnic conflicts in Caucasus, 1988-1994
| url=http://poli.vub.ac.be/publi/ContBorders/rus/ch0102.htm
| accessdate = 25 March 2010 }}</ref>, concluded that the army waged a war on its civilians and demanded to start a criminal investigation against the Minister of Defense, Dmitry Yazov who had personally led the operation.<ref name=Waal>{{Citation
| first = De Waal | last = Thomas
| author-link =
| title = Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through peace and war
| place = New York and London
| publisher = New York University Press
| year = 2003
| page = 93
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=pletup86PMQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Black+Garden&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Shield&f=false
| isbn = 0-275-97258-5 }}</ref> The Azerbaijani Interior Ministry officials had helped Popular Front activists in stirring disorder by providing with weapons, technical facilities, and informing them about the movement of army units.<ref>[''Washington Post'', January 27, 1990, Michael Dobbs</ref> In the course of the storming, the troops attacked the protesters, firing in the crowds. The shooting continued for three days. They acted pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] (which continued on for more than 4 months) declared by the [[USSR]] Supreme Soviet Presidium, signed by President [[Gorbachev]]. The state of emergency was, however, disclosed to the [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] public only several hours<ref name=hrw/> after the beginning of the offensive, when many citizens already laid dead or wounded in the streets, hospitals and morgues of Baku.

According to one report, 93 Azerbaijanis and 29 Russian soldiers were killed in the street skirmishes. Other reports state that 21 soldiers were killed and 90 wounded in the fighting. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=kiBHkRtRmIIC&pg=PA195&dq=29+soldiers+killed+soviet+1990+baku+January+one+report&lr=&cd=7#v=onepage&q=29%20soldiers%20killed%20soviet%201990%20baku%20January%20one%20report&f=false Remembrance and denial: the case of the Armenian genocide By Richard G. Hovannisian]</ref> <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=0TfIphAdnGwC&pg=PA377&dq=wounded+soldiers+Baku+soviet+1990+January&lr=&cd=2#v=onepage&q=wounded%20soldiers%20Baku%20soviet%201990%20January&f=false Nationalist mobilization and the collapse of the Soviet State By Mark R. Beissinger]</ref> However, how the soldiers died is still disputed. The soldiers' death toll was claimed by Soviet authorities to have resulted from armed resistance, although some of the soldiers could have been victims of [[friendly fire]] from their own.<ref name=Waal/>

Other estimates indicate that between 133<ref>[http://www.january20.net/ 20 January]</ref> and 137<ref name=BBC>
{{cite news
|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1477933.stm
|title= Eyewitness: A republic loses faith
|publisher= [[BBC News]]
|author= Elchin Khalilov
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> civilians died with unofficial number reaching 300.<ref name="Azerbaijan International">
{{cite news
|url= http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html
|title= Black January: Baku (1990). Behind the Scenes - A Photojournalist's Perspective
|publisher= [[Azerbaijan International]]
|month= Spring| year= 1998
|pages= 33–37
|last1= |first1= Reza
|last2= Blair |first2= Betty
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> Up to 800 were injured and 5 went missing.<ref name="Turkish Weekly">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.turkishweekly.net/op-ed/2460/20-january-1990-black-face-of-the-red-terror-in-azerbaijan.html
|title= 20 January 1990: Black Face of the Red Terror in Azerbaijan
|publisher= [[Turkish Weekly]]
|author= Shamkhal Abilov
|date= 2010-01-9
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}</ref> An additional 26 people were killed in [[Neftchala]] and Lankaran regions of the country.<ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://today.az/news/society/59767.html
|title= Azerbaijan commemorates the anniversary of 20th January tragedy
|publisher= Today.az
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> The Soviet army soldiers used [[5.45x39mm#Wounding effects|5.45 mm caliber bullets with a shifted center of gravity]] designed to sheer after entering the body thus causing an excessive physical damage to the body<ref>
{{Cite press release
| title = 20 January Tragedy Monstrous Crime Against Azerbaijani People Humanism and Humanity
| publisher = Embassy of Azerbaijan Republic in Kazakhstan
| date = January 17, 2006
| url = http://www.azembassy.kz/news/images/press-Y3Q1p.pdf
| accessdate = 20 January 2010}}</ref><ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://www.525.az/view.php?lang=ru&menu=17&id=8225
|title= 20 января – день печали и надменности
|trans_title= 20 January - Day of sorrow and disdain
|publisher= 525-ci qazet
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref>. January 20 is marked as the Day of the Nationwide Sorrow in Azerbaijan.<ref>[http://www.president.az/browse.php?sec_id=56 President of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan. Bloody Memories]</ref>

== State of Emergency ==

President Gorbachev and other officials asserted that it was necessary to stop pogroms and violence against the Armenian population and to thwart efforts by extremists to overthrow the Azerbaijani government. The governemnt's decree said: "Extremist groups are organizing mass disorders fanning national enmity. They are committing bold criminal acts, mining roads and bridges, shelling settlements, taking hostages." <ref> Austin American Statesman Jan 16, 1990</ref>

Almost the whole population of Baku turned out to bury the dead on the third day - January 22.<ref name=Croissant>{{Citation
| first = Shaffer | last = Brenda
| author-link =
| title = Borders and brethren: Iran and the challenge of Azerbaijani identity
| place = United States of America
| publisher = Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
| year = 2002
| page = 140
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=sHKSh_XltKMC&pg=PA140&dq=Black+January+Azerbaijan&lr=&cd=9#v=onepage&q=Black%20January%20Azerbaijan&f=false
| isbn = 0-262-19477-5 }}</ref> For another 40 days, the country stayed away from work in a sign of mourning and mass protest.<ref name="hrw"/>

Defense Minister Yazov also said that nationalists were plotting a coup d'etat in Azerbaijan: "a meeting was planned at which it was proposed to declare the transfer of power into the hands of the People's Front." He noted how the "Popular Front" declared its own state of emergency in Baku before the action was taken and how Soviet state organs "ceased to control the situation." <ref>San Francisco Chronicle. Jan 27, 1990.pg. A.11</ref> <ref>
{{cite news
| url= http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/72560980.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jan+27%2C+1990&author=Michael+Dobbs&pub=The+Washington+Post+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=a.13&desc=Soviets+Say+Troops+Used+To+Avert+Coup+in+Baku%3BNationalists+Said+to+Plan+Seizure+of+Power
| title= Soviets Say Troops Used To Avert Coup in Baku;Nationalists Said to Plan Seizure of Power
| publisher= The Washington Post
| author = Michael Dobbs
| date=1990-01-27
| accessdate=2010-03-05
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
| url= http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/inside/publications/1999_NK_Book.pdf
| title= The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
| publisher= Uppsala University
| work=Department of East European Studies
| author = Svante Cornell
| date=1999
| volume=46
| issue=
| accessdate=2010-03-05
}}</ref><ref>{{Citation
| first1 = Lobell | last1 = Steven E.
| first2 = Mauceri | last2 = Phillip
| author-link =
| title = Ethnic conflict and international politics: explaining diffusion and escalation
| place = The United States
| publisher = Palgrave MacMillan
| year = 2004
| page = 58
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=xVmvbEgcZIQC&pg=PA58&dq=Black+January+Azerbaijan&lr=&cd=15#v=onepage&q=Black%20January%20Azerbaijan&f=false
| isbn = 1-4039-6355-X }}</ref>

A special session of the Supreme Council (Parliament) of [[Azerbaijan SSR]] held on January 22, 1990 at the request of public and by initiative of the group of MPs tried to initially assess the January 20 events and adopted some documents condemning the crackdown operation by Soviet army.

== Black January ==
[[File:The tragedy of January 20.jpg|thumb|300px|Azerbaijani stamp with photos of Black January]]
The [[Human Rights Watch]] report entitled "Black January in Azerbaijan" states: "Indeed, the violence used by the Soviet Army on the night of January 19–20 was so out of proportion to the resistance offered by Azerbaijanis as to constitute an exercise in collective punishment. Since Soviet officials have stated publicly that the purpose of the intervention of Soviet troops was to prevent the ouster of the Communist-dominated government of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the nationalist-minded, noncommunist opposition, the punishment inflicted on Baku by Soviet soldiers may have been intended as a warning to nationalists, not only in Azerbaijan, but in the other Republics of the Soviet Union."

"The subsequent events in the Baltic Republics - where, in a remarkable parallel to the events in Baku, alleged civil disorder was cited as justification for violent intervention by Soviet troops -further confirms that the Soviet Government has demonstrated that it will deal harshly with nationalist movements," continues the Human Rights Watch report.

During the Black January crackdown, the Soviets managed to suppress all efforts to disseminate news from Azerbaijan to the local population and the international community. On the eve of the Soviet military invasion in [[Baku]], one of leaders of Popular Front, Ekhtibar Mamedov proposed to Kremlin officials to appear on Azerbaijani TV at 8 PM announcing First Secretary of Azerbaijani Communist Party, [[Abdurrahman Vazirov]] would be leaving and no troops would invade Baku which would restore the order.<ref name="NYT"/> Instead, an energy supply source to Azerbaijani TV and State Radio was blown up by intelligence officers at 7:15 PM in order to cut off the population from any source of information. TV and radio was silent and all print media was banned.<ref name="Turkish Weekly"/> But [[Mirza Khazar]] and his staff at [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] succeeded in broadcasting daily reports from Baku,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html |title= Black January 1990|publisher =Azerbaijan International |author= |accessdate=2009-02-26}}</ref> making it the only source of news to Azerbaijanis within and outside of the country for several days. The Kremlin leadership tried hard to keep the outside world and the population inside Azerbaijan unaware of the military invasion, but Mirza Khazar and his staff foiled this attempt. Thanks to Mirza Khazar and his staff at Radio Liberty, Azerbaijanis in and outside Azerbaijan, as well as the international community, learned about the Soviet invasion and gained a chance to organize protest actions. Shocked by this "surprising" development, the government of the [[USSR]] complained officially to the [[United States]] about Radio Liberty's<ref>[http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-05/entertainment/ca-1371_1_radio-liberty Soviet Officials Charge Voice of America, Radio Liberty Fueled Riots]</ref> coverage of the military invasion of Azerbaijan. The January 20, 1990, broadcasts turned Mirza Khazar into a legend among [[Azerbaijanis]] in and outside Azerbaijan. Malahat Aghajanqizi, a well-known Azerbaijani poetess and writer, described Mirza Khazar’s appearance on radio at the time of the Soviet military invasion as follows: “On January 20, Mirza Khazar with his God-given divine voice, gave hope to the dying Azerbaijani people.”<ref>[http://mirzexezerinsesi.net/articles/2008/11/29/melahet-agacanqizi-mirze-xezerin-sesi Article on Mirza Khazar]</ref>

The Wall Street Journal editorial of January 4, 1995 claimed that Gorbachev chose to use violence against "independence-seeking Azerbaijan." When a year later the world press criticized Gorbachev for violent massacres of civilians in [[January Events (Lithuania)|Lithuania]] and [[January 1991 events in Latvia|Latvia]], Azerbaijani public was embittered for the silence of the world media on Gorbachev's orders a year ealier, during Black January.<ref>{{Citation
| first = Altstadt | last = Audrey L.
| author-link =
| title = The Azerbaijani Turks: power and identity under Russian rule
| place = Standford, CA
| publisher = Standford University. Hoover Institution Press Publication
| year = 1992
| page = 224
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=sZVN2MwWZVAC&pg=PA224&dq=Black+January+Azerbaijan&lr=&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Black%20January%20Azerbaijan&f=false
| isbn = 0-8179-9182-4 }}</ref>

[[File:SV100165-azer genocide memorial.jpg|thumb|200px||A Memorial dedicated to all victims of [[March Days]] and Black January.]]

== Independence ==
On October 18, 1991, the Parliament of Azerbaijan restored the country's independence. Gorbachev later apologized to Azerbaijan by stating: "The declaration of a state emergency in Baku was the biggest mistake of my political career". In 1994, the [[National Assembly of Azerbaijan]] adopted a full political and legal evaluation of the Black January events. According to the decree of the [[President of Azerbaijan]] [[Heydar Aliyev]] from December 16, 1999, all victims of the crackdown were awarded an honorary title of the "Martyr of January 20" ({{lang-az|20 yanvar şəhidi}}).

== See also ==
* [[History of Azerbaijan]]
* [[History of the Soviet Union]]
* [[April 9, 1989 Massacre]]
* [[Jeltoqsan]]
* [[January Events (Lithuania)]]
* [[January 1991 events in Latvia]]

== Notes and references ==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== External links ==
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=3bmVTBIBcREC&pg=PA203&dq=Black+January+Azerbaijan&lr=&cd=25#v=onepage&q=Black%20January%20Azerbaijan&f=false Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe - Working Papers - 2008 Ordinary Session 21. Written Declaration No. 405. Doc. 11499 - 21 January 2008. Massacre of Azerbaijanis by Soviet troops]
* [http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html Black January: Baku (1990) / Azerbaijan International (Spring 1998)]
* http://www.january20.net
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1477933.stm

{{Fall of Communism}}
{{Azerbaijan topics}}
{{Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict}}
{{coord missing|Azerbaijan}}

[[Category:History of Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Massacres in Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Massacres in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Riots in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:1990 in the Soviet Union]]

[[ar:السبت الأسود]]
[[az:Qara Yanvar]]
[[fr:Janvier Noir]]
[[id:Januari Hitam]]
[[ka:შავი იანვარი]]
[[pt:Janeiro Negro]]
[[ro:Ianuarie negru]]
[[ru:Чёрный январь]]
[[tr:Kara Ocak]]

Schwarzer Januar

2010-03-25T23:01:09Z

76.191.230.178: /* State of Emergency */ Added Gorbachev's account.

{{infobox military conflict
| conflict = Black January''' {{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}
| partof = [[Azerbaijan#Restoration of independence|Azerbaijani national independence movement]]
| image =
| caption = Soviet tanks in Baku during Black January
| date = January 19-20, 1990
| place = [[Baku]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[Soviet Union]]
| coordinates =
| map_type =
| latitude =
| longitude =
| map_size =
| map_caption =
| map_label =
| territory =
| result = Invasion of Baku and massacre of civilians
| status =
| combatant1 = {{flag|Azerbaijan|}}
| combatant2 = {{flag|Soviet Union}}
*{{flagicon image|Red Army flag.svg}} [[Red Army|Soviet Army]]
*[[File:Emblema KGB.svg|19px|link=]] [[KGB]] [[special forces]]
| combatant3 =
| commander1 =
| commander2 =
| commander3 =
| strength1 =
| strength2 = 26,000 troops
| strength3 =
| casualties1 = 133-137 civilians killed More than 800 injured
| casualties2 =
| casualties3 =
| notes =
}}

'''Black January''' ({{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}), also known as '''Black Saturday''' or the '''January Massacre''' was a violent crackdown of the Azerbaijani independence movement in [[Baku]] on January 19–20, 1990, pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] during the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]].

The [[Memorial Society]] and [[Helsinki Watch]] reported that they had found compelling evidence that the imposition of the state of emergency had led to an unwarranted breach of [[civil liberties]] and that Soviet troops had used unjustified force resulting in many deaths.<ref name="BJ">Robert Kushen, Aryeh Neier. ''Conflict in the Soviet Union: Black January in Azerbaidzhan'', [[Human Rights Watch]], 1991, p. 3</ref> This includes the usage of armoured vehicles, bayonets and firing on clearly marked ambulances.<ref name="BJ"/> In the resolution of January 22, 1990 the [[Supreme Soviet]] of the [[Azerbaijan SSR]] declared that the decree of the [[Presidium of the Supreme Soviet#USSR Supreme Soviet|Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet]] of January 19, used to impose emergency rule in [[Baku]] and military deployment, constituted an act of aggression.<ref>Kushen, Neier, p. 45</ref> Black January is seen as the rebirth of the [[Azerbaijan|Azerbaijan Republic]].

== Events ==
[[File:SV100182.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Victims of Black January.]]
In December 1989, Azerbaijanis living in regions bordering [[Iran]] ripped down the border fences demanding closer ties with ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Iran. Local government of [[Jalilabad]] surrendered to rioters turning over the administration to [[Azerbaijani Popular Front Party|Popular Front of Azerbaijan]]. This was followed by a non-violent turnover of [[Lankaran]] administration to Popular Front two week later.<ref name="NYT">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/29/world/upheaval-east-soviet-union-force-last-resort-armed-power-salvages-moscow-s.html?pagewanted=2
|title= UPHEAVAL IN THE EAST: SOVIET UNION; Force as a Last Resort: Armed Power Salvages Moscow's Facing Authority
|publisher= [[The New York Times]]
|author= Bill Keller
|date= 1990-01-28
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> On January 9, 1990, the parliament of [[Armenia]] voted to include [[Nagorno-Karabakh]] in its budget and allowed its inhabitants vote in Armenian elections thus disregarding Soviet authority and Azerbaijani jurisdiction and causing rage throughout Azerbaijan.<ref name=Croissant>{{Citation
| first = Croissant | last = Michael P.
| author-link =
| title = The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict: causes and implications
| place = United States of America
| publisher = Praeger Publishers
| year = 1998
| page = 36, 37
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=ZeP7OZZswtcC&pg=PP1&dq=Michael+P.+Croissant&lr=&cd=3#v=onepage&q=17000&f=false
| isbn = 0-275-96241-5 }}</ref> This led to demonstrations which demanded the ousting of [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] [[communist]] officials and called for independence from the [[Soviet Union]]. Their rhetoric was, according to a [[Human Rights Watch]] report, "heavily anti-Armenian".<ref name=hrw>[http://hrw.org/reports/1995/communal/ Human Rights Watch. “Playing the "Communal Card": Communal Violence and Human Rights”]</ref> On January 12, the Popular Front organized a national defense committee with branches in factories and offices in Baku to mobilize people for battle with Armenians.<ref name="NYT"/>

Beginning on January 13, 1990, a [[Pogrom of Armenians in Baku|repetition of the pogroms]] of [[Sumgait]] was carried out in Baku against [[Armenians in Azerbaijan|Armenians]]. The initial mass demonstration to oust Armenians from their homes turned violent after the reports of an Azeri man being murdered with an axe by Armenian defending his family reached the crowd.<ref name=Croissant/> Armenians were thrown to their deaths from the balconies of upper-story apartments. Around 90 Armenians were murdered in the [[pogrom]]s. The Popular Front of Azerbaijan claimed that the pogroms were the result of "Armenian aggression." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=pletup86PMQC&pg=PA90&dq=Popular+Front+baku+armenians&lr= Black Garden By Thomas De Waal]</ref> The Popular Front instigated the attacks and local authorities did nothing to stop the violence. These attacks were mainly done by young Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia.<ref name="NYT"/> Baku's 300,000 Armenians hastily escaped.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=cB50CI0Xd5IC&pg=PA399&dq=Baku+300,000+armenians&lr= Highlanders By Yo'av Karny]</ref>

Local Azerbaijan authorities were unable to restore order because of internal quarreling and divisions that paralyzed their ability to act. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=JoGrR_9o3SUC&pg=PA96&dq=gorbachev+baku+1990+yazov+soldiers&lr=&cd=16#v=onepage&q=&f=false On My Country and the World, Mikhail Gorbachev]</ref> Azerbaijan authorities also ordered the 12,000 strong Interior Ministry troops to abstain from intervening in the Baku riots<ref>{{Citation
| first = Singh | last = Anita Inder
| author-link =
| title = Democracy, ethnic diversity, and security in post-communist Europe
| place = Berlin
| publisher = Praeger Publishers
| year = 2001
| page = 61
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=nU3bO8uiBn0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Democracy,+ethnic+diversity,+and+security+in+post-communist+Europe+Anita+Inder+Singh&cd=1#v=snippet&q=Interior%20Ministry&f=false
| isbn = 0-275-97258-5 }}</ref> and numerous Soviet army and fleet units of Baku garrison and [[Caspian Flotilla]] did not intervene to stop riots, claiming that they had no orders from Moscow authorities.<ref name="NYT"/> On January 15, the authorities declared states of emergency in other parts of Azerbaijan (but not in Baku), and the pogrom activity began to subside. At the same time, fearing an intervention of the central Soviet authorities, Popular Front activists began a blockade of military barracks.<ref name=hrw/> They had already taken ''de facto'' control in a number of Azerbaijani regions.<ref name=hrw/> On January 18, the Popular Front ordered supporters to barricade the main access routes into Baku using hundreds of cars, trucks and buses. The next day, Soviet authorities evacuated its representatives and local officials moving them to military command post on the outskirts of the city where Soviet Minister of Defense, [[Dmitry Yazov]] and Interior Minister [[Vadim Bakatin]] positioned.<ref name="NYT"/>

Late at night on January 19, 1990, after blowing up of the central television station and terminating of phone and radio lines by Soviet special forces, heavily armed 26,000 Soviet troops entered Baku smashing through APF-erected barricades in order to crush the Popular Front.<ref name=Croissant/> As claimed by Mikhail Gorbachev, gunmen of the Azerbaijani National Front opened fire on the soldiers<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=JoGrR_9o3SUC&pg=PA96&dq=gorbachev+baku+1990+yazov+soldiers&lr=&cd=16#v=onepage&q=&f=false On My Country and the World, By Mikhail Gorbachev]</ref>; however, findings of Moscow based [[NGO|non-governmental organization]] ''Shield'' found no evidence of "armed combatants of Azerbaijani Popular Front", which had been used as a motive to crush the civilian population on January 20.<ref>{{Citation
| first = | last =
| author-link =
| title = Report of "Shield" union
| place = Moscow
| publisher = Moscow News
| year = August 12, 1990
| page =
| url= }}</ref> The indepedent ''Shield'' organization which consists of group of lawyers and officers in reserve, observing human rights violations in the army and its military operations<ref>{{Cite web
| last = Zverev
| first = Alexei
| title = Этнические конфликты на Кавказе, 1988—1994 г.
| trans_title = Ethnic conflicts in Caucasus, 1988-1994
| url=http://poli.vub.ac.be/publi/ContBorders/rus/ch0102.htm
| accessdate = 25 March 2010 }}</ref>, concluded that the army waged a war on its civilians and demanded to start a criminal investigation against the Minister of Defense, Dmitry Yazov who had personally led the operation.<ref name=Waal>{{Citation
| first = De Waal | last = Thomas
| author-link =
| title = Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through peace and war
| place = New York and London
| publisher = New York University Press
| year = 2003
| page = 93
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=pletup86PMQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Black+Garden&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Shield&f=false
| isbn = 0-275-97258-5 }}</ref> The Azerbaijani Interior Ministry officials had helped Popular Front activists in stirring disorder by providing with weapons, technical facilities, and informing them about the movement of army units.<ref>[''Washington Post'', January 27, 1990, Michael Dobbs</ref> In the course of the storming, the troops attacked the protesters, firing in the crowds. The shooting continued for three days. They acted pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] (which continued on for more than 4 months) declared by the [[USSR]] Supreme Soviet Presidium, signed by President [[Gorbachev]]. The state of emergency was, however, disclosed to the [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] public only several hours<ref name=hrw/> after the beginning of the offensive, when many citizens already laid dead or wounded in the streets, hospitals and morgues of Baku.

According to one report, 93 Azerbaijanis and 29 Russian soldiers were killed in the street skirmishes. Other reports state that 21 soldiers were killed and 90 wounded in the fighting. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=kiBHkRtRmIIC&pg=PA195&dq=29+soldiers+killed+soviet+1990+baku+January+one+report&lr=&cd=7#v=onepage&q=29%20soldiers%20killed%20soviet%201990%20baku%20January%20one%20report&f=false Remembrance and denial: the case of the Armenian genocide By Richard G. Hovannisian]</ref> <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=0TfIphAdnGwC&pg=PA377&dq=wounded+soldiers+Baku+soviet+1990+January&lr=&cd=2#v=onepage&q=wounded%20soldiers%20Baku%20soviet%201990%20January&f=false Nationalist mobilization and the collapse of the Soviet State By Mark R. Beissinger]</ref> However, how the soldiers died is still disputed. The soldiers' death toll was claimed by Soviet authorities to have resulted from armed resistance, although some of the soldiers could have been victims of [[friendly fire]] from their own.<ref name=Waal/>

Other estimates indicate that between 133<ref>[http://www.january20.net/ 20 January]</ref> and 137<ref name=BBC>
{{cite news
|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1477933.stm
|title= Eyewitness: A republic loses faith
|publisher= [[BBC News]]
|author= Elchin Khalilov
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> civilians died with unofficial number reaching 300.<ref name="Azerbaijan International">
{{cite news
|url= http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html
|title= Black January: Baku (1990). Behind the Scenes - A Photojournalist's Perspective
|publisher= [[Azerbaijan International]]
|month= Spring| year= 1998
|pages= 33–37
|last1= |first1= Reza
|last2= Blair |first2= Betty
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> Up to 800 were injured and 5 went missing.<ref name="Turkish Weekly">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.turkishweekly.net/op-ed/2460/20-january-1990-black-face-of-the-red-terror-in-azerbaijan.html
|title= 20 January 1990: Black Face of the Red Terror in Azerbaijan
|publisher= [[Turkish Weekly]]
|author= Shamkhal Abilov
|date= 2010-01-9
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}</ref> An additional 26 people were killed in [[Neftchala]] and Lankaran regions of the country.<ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://today.az/news/society/59767.html
|title= Azerbaijan commemorates the anniversary of 20th January tragedy
|publisher= Today.az
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> The Soviet army soldiers used [[5.45x39mm#Wounding effects|5.45 mm caliber bullets with a shifted center of gravity]] designed to sheer after entering the body thus causing an excessive physical damage to the body<ref>
{{Cite press release
| title = 20 January Tragedy Monstrous Crime Against Azerbaijani People Humanism and Humanity
| publisher = Embassy of Azerbaijan Republic in Kazakhstan
| date = January 17, 2006
| url = http://www.azembassy.kz/news/images/press-Y3Q1p.pdf
| accessdate = 20 January 2010}}</ref><ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://www.525.az/view.php?lang=ru&menu=17&id=8225
|title= 20 января – день печали и надменности
|trans_title= 20 January - Day of sorrow and disdain
|publisher= 525-ci qazet
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref>. January 20 is marked as the Day of the Nationwide Sorrow in Azerbaijan.<ref>[http://www.president.az/browse.php?sec_id=56 President of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan. Bloody Memories]</ref>

== State of Emergency ==

President Gorbachev and other officials asserted that it was necessary to stop pogroms and violence against the Armenian population and to thwart efforts by extremists to overthrow the Azerbaijani government. The governemnt's decree said: "Extremist groups are organizing mass disorders fanning national enmity. They are committing bold criminal acts, mining roads and bridges, shelling settlements, taking hostages." <ref> Austin American Statesman Jan 16, 1990</ref>

Almost the whole population of Baku turned out to bury the dead on the third day - January 22.<ref name=Croissant>{{Citation
| first = Shaffer | last = Brenda
| author-link =
| title = Borders and brethren: Iran and the challenge of Azerbaijani identity
| place = United States of America
| publisher = Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
| year = 2002
| page = 140
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=sHKSh_XltKMC&pg=PA140&dq=Black+January+Azerbaijan&lr=&cd=9#v=onepage&q=Black%20January%20Azerbaijan&f=false
| isbn = 0-262-19477-5 }}</ref> For another 40 days, the country stayed away from work in a sign of mourning and mass protest.<ref name="hrw"/>

Then Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov stated that the use of force in Baku was intended to prevent a ''de facto'' overthrow of local government by the non-communist opposition, namely the Popular Front of Azerbaijan (PFA), to prevent their victory in the upcoming elections scheduled for March 1990, and to destroy their "structure of power", ensuring that the Communist government remained in power.<ref>
{{cite news
| url= http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/72560980.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jan+27%2C+1990&author=Michael+Dobbs&pub=The+Washington+Post+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=a.13&desc=Soviets+Say+Troops+Used+To+Avert+Coup+in+Baku%3BNationalists+Said+to+Plan+Seizure+of+Power
| title= Soviets Say Troops Used To Avert Coup in Baku;Nationalists Said to Plan Seizure of Power
| publisher= The Washington Post
| author = Michael Dobbs
| date=1990-01-27
| accessdate=2010-03-05
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
| url= http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/inside/publications/1999_NK_Book.pdf
| title= The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
| publisher= Uppsala University
| work=Department of East European Studies
| author = Svante Cornell
| date=1999
| volume=46
| issue=
| accessdate=2010-03-05
}}</ref><ref>{{Citation
| first1 = Lobell | last1 = Steven E.
| first2 = Mauceri | last2 = Phillip
| author-link =
| title = Ethnic conflict and international politics: explaining diffusion and escalation
| place = The United States
| publisher = Palgrave MacMillan
| year = 2004
| page = 58
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=xVmvbEgcZIQC&pg=PA58&dq=Black+January+Azerbaijan&lr=&cd=15#v=onepage&q=Black%20January%20Azerbaijan&f=false
| isbn = 1-4039-6355-X }}</ref>

A special session of the Supreme Council (Parliament) of [[Azerbaijan SSR]] held on January 22, 1990 at the request of public and by initiative of the group of MPs tried to initially assess the January 20 events and adopted some documents condemning the crackdown operation by Soviet army.

== Black January ==
[[File:The tragedy of January 20.jpg|thumb|300px|Azerbaijani stamp with photos of Black January]]
The [[Human Rights Watch]] report entitled "Black January in Azerbaijan" states: "Indeed, the violence used by the Soviet Army on the night of January 19–20 was so out of proportion to the resistance offered by Azerbaijanis as to constitute an exercise in collective punishment. Since Soviet officials have stated publicly that the purpose of the intervention of Soviet troops was to prevent the ouster of the Communist-dominated government of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the nationalist-minded, noncommunist opposition, the punishment inflicted on Baku by Soviet soldiers may have been intended as a warning to nationalists, not only in Azerbaijan, but in the other Republics of the Soviet Union."

"The subsequent events in the Baltic Republics - where, in a remarkable parallel to the events in Baku, alleged civil disorder was cited as justification for violent intervention by Soviet troops -further confirms that the Soviet Government has demonstrated that it will deal harshly with nationalist movements," continues the Human Rights Watch report.

During the Black January crackdown, the Soviets managed to suppress all efforts to disseminate news from Azerbaijan to the local population and the international community. On the eve of the Soviet military invasion in [[Baku]], one of leaders of Popular Front, Ekhtibar Mamedov proposed to Kremlin officials to appear on Azerbaijani TV at 8 PM announcing First Secretary of Azerbaijani Communist Party, [[Abdurrahman Vazirov]] would be leaving and no troops would invade Baku which would restore the order.<ref name="NYT"/> Instead, an energy supply source to Azerbaijani TV and State Radio was blown up by intelligence officers at 7:15 PM in order to cut off the population from any source of information. TV and radio was silent and all print media was banned.<ref name="Turkish Weekly"/> But [[Mirza Khazar]] and his staff at [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] succeeded in broadcasting daily reports from Baku,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html |title= Black January 1990|publisher =Azerbaijan International |author= |accessdate=2009-02-26}}</ref> making it the only source of news to Azerbaijanis within and outside of the country for several days. The Kremlin leadership tried hard to keep the outside world and the population inside Azerbaijan unaware of the military invasion, but Mirza Khazar and his staff foiled this attempt. Thanks to Mirza Khazar and his staff at Radio Liberty, Azerbaijanis in and outside Azerbaijan, as well as the international community, learned about the Soviet invasion and gained a chance to organize protest actions. Shocked by this "surprising" development, the government of the [[USSR]] complained officially to the [[United States]] about Radio Liberty's<ref>[http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-05/entertainment/ca-1371_1_radio-liberty Soviet Officials Charge Voice of America, Radio Liberty Fueled Riots]</ref> coverage of the military invasion of Azerbaijan. The January 20, 1990, broadcasts turned Mirza Khazar into a legend among [[Azerbaijanis]] in and outside Azerbaijan. Malahat Aghajanqizi, a well-known Azerbaijani poetess and writer, described Mirza Khazar’s appearance on radio at the time of the Soviet military invasion as follows: “On January 20, Mirza Khazar with his God-given divine voice, gave hope to the dying Azerbaijani people.”<ref>[http://mirzexezerinsesi.net/articles/2008/11/29/melahet-agacanqizi-mirze-xezerin-sesi Article on Mirza Khazar]</ref>

The Wall Street Journal editorial of January 4, 1995 claimed that Gorbachev chose to use violence against "independence-seeking Azerbaijan." When a year later the world press criticized Gorbachev for violent massacres of civilians in [[January Events (Lithuania)|Lithuania]] and [[January 1991 events in Latvia|Latvia]], Azerbaijani public was embittered for the silence of the world media on Gorbachev's orders a year ealier, during Black January.<ref>{{Citation
| first = Altstadt | last = Audrey L.
| author-link =
| title = The Azerbaijani Turks: power and identity under Russian rule
| place = Standford, CA
| publisher = Standford University. Hoover Institution Press Publication
| year = 1992
| page = 224
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=sZVN2MwWZVAC&pg=PA224&dq=Black+January+Azerbaijan&lr=&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Black%20January%20Azerbaijan&f=false
| isbn = 0-8179-9182-4 }}</ref>

[[File:SV100165-azer genocide memorial.jpg|thumb|200px||A Memorial dedicated to all victims of [[March Days]] and Black January.]]

== Independence ==
On October 18, 1991, the Parliament of Azerbaijan restored the country's independence. Gorbachev later apologized to Azerbaijan by stating: "The declaration of a state emergency in Baku was the biggest mistake of my political career". In 1994, the [[National Assembly of Azerbaijan]] adopted a full political and legal evaluation of the Black January events. According to the decree of the [[President of Azerbaijan]] [[Heydar Aliyev]] from December 16, 1999, all victims of the crackdown were awarded an honorary title of the "Martyr of January 20" ({{lang-az|20 yanvar şəhidi}}).

== See also ==
* [[History of Azerbaijan]]
* [[History of the Soviet Union]]
* [[April 9, 1989 Massacre]]
* [[Jeltoqsan]]
* [[January Events (Lithuania)]]
* [[January 1991 events in Latvia]]

== Notes and references ==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== External links ==
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=3bmVTBIBcREC&pg=PA203&dq=Black+January+Azerbaijan&lr=&cd=25#v=onepage&q=Black%20January%20Azerbaijan&f=false Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe - Working Papers - 2008 Ordinary Session 21. Written Declaration No. 405. Doc. 11499 - 21 January 2008. Massacre of Azerbaijanis by Soviet troops]
* [http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html Black January: Baku (1990) / Azerbaijan International (Spring 1998)]
* http://www.january20.net
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1477933.stm

{{Fall of Communism}}
{{Azerbaijan topics}}
{{Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict}}
{{coord missing|Azerbaijan}}

[[Category:History of Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Massacres in Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Massacres in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Riots in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:1990 in the Soviet Union]]

[[ar:السبت الأسود]]
[[az:Qara Yanvar]]
[[fr:Janvier Noir]]
[[id:Januari Hitam]]
[[ka:შავი იანვარი]]
[[pt:Janeiro Negro]]
[[ro:Ianuarie negru]]
[[ru:Чёрный январь]]
[[tr:Kara Ocak]]

Schwarzer Januar

2010-03-25T22:56:49Z

76.191.230.178: /* State of Emergency */ Removed unsourced claim

{{infobox military conflict
| conflict = Black January''' {{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}
| partof = [[Azerbaijan#Restoration of independence|Azerbaijani national independence movement]]
| image =
| caption = Soviet tanks in Baku during Black January
| date = January 19-20, 1990
| place = [[Baku]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[Soviet Union]]
| coordinates =
| map_type =
| latitude =
| longitude =
| map_size =
| map_caption =
| map_label =
| territory =
| result = Invasion of Baku and massacre of civilians
| status =
| combatant1 = {{flag|Azerbaijan|}}
| combatant2 = {{flag|Soviet Union}}
*{{flagicon image|Red Army flag.svg}} [[Red Army|Soviet Army]]
*[[File:Emblema KGB.svg|19px|link=]] [[KGB]] [[special forces]]
| combatant3 =
| commander1 =
| commander2 =
| commander3 =
| strength1 =
| strength2 = 26,000 troops
| strength3 =
| casualties1 = 133-137 civilians killed More than 800 injured
| casualties2 =
| casualties3 =
| notes =
}}

'''Black January''' ({{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}), also known as '''Black Saturday''' or the '''January Massacre''' was a violent crackdown of the Azerbaijani independence movement in [[Baku]] on January 19–20, 1990, pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] during the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]].

The [[Memorial Society]] and [[Helsinki Watch]] reported that they had found compelling evidence that the imposition of the state of emergency had led to an unwarranted breach of [[civil liberties]] and that Soviet troops had used unjustified force resulting in many deaths.<ref name="BJ">Robert Kushen, Aryeh Neier. ''Conflict in the Soviet Union: Black January in Azerbaidzhan'', [[Human Rights Watch]], 1991, p. 3</ref> This includes the usage of armoured vehicles, bayonets and firing on clearly marked ambulances.<ref name="BJ"/> In the resolution of January 22, 1990 the [[Supreme Soviet]] of the [[Azerbaijan SSR]] declared that the decree of the [[Presidium of the Supreme Soviet#USSR Supreme Soviet|Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet]] of January 19, used to impose emergency rule in [[Baku]] and military deployment, constituted an act of aggression.<ref>Kushen, Neier, p. 45</ref> Black January is seen as the rebirth of the [[Azerbaijan|Azerbaijan Republic]].

== Events ==
[[File:SV100182.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Victims of Black January.]]
In December 1989, Azerbaijanis living in regions bordering [[Iran]] ripped down the border fences demanding closer ties with ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Iran. Local government of [[Jalilabad]] surrendered to rioters turning over the administration to [[Azerbaijani Popular Front Party|Popular Front of Azerbaijan]]. This was followed by a non-violent turnover of [[Lankaran]] administration to Popular Front two week later.<ref name="NYT">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/29/world/upheaval-east-soviet-union-force-last-resort-armed-power-salvages-moscow-s.html?pagewanted=2
|title= UPHEAVAL IN THE EAST: SOVIET UNION; Force as a Last Resort: Armed Power Salvages Moscow's Facing Authority
|publisher= [[The New York Times]]
|author= Bill Keller
|date= 1990-01-28
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> On January 9, 1990, the parliament of [[Armenia]] voted to include [[Nagorno-Karabakh]] in its budget and allowed its inhabitants vote in Armenian elections thus disregarding Soviet authority and Azerbaijani jurisdiction and causing rage throughout Azerbaijan.<ref name=Croissant>{{Citation
| first = Croissant | last = Michael P.
| author-link =
| title = The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict: causes and implications
| place = United States of America
| publisher = Praeger Publishers
| year = 1998
| page = 36, 37
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=ZeP7OZZswtcC&pg=PP1&dq=Michael+P.+Croissant&lr=&cd=3#v=onepage&q=17000&f=false
| isbn = 0-275-96241-5 }}</ref> This led to demonstrations which demanded the ousting of [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] [[communist]] officials and called for independence from the [[Soviet Union]]. Their rhetoric was, according to a [[Human Rights Watch]] report, "heavily anti-Armenian".<ref name=hrw>[http://hrw.org/reports/1995/communal/ Human Rights Watch. “Playing the "Communal Card": Communal Violence and Human Rights”]</ref> On January 12, the Popular Front organized a national defense committee with branches in factories and offices in Baku to mobilize people for battle with Armenians.<ref name="NYT"/>

Beginning on January 13, 1990, a [[Pogrom of Armenians in Baku|repetition of the pogroms]] of [[Sumgait]] was carried out in Baku against [[Armenians in Azerbaijan|Armenians]]. The initial mass demonstration to oust Armenians from their homes turned violent after the reports of an Azeri man being murdered with an axe by Armenian defending his family reached the crowd.<ref name=Croissant/> Armenians were thrown to their deaths from the balconies of upper-story apartments. Around 90 Armenians were murdered in the [[pogrom]]s. The Popular Front of Azerbaijan claimed that the pogroms were the result of "Armenian aggression." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=pletup86PMQC&pg=PA90&dq=Popular+Front+baku+armenians&lr= Black Garden By Thomas De Waal]</ref> The Popular Front instigated the attacks and local authorities did nothing to stop the violence. These attacks were mainly done by young Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia.<ref name="NYT"/> Baku's 300,000 Armenians hastily escaped.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=cB50CI0Xd5IC&pg=PA399&dq=Baku+300,000+armenians&lr= Highlanders By Yo'av Karny]</ref>

Local Azerbaijan authorities were unable to restore order because of internal quarreling and divisions that paralyzed their ability to act. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=JoGrR_9o3SUC&pg=PA96&dq=gorbachev+baku+1990+yazov+soldiers&lr=&cd=16#v=onepage&q=&f=false On My Country and the World, Mikhail Gorbachev]</ref> Azerbaijan authorities also ordered the 12,000 strong Interior Ministry troops to abstain from intervening in the Baku riots<ref>{{Citation
| first = Singh | last = Anita Inder
| author-link =
| title = Democracy, ethnic diversity, and security in post-communist Europe
| place = Berlin
| publisher = Praeger Publishers
| year = 2001
| page = 61
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=nU3bO8uiBn0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Democracy,+ethnic+diversity,+and+security+in+post-communist+Europe+Anita+Inder+Singh&cd=1#v=snippet&q=Interior%20Ministry&f=false
| isbn = 0-275-97258-5 }}</ref> and numerous Soviet army and fleet units of Baku garrison and [[Caspian Flotilla]] did not intervene to stop riots, claiming that they had no orders from Moscow authorities.<ref name="NYT"/> On January 15, the authorities declared states of emergency in other parts of Azerbaijan (but not in Baku), and the pogrom activity began to subside. At the same time, fearing an intervention of the central Soviet authorities, Popular Front activists began a blockade of military barracks.<ref name=hrw/> They had already taken ''de facto'' control in a number of Azerbaijani regions.<ref name=hrw/> On January 18, the Popular Front ordered supporters to barricade the main access routes into Baku using hundreds of cars, trucks and buses. The next day, Soviet authorities evacuated its representatives and local officials moving them to military command post on the outskirts of the city where Soviet Minister of Defense, [[Dmitry Yazov]] and Interior Minister [[Vadim Bakatin]] positioned.<ref name="NYT"/>

Late at night on January 19, 1990, after blowing up of the central television station and terminating of phone and radio lines by Soviet special forces, heavily armed 26,000 Soviet troops entered Baku smashing through APF-erected barricades in order to crush the Popular Front.<ref name=Croissant/> As claimed by Mikhail Gorbachev, gunmen of the Azerbaijani National Front opened fire on the soldiers<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=JoGrR_9o3SUC&pg=PA96&dq=gorbachev+baku+1990+yazov+soldiers&lr=&cd=16#v=onepage&q=&f=false On My Country and the World, By Mikhail Gorbachev]</ref>; however, findings of Moscow based [[NGO|non-governmental organization]] ''Shield'' found no evidence of "armed combatants of Azerbaijani Popular Front", which had been used as a motive to crush the civilian population on January 20.<ref>{{Citation
| first = | last =
| author-link =
| title = Report of "Shield" union
| place = Moscow
| publisher = Moscow News
| year = August 12, 1990
| page =
| url= }}</ref> The indepedent ''Shield'' organization which consists of group of lawyers and officers in reserve, observing human rights violations in the army and its military operations<ref>{{Cite web
| last = Zverev
| first = Alexei
| title = Этнические конфликты на Кавказе, 1988—1994 г.
| trans_title = Ethnic conflicts in Caucasus, 1988-1994
| url=http://poli.vub.ac.be/publi/ContBorders/rus/ch0102.htm
| accessdate = 25 March 2010 }}</ref>, concluded that the army waged a war on its civilians and demanded to start a criminal investigation against the Minister of Defense, Dmitry Yazov who had personally led the operation.<ref name=Waal>{{Citation
| first = De Waal | last = Thomas
| author-link =
| title = Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through peace and war
| place = New York and London
| publisher = New York University Press
| year = 2003
| page = 93
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=pletup86PMQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Black+Garden&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Shield&f=false
| isbn = 0-275-97258-5 }}</ref> The Azerbaijani Interior Ministry officials had helped Popular Front activists in stirring disorder by providing with weapons, technical facilities, and informing them about the movement of army units.<ref>[''Washington Post'', January 27, 1990, Michael Dobbs</ref> In the course of the storming, the troops attacked the protesters, firing in the crowds. The shooting continued for three days. They acted pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] (which continued on for more than 4 months) declared by the [[USSR]] Supreme Soviet Presidium, signed by President [[Gorbachev]]. The state of emergency was, however, disclosed to the [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] public only several hours<ref name=hrw/> after the beginning of the offensive, when many citizens already laid dead or wounded in the streets, hospitals and morgues of Baku.

According to one report, 93 Azerbaijanis and 29 Russian soldiers were killed in the street skirmishes. Other reports state that 21 soldiers were killed and 90 wounded in the fighting. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=kiBHkRtRmIIC&pg=PA195&dq=29+soldiers+killed+soviet+1990+baku+January+one+report&lr=&cd=7#v=onepage&q=29%20soldiers%20killed%20soviet%201990%20baku%20January%20one%20report&f=false Remembrance and denial: the case of the Armenian genocide By Richard G. Hovannisian]</ref> <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=0TfIphAdnGwC&pg=PA377&dq=wounded+soldiers+Baku+soviet+1990+January&lr=&cd=2#v=onepage&q=wounded%20soldiers%20Baku%20soviet%201990%20January&f=false Nationalist mobilization and the collapse of the Soviet State By Mark R. Beissinger]</ref> However, how the soldiers died is still disputed. The soldiers' death toll was claimed by Soviet authorities to have resulted from armed resistance, although some of the soldiers could have been victims of [[friendly fire]] from their own.<ref name=Waal/>

Other estimates indicate that between 133<ref>[http://www.january20.net/ 20 January]</ref> and 137<ref name=BBC>
{{cite news
|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1477933.stm
|title= Eyewitness: A republic loses faith
|publisher= [[BBC News]]
|author= Elchin Khalilov
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> civilians died with unofficial number reaching 300.<ref name="Azerbaijan International">
{{cite news
|url= http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html
|title= Black January: Baku (1990). Behind the Scenes - A Photojournalist's Perspective
|publisher= [[Azerbaijan International]]
|month= Spring| year= 1998
|pages= 33–37
|last1= |first1= Reza
|last2= Blair |first2= Betty
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> Up to 800 were injured and 5 went missing.<ref name="Turkish Weekly">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.turkishweekly.net/op-ed/2460/20-january-1990-black-face-of-the-red-terror-in-azerbaijan.html
|title= 20 January 1990: Black Face of the Red Terror in Azerbaijan
|publisher= [[Turkish Weekly]]
|author= Shamkhal Abilov
|date= 2010-01-9
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}</ref> An additional 26 people were killed in [[Neftchala]] and Lankaran regions of the country.<ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://today.az/news/society/59767.html
|title= Azerbaijan commemorates the anniversary of 20th January tragedy
|publisher= Today.az
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> The Soviet army soldiers used [[5.45x39mm#Wounding effects|5.45 mm caliber bullets with a shifted center of gravity]] designed to sheer after entering the body thus causing an excessive physical damage to the body<ref>
{{Cite press release
| title = 20 January Tragedy Monstrous Crime Against Azerbaijani People Humanism and Humanity
| publisher = Embassy of Azerbaijan Republic in Kazakhstan
| date = January 17, 2006
| url = http://www.azembassy.kz/news/images/press-Y3Q1p.pdf
| accessdate = 20 January 2010}}</ref><ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://www.525.az/view.php?lang=ru&menu=17&id=8225
|title= 20 января – день печали и надменности
|trans_title= 20 January - Day of sorrow and disdain
|publisher= 525-ci qazet
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref>. January 20 is marked as the Day of the Nationwide Sorrow in Azerbaijan.<ref>[http://www.president.az/browse.php?sec_id=56 President of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan. Bloody Memories]</ref>

== State of Emergency ==

Almost the whole population of Baku turned out to bury the dead on the third day - January 22.<ref name=Croissant>{{Citation
| first = Shaffer | last = Brenda
| author-link =
| title = Borders and brethren: Iran and the challenge of Azerbaijani identity
| place = United States of America
| publisher = Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
| year = 2002
| page = 140
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=sHKSh_XltKMC&pg=PA140&dq=Black+January+Azerbaijan&lr=&cd=9#v=onepage&q=Black%20January%20Azerbaijan&f=false
| isbn = 0-262-19477-5 }}</ref> For another 40 days, the country stayed away from work in a sign of mourning and mass protest.<ref name="hrw"/>

Then Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov stated that the use of force in Baku was intended to prevent a ''de facto'' overthrow of local government by the non-communist opposition, namely the Popular Front of Azerbaijan (PFA), to prevent their victory in the upcoming elections scheduled for March 1990, and to destroy their "structure of power", ensuring that the Communist government remained in power.<ref>
{{cite news
| url= http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/72560980.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jan+27%2C+1990&author=Michael+Dobbs&pub=The+Washington+Post+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=a.13&desc=Soviets+Say+Troops+Used+To+Avert+Coup+in+Baku%3BNationalists+Said+to+Plan+Seizure+of+Power
| title= Soviets Say Troops Used To Avert Coup in Baku;Nationalists Said to Plan Seizure of Power
| publisher= The Washington Post
| author = Michael Dobbs
| date=1990-01-27
| accessdate=2010-03-05
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
| url= http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/inside/publications/1999_NK_Book.pdf
| title= The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
| publisher= Uppsala University
| work=Department of East European Studies
| author = Svante Cornell
| date=1999
| volume=46
| issue=
| accessdate=2010-03-05
}}</ref><ref>{{Citation
| first1 = Lobell | last1 = Steven E.
| first2 = Mauceri | last2 = Phillip
| author-link =
| title = Ethnic conflict and international politics: explaining diffusion and escalation
| place = The United States
| publisher = Palgrave MacMillan
| year = 2004
| page = 58
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=xVmvbEgcZIQC&pg=PA58&dq=Black+January+Azerbaijan&lr=&cd=15#v=onepage&q=Black%20January%20Azerbaijan&f=false
| isbn = 1-4039-6355-X }}</ref>

A special session of the Supreme Council (Parliament) of [[Azerbaijan SSR]] held on January 22, 1990 at the request of public and by initiative of the group of MPs tried to initially assess the January 20 events and adopted some documents condemning the crackdown operation by Soviet army.

== Black January ==
[[File:The tragedy of January 20.jpg|thumb|300px|Azerbaijani stamp with photos of Black January]]
The [[Human Rights Watch]] report entitled "Black January in Azerbaijan" states: "Indeed, the violence used by the Soviet Army on the night of January 19–20 was so out of proportion to the resistance offered by Azerbaijanis as to constitute an exercise in collective punishment. Since Soviet officials have stated publicly that the purpose of the intervention of Soviet troops was to prevent the ouster of the Communist-dominated government of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the nationalist-minded, noncommunist opposition, the punishment inflicted on Baku by Soviet soldiers may have been intended as a warning to nationalists, not only in Azerbaijan, but in the other Republics of the Soviet Union."

"The subsequent events in the Baltic Republics - where, in a remarkable parallel to the events in Baku, alleged civil disorder was cited as justification for violent intervention by Soviet troops -further confirms that the Soviet Government has demonstrated that it will deal harshly with nationalist movements," continues the Human Rights Watch report.

During the Black January crackdown, the Soviets managed to suppress all efforts to disseminate news from Azerbaijan to the local population and the international community. On the eve of the Soviet military invasion in [[Baku]], one of leaders of Popular Front, Ekhtibar Mamedov proposed to Kremlin officials to appear on Azerbaijani TV at 8 PM announcing First Secretary of Azerbaijani Communist Party, [[Abdurrahman Vazirov]] would be leaving and no troops would invade Baku which would restore the order.<ref name="NYT"/> Instead, an energy supply source to Azerbaijani TV and State Radio was blown up by intelligence officers at 7:15 PM in order to cut off the population from any source of information. TV and radio was silent and all print media was banned.<ref name="Turkish Weekly"/> But [[Mirza Khazar]] and his staff at [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] succeeded in broadcasting daily reports from Baku,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html |title= Black January 1990|publisher =Azerbaijan International |author= |accessdate=2009-02-26}}</ref> making it the only source of news to Azerbaijanis within and outside of the country for several days. The Kremlin leadership tried hard to keep the outside world and the population inside Azerbaijan unaware of the military invasion, but Mirza Khazar and his staff foiled this attempt. Thanks to Mirza Khazar and his staff at Radio Liberty, Azerbaijanis in and outside Azerbaijan, as well as the international community, learned about the Soviet invasion and gained a chance to organize protest actions. Shocked by this "surprising" development, the government of the [[USSR]] complained officially to the [[United States]] about Radio Liberty's<ref>[http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-05/entertainment/ca-1371_1_radio-liberty Soviet Officials Charge Voice of America, Radio Liberty Fueled Riots]</ref> coverage of the military invasion of Azerbaijan. The January 20, 1990, broadcasts turned Mirza Khazar into a legend among [[Azerbaijanis]] in and outside Azerbaijan. Malahat Aghajanqizi, a well-known Azerbaijani poetess and writer, described Mirza Khazar’s appearance on radio at the time of the Soviet military invasion as follows: “On January 20, Mirza Khazar with his God-given divine voice, gave hope to the dying Azerbaijani people.”<ref>[http://mirzexezerinsesi.net/articles/2008/11/29/melahet-agacanqizi-mirze-xezerin-sesi Article on Mirza Khazar]</ref>

The Wall Street Journal editorial of January 4, 1995 claimed that Gorbachev chose to use violence against "independence-seeking Azerbaijan." When a year later the world press criticized Gorbachev for violent massacres of civilians in [[January Events (Lithuania)|Lithuania]] and [[January 1991 events in Latvia|Latvia]], Azerbaijani public was embittered for the silence of the world media on Gorbachev's orders a year ealier, during Black January.<ref>{{Citation
| first = Altstadt | last = Audrey L.
| author-link =
| title = The Azerbaijani Turks: power and identity under Russian rule
| place = Standford, CA
| publisher = Standford University. Hoover Institution Press Publication
| year = 1992
| page = 224
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=sZVN2MwWZVAC&pg=PA224&dq=Black+January+Azerbaijan&lr=&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Black%20January%20Azerbaijan&f=false
| isbn = 0-8179-9182-4 }}</ref>

[[File:SV100165-azer genocide memorial.jpg|thumb|200px||A Memorial dedicated to all victims of [[March Days]] and Black January.]]

== Independence ==
On October 18, 1991, the Parliament of Azerbaijan restored the country's independence. Gorbachev later apologized to Azerbaijan by stating: "The declaration of a state emergency in Baku was the biggest mistake of my political career". In 1994, the [[National Assembly of Azerbaijan]] adopted a full political and legal evaluation of the Black January events. According to the decree of the [[President of Azerbaijan]] [[Heydar Aliyev]] from December 16, 1999, all victims of the crackdown were awarded an honorary title of the "Martyr of January 20" ({{lang-az|20 yanvar şəhidi}}).

== See also ==
* [[History of Azerbaijan]]
* [[History of the Soviet Union]]
* [[April 9, 1989 Massacre]]
* [[Jeltoqsan]]
* [[January Events (Lithuania)]]
* [[January 1991 events in Latvia]]

== Notes and references ==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== External links ==
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=3bmVTBIBcREC&pg=PA203&dq=Black+January+Azerbaijan&lr=&cd=25#v=onepage&q=Black%20January%20Azerbaijan&f=false Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe - Working Papers - 2008 Ordinary Session 21. Written Declaration No. 405. Doc. 11499 - 21 January 2008. Massacre of Azerbaijanis by Soviet troops]
* [http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html Black January: Baku (1990) / Azerbaijan International (Spring 1998)]
* http://www.january20.net
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1477933.stm

{{Fall of Communism}}
{{Azerbaijan topics}}
{{Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict}}
{{coord missing|Azerbaijan}}

[[Category:History of Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Massacres in Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Massacres in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Riots in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:1990 in the Soviet Union]]

[[ar:السبت الأسود]]
[[az:Qara Yanvar]]
[[fr:Janvier Noir]]
[[id:Januari Hitam]]
[[ka:შავი იანვარი]]
[[pt:Janeiro Negro]]
[[ro:Ianuarie negru]]
[[ru:Чёрный январь]]
[[tr:Kara Ocak]]

Schwarzer Januar

2010-03-24T07:07:35Z

76.191.230.178: /* Events */ Soldiers were attacked

{{infobox military conflict
| conflict = Black January''' {{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}
| partof = [[Azerbaijan#Restoration of independence|Azerbaijani national independence movement]]
| image =
| caption = Soviet tanks in Baku during Black January
| date = January 19-20, 1990
| place = [[Baku]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[Soviet Union]]
| coordinates =
| map_type =
| latitude =
| longitude =
| map_size =
| map_caption =
| map_label =
| territory =
| result = Invasion of Baku and massacre of civilians
| status =
| combatant1 = {{flag|Azerbaijan|}}
| combatant2 = {{flag|Soviet Union}}
*{{flagicon image|Red Army flag.svg}} [[Red Army|Soviet Army]]
*[[File:Emblema KGB.svg|19px|link=]] [[KGB]] [[special forces]]
| combatant3 =
| commander1 =
| commander2 =
| commander3 =
| strength1 =
| strength2 = 26,000 troops
| strength3 =
| casualties1 = 133-137 civilians killed More than 800 injured
| casualties2 =
| casualties3 =
| notes =
}}

'''Black January''' ({{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}), also known as '''Black Saturday''' or the '''January Massacre''' was a violent crackdown of the Azerbaijani independence movement in [[Baku]] on January 19–20, 1990, pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] during the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]].

The [[Memorial Society]] and [[Helsinki Watch]] reported that they had found compelling evidence that the imposition of the state of emergency had led to an unwarranted breach of [[civil liberties]] and that Soviet troops had used unjustified force resulting in many deaths.<ref name="BJ">Robert Kushen, Aryeh Neier. ''Conflict in the Soviet Union: Black January in Azerbaidzhan'', [[Human Rights Watch]], 1991, p. 3</ref> This includes the usage of armoured vehicles, bayonets and firing on clearly marked ambulances.<ref name="BJ"/> In the resolution of January 22, 1990 the [[Supreme Soviet]] of the [[Azerbaijan SSR]] declared that the decree of the [[Presidium of the Supreme Soviet#USSR Supreme Soviet|Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet]] of January 19, used to impose emergency rule in [[Baku]] and military deployment, constituted an act of aggression.<ref>Kushen, Neier, p. 45</ref> Black January is seen as the rebirth of the [[Azerbaijan|Azerbaijan Republic]].

== Events ==
[[File:SV100182.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Victims of Black January.]]
In December 1989, Azerbaijanis living in regions bordering [[Iran]] ripped down the border fences demanding closer ties with ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Iran. Local government of [[Jalilabad]] surrendered to rioters turning over the administration to [[Azerbaijani Popular Front Party|Popular Front of Azerbaijan]]. This was followed by a non-violent turnover of [[Lankaran]] administration to Popular Front two week later.<ref name="NYT">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/29/world/upheaval-east-soviet-union-force-last-resort-armed-power-salvages-moscow-s.html?pagewanted=2
|title= UPHEAVAL IN THE EAST: SOVIET UNION; Force as a Last Resort: Armed Power Salvages Moscow's Facing Authority
|publisher= [[The New York Times]]
|author= Bill Keller
|date= 1990-01-28
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> On January 10, 1990, the parliament of [[Armenia]] voted to include [[Nagorno-Karabakh]] in its budget and allowed its inhabitants vote in Armenian elections thus disregarding Soviet authority and Azerbaijani jurisdiction and causing rage throughout Azerbaijan. This led to demonstrations which demanded the ousting of [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] [[communist]] officials and called for independence from the [[Soviet Union]]. Their rhetoric was, according to a [[Human Rights Watch]] report, "heavily anti-Armenian".<ref name=hrw>[http://hrw.org/reports/1995/communal/ Human Rights Watch. “Playing the "Communal Card": Communal Violence and Human Rights”]</ref> On January 12, the Popular Front organized a national defense committee with branches in factories and offices in Baku to mobilize people for battle with Armenians.<ref name="NYT"/>

Beginning on January 13, 1990, a [[Pogrom of Armenians in Baku|repetition of the pogroms]] of [[Sumgait]] was carried out in Baku against [[Armenians in Azerbaijan|Armenians]]. Armenians were thrown to their deaths from the balconies of upper-story apartments. Around 90 Armenians were murdered in the [[pogrom]]s. The Popular Front of Azerbaijan claimed that the pogroms were the result of "Armenian aggression." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=pletup86PMQC&pg=PA90&dq=Popular+Front+baku+armenians&lr= Black Garden By Thomas De Waal]</ref> The Popular Front instigated the attacks and local authorities did nothing to stop the violence. These attacks were mainly done by young Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia.<ref name="NYT"/> Baku's 300,000 Armenians hastily escaped.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=cB50CI0Xd5IC&pg=PA399&dq=Baku+300,000+armenians&lr= Highlanders By Yo'av Karny]</ref>

Local Azerbaijan authorities were unable to restore order because of internal quarreling and divisions that paralyzed their ability to act. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=JoGrR_9o3SUC&pg=PA96&dq=gorbachev+baku+1990+yazov+soldiers&lr=&cd=16#v=onepage&q=&f=false On My Country and the World, Mikhail Gorbachev]</ref> Azerbaijan authorities also ordered the Interior Ministry troops to abstain from intervening in the riots against Armenians. <ref>[Democracy, ethnic diversity, and security in post-communist Europe Anita Inder Singh]</ref> On January 15, the authorities declared states of emergency in other parts of Azerbaijan (but not in Baku), and the pogrom activity began to subside. At the same time, fearing an intervention of the central Soviet authorities, Popular Front activists began a blockade of military barracks.<ref name=hrw/> They had already taken ''de facto'' control in a number of Azerbaijani regions.<ref name=hrw/> On January 18, the Popular Front ordered supporters to barricade the main access routes into Baku using hundreds of cars, trucks and buses. The next day, Soviet authorities evacuated its representatives and local officials moving them to military command post on the outskirts of the city where Soviet Minister of Defense, [[Dmitry Yazov]] and Interior Minister [[Vadim Bakatin]] positioned.<ref name="NYT"/>

Late at night on January 19, 1990, 26,000 Soviet troops entered Baku. Gunmen of the Azerbaijani National Front opened fire on the soldiers.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=JoGrR_9o3SUC&pg=PA96&dq=gorbachev+baku+1990+yazov+soldiers&lr=&cd=16#v=onepage&q=&f=false On My Country and the World, By Mikhail Gorbachev]</ref> The Azerbaijani Interior Ministry officials had helped Popular Front activists in stirring disorder by providing with weapons, technical facilities, and informing them about the movement of army units.<ref>[''Washington Post'', January 27, 1990, Michael Dobbs</ref> In the course of the storming, the troops attacked the protesters, firing in the crowds. The shooting continued for three days. They acted pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] (which continued on for more than 4 months) declared by the [[USSR]] Supreme Soviet Presidium, signed by President [[Gorbachev]]. The state of emergency was, however, disclosed to the [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] public only several hours<ref name=hrw/> after the beginning of the storming, when many citizens already lay wounded or dead in the streets, hospitals and morgues of Baku.

According to one report, 93 Azerbaijanis and 29 Russian soldiers were killed in the street skirmishes. Other reports state that 21 soldiers were killed and 90 wounded in the fighting. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=kiBHkRtRmIIC&pg=PA195&dq=29+soldiers+killed+soviet+1990+baku+January+one+report&lr=&cd=7#v=onepage&q=29%20soldiers%20killed%20soviet%201990%20baku%20January%20one%20report&f=false Remembrance and denial: the case of the Armenian genocide By Richard G. Hovannisian]</ref> <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=0TfIphAdnGwC&pg=PA377&dq=wounded+soldiers+Baku+soviet+1990+January&lr=&cd=2#v=onepage&q=wounded%20soldiers%20Baku%20soviet%201990%20January&f=false Nationalist mobilization and the collapse of the Soviet State By Mark R. Beissinger]</ref>

Other estimates are that between 133<ref>[http://www.january20.net/ 20 January]</ref> and 137<ref name=BBC>
{{cite news
|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1477933.stm
|title= Eyewitness: A republic loses faith
|publisher= [[BBC News]]
|author= Elchin Khalilov
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> people died with unofficial number reaching 300.<ref name="Azerbaijan International">
{{cite news
|url= http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html
|title= Black January: Baku (1990). Behind the Scenes - A Photojournalist's Perspective
|publisher= [[Azerbaijan International]]
|month= Spring| year= 1998
|pages= 33–37
|last1= |first1= Reza
|last2= Blair |first2= Betty
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> Up to 800 were injured and 5 went missing.<ref name="Turkish Weekly">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.turkishweekly.net/op-ed/2460/20-january-1990-black-face-of-the-red-terror-in-azerbaijan.html
|title= 20 January 1990: Black Face of the Red Terror in Azerbaijan
|publisher= [[Turkish Weekly]]
|author= Shamkhal Abilov
|date= 2010-01-9
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}</ref> An additional 26 people were killed in [[Neftchala]] and Lankaran regions of the country.<ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://today.az/news/society/59767.html
|title= Azerbaijan commemorates the anniversary of 20th January tragedy
|publisher= Today.az
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> The Soviet army soldiers used [[5.45x39mm#Wounding effects|5.45 mm caliber bullets with a shifted center of gravity]] designed to sheer after entering the body thus causing an excessive physical damage to the body.<ref>
{{Cite press release
| title = 20 January Tragedy Monstrous Crime Against Azerbaijani People Humanism and Humanity
| publisher = Embassy of Azerbaijan Republic in Kazakhstan
| date = January 17, 2006
| url = http://www.azembassy.kz/news/images/press-Y3Q1p.pdf
| accessdate = 20 January 2010}}</ref><ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://www.525.az/view.php?lang=ru&menu=17&id=8225
|title= 20 января – день печали и надменности
|trans_title= 20 January - Day of sorrow and disdain
|publisher= 525-ci qazet
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref>. January 20 is marked as the Day of the Nationwide Sorrow in Azerbaijan.<ref>[http://www.president.az/browse.php?sec_id=56 President of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan. Bloody Memories]</ref>

== State of Emergency ==

President Gorbachev and other officials asserted that it was necessary to stop pogroms and violence against the Armenian population and to thwart efforts by extremists to overthrow the Azerbaijani government. The governemnt's decree said: "Extremist groups are organizing mass disorders fanning national enmity. They are committing bold criminal acts, mining roads and bridges, shelling settlements, taking hostages." <ref> Austin American Statesman Jan 16, 1990</ref>

Human Rights watch claimed that the Soviet Government was not concerned the safety of the Armenian population, but that their military intervention was pre-meditated.<ref name="hrw"/>

Defense Minister Yazov also said that nationalists were plotting a coup d'etat in Azerbaijan: "a meeting was planned at which it was proposed to declare the transfer of power into the hands of the People's Front." He noted how the "Popular Front" declared its own state of emergency in Baku before the action was taken and how Soviet state organs "ceased to control the situation." <ref>San Francisco Chronicle. Jan 27, 1990.pg. A.11</ref>

A special session of the Supreme Council (Parliament) of [[Azerbaijan SSR]] held on January 22, 1990 at the request of public and by initiative of the group of MPs tried to initially assess the January 20 events and adopted some documents condemning the crackdown operation by Soviet army.

== Black January ==
[[File:The tragedy of January 20.jpg|thumb|300px|Azerbaijani stamp with photos of Black January]]
The [[Human Rights Watch]] report entitled "Black January in Azerbaijan" states: "Indeed, the violence used by the Soviet Army on the night of January 19–20 was so out of proportion to the resistance offered by Azerbaijanis as to constitute an exercise in collective punishment. Since Soviet officials have stated publicly that the purpose of the intervention of Soviet troops was to prevent the ouster of the Communist-dominated government of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the nationalist-minded, noncommunist opposition, the punishment inflicted on Baku by Soviet soldiers may have been intended as a warning to nationalists, not only in Azerbaijan, but in the other Republics of the Soviet Union."

"The subsequent events in the Baltic Republics - where, in a remarkable parallel to the events in Baku, alleged civil disorder was cited as justification for violent intervention by Soviet troops -further confirms that the Soviet Government has demonstrated that it will deal harshly with nationalist movements," continues the Human Rights Watch report.

During the Black January crackdown, the Soviets managed to suppress all efforts to disseminate news from Azerbaijan to the local population and the international community. On the eve of the Soviet military invasion in [[Baku]], one of leaders of Popular Front, Ekhtibar Mamedov proposed to Kremlin officials to appear on Azerbaijani TV at 8 PM announcing First Secretary of Azerbaijani Communist Party, [[Abdurrahman Vazirov]] would be leaving and no troops would invade Baku which would restore the order.<ref name="NYT"/> Instead, an energy supply source to Azerbaijani TV and State Radio was blown up by intelligence officers at 7:15 PM in order to cut off the population from any source of information. TV and radio was silent and all print media was banned.<ref name="Turkish Weekly"/> But [[Mirza Khazar]] and his staff at [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] succeeded in broadcasting daily reports from Baku,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html |title= Black January 1990|publisher =Azerbaijan International |author= |accessdate=2009-02-26}}</ref> making it the only source of news to Azerbaijanis within and outside of the country for several days. The Kremlin leadership tried hard to keep the outside world and the population inside Azerbaijan unaware of the military invasion, but Mirza Khazar and his staff foiled this attempt. Thanks to Mirza Khazar and his staff at Radio Liberty, Azerbaijanis in and outside Azerbaijan, as well as the international community, learned about the Soviet invasion and gained a chance to organize protest actions. Shocked by this "surprising" development, the government of the [[USSR]] complained officially to the [[United States]] about Radio Liberty's<ref>[http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-05/entertainment/ca-1371_1_radio-liberty Soviet Officials Charge Voice of America, Radio Liberty Fueled Riots]</ref> coverage of the military invasion of Azerbaijan. The January 20, 1990, broadcasts turned Mirza Khazar into a legend among [[Azerbaijanis]] in and outside Azerbaijan. Malahat Aghajanqizi, a well-known Azerbaijani poetess and writer, described Mirza Khazar’s appearance on radio at the time of the Soviet military invasion as follows: “On January 20, Mirza Khazar with his God-given divine voice, gave hope to the dying Azerbaijani people.”<ref>[http://mirzexezerinsesi.net/articles/2008/11/29/melahet-agacanqizi-mirze-xezerin-sesi Article on Mirza Khazar]</ref>

The Wall Street Journal editorial of January 4, 1995 claimed that Gorbachev chose to use violence against "independence-seeking Azerbaijan."

[[File:SV100165-azer genocide memorial.jpg|thumb|200px||A Memorial dedicated to all victims of [[March Days]] and Black January.]]

== Independence ==
On October 18, 1991, the Parliament of Azerbaijan restored the country's independence. Gorbachev later apologized to Azerbaijan by stating: "The declaration of a state emergency in Baku was the biggest mistake of my political career". In 1994, the [[National Assembly of Azerbaijan]] adopted a full political and legal evaluation of the Black January events. According to the decree of the [[President of Azerbaijan]] [[Heydar Aliyev]] from December 16, 1999, all victims of the crackdown were awarded an honorary title of the "Martyr of January 20" ({{lang-az|20 yanvar şəhidi}}).

== See also ==
* [[History of Azerbaijan]]
* [[History of the Soviet Union]]
* [[April 9, 1989 Massacre]]
* [[Jeltoqsan]]
* [[January Events (Lithuania)]]
* [[January 1991 events in Latvia]]

== Notes and references ==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== External links ==
* [http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html Black January: Baku (1990) / Azerbaijan International (Spring 1998)]
* http://www.january20.net
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1477933.stm

{{Fall of Communism}}
{{Azerbaijan topics}}
{{Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict}}
{{coord missing|Azerbaijan}}

[[Category:History of Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Massacres in Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Massacres in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Riots in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:1990 in the Soviet Union]]

[[ar:السبت الأسود]]
[[az:Qara Yanvar]]
[[fr:Janvier Noir]]
[[id:Januari Hitam]]
[[ka:შავი იანვარი]]
[[pt:Janeiro Negro]]
[[ro:Ianuarie negru]]
[[ru:Чёрный январь]]
[[tr:Kara Ocak]]

Schwarzer Januar

2010-03-24T07:06:07Z

76.191.230.178: /* State of Emergency */ Need direct quotes by Yazov.

{{infobox military conflict
| conflict = Black January''' {{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}
| partof = [[Azerbaijan#Restoration of independence|Azerbaijani national independence movement]]
| image =
| caption = Soviet tanks in Baku during Black January
| date = January 19-20, 1990
| place = [[Baku]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[Soviet Union]]
| coordinates =
| map_type =
| latitude =
| longitude =
| map_size =
| map_caption =
| map_label =
| territory =
| result = Invasion of Baku and massacre of civilians
| status =
| combatant1 = {{flag|Azerbaijan|}}
| combatant2 = {{flag|Soviet Union}}
*{{flagicon image|Red Army flag.svg}} [[Red Army|Soviet Army]]
*[[File:Emblema KGB.svg|19px|link=]] [[KGB]] [[special forces]]
| combatant3 =
| commander1 =
| commander2 =
| commander3 =
| strength1 =
| strength2 = 26,000 troops
| strength3 =
| casualties1 = 133-137 civilians killed More than 800 injured
| casualties2 =
| casualties3 =
| notes =
}}

'''Black January''' ({{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}), also known as '''Black Saturday''' or the '''January Massacre''' was a violent crackdown of the Azerbaijani independence movement in [[Baku]] on January 19–20, 1990, pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] during the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]].

The [[Memorial Society]] and [[Helsinki Watch]] reported that they had found compelling evidence that the imposition of the state of emergency had led to an unwarranted breach of [[civil liberties]] and that Soviet troops had used unjustified force resulting in many deaths.<ref name="BJ">Robert Kushen, Aryeh Neier. ''Conflict in the Soviet Union: Black January in Azerbaidzhan'', [[Human Rights Watch]], 1991, p. 3</ref> This includes the usage of armoured vehicles, bayonets and firing on clearly marked ambulances.<ref name="BJ"/> In the resolution of January 22, 1990 the [[Supreme Soviet]] of the [[Azerbaijan SSR]] declared that the decree of the [[Presidium of the Supreme Soviet#USSR Supreme Soviet|Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet]] of January 19, used to impose emergency rule in [[Baku]] and military deployment, constituted an act of aggression.<ref>Kushen, Neier, p. 45</ref> Black January is seen as the rebirth of the [[Azerbaijan|Azerbaijan Republic]].

== Events ==
[[File:SV100182.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Victims of Black January.]]
In December 1989, Azerbaijanis living in regions bordering [[Iran]] ripped down the border fences demanding closer ties with ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Iran. Local government of [[Jalilabad]] surrendered to rioters turning over the administration to [[Azerbaijani Popular Front Party|Popular Front of Azerbaijan]]. This was followed by a non-violent turnover of [[Lankaran]] administration to Popular Front two week later.<ref name="NYT">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/29/world/upheaval-east-soviet-union-force-last-resort-armed-power-salvages-moscow-s.html?pagewanted=2
|title= UPHEAVAL IN THE EAST: SOVIET UNION; Force as a Last Resort: Armed Power Salvages Moscow's Facing Authority
|publisher= [[The New York Times]]
|author= Bill Keller
|date= 1990-01-28
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> On January 10, 1990, the parliament of [[Armenia]] voted to include [[Nagorno-Karabakh]] in its budget and allowed its inhabitants vote in Armenian elections thus disregarding Soviet authority and Azerbaijani jurisdiction and causing rage throughout Azerbaijan. This led to demonstrations which demanded the ousting of [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] [[communist]] officials and called for independence from the [[Soviet Union]]. Their rhetoric was, according to a [[Human Rights Watch]] report, "heavily anti-Armenian".<ref name=hrw>[http://hrw.org/reports/1995/communal/ Human Rights Watch. “Playing the "Communal Card": Communal Violence and Human Rights”]</ref> On January 12, the Popular Front organized a national defense committee with branches in factories and offices in Baku to mobilize people for battle with Armenians.<ref name="NYT"/>

Beginning on January 13, 1990, a [[Pogrom of Armenians in Baku|repetition of the pogroms]] of [[Sumgait]] was carried out in Baku against [[Armenians in Azerbaijan|Armenians]]. Armenians were thrown to their deaths from the balconies of upper-story apartments. Around 90 Armenians were murdered in the [[pogrom]]s. The Popular Front of Azerbaijan claimed that the pogroms were the result of "Armenian aggression." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=pletup86PMQC&pg=PA90&dq=Popular+Front+baku+armenians&lr= Black Garden By Thomas De Waal]</ref> The Popular Front instigated the attacks and local authorities did nothing to stop the violence. These attacks were mainly done by young Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia.<ref name="NYT"/> Baku's 300,000 Armenians hastily escaped.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=cB50CI0Xd5IC&pg=PA399&dq=Baku+300,000+armenians&lr= Highlanders By Yo'av Karny]</ref>

Local Azerbaijan authorities were unable to restore order because of internal quarreling and divisions that paralyzed their ability to act. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=JoGrR_9o3SUC&pg=PA96&dq=gorbachev+baku+1990+yazov+soldiers&lr=&cd=16#v=onepage&q=&f=false On My Country and the World, Mikhail Gorbachev]</ref> Azerbaijan authorities also ordered the Interior Ministry troops to abstain from intervening in the riots against Armenians. <ref>[Democracy, ethnic diversity, and security in post-communist Europe Anita Inder Singh]</ref> On January 15, the authorities declared states of emergency in other parts of Azerbaijan (but not in Baku), and the pogrom activity began to subside. At the same time, fearing an intervention of the central Soviet authorities, Popular Front activists began a blockade of military barracks.<ref name=hrw/> They had already taken ''de facto'' control in a number of Azerbaijani regions.<ref name=hrw/> On January 18, the Popular Front ordered supporters to barricade the main access routes into Baku using hundreds of cars, trucks and buses. The next day, Soviet authorities evacuated its representatives and local officials moving them to military command post on the outskirts of the city where Soviet Minister of Defense, [[Dmitry Yazov]] and Interior Minister [[Vadim Bakatin]] positioned.<ref name="NYT"/>

Late at night on January 19, 1990, 26,000 Soviet troops stormed [[Baku]] in order to crush the Popular Front. In the course of the storming, the troops attacked the protesters, firing in the crowds. The shooting continued for three days. They acted pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] (which continued on for more than 4 months) declared by the [[USSR]] Supreme Soviet Presidium, signed by President [[Gorbachev]]. The state of emergency was, however, disclosed to the [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] public only several hours<ref name=hrw/> after the beginning of the storming, when many citizens already lay wounded or dead in the streets, hospitals and morgues of Baku.

According to one report, 93 Azerbaijanis and 29 Russian soldiers were killed in the street skirmishes. Other reports state that 21 soldiers were killed and 90 wounded in the fighting. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=kiBHkRtRmIIC&pg=PA195&dq=29+soldiers+killed+soviet+1990+baku+January+one+report&lr=&cd=7#v=onepage&q=29%20soldiers%20killed%20soviet%201990%20baku%20January%20one%20report&f=false Remembrance and denial: the case of the Armenian genocide By Richard G. Hovannisian]</ref> <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=0TfIphAdnGwC&pg=PA377&dq=wounded+soldiers+Baku+soviet+1990+January&lr=&cd=2#v=onepage&q=wounded%20soldiers%20Baku%20soviet%201990%20January&f=false Nationalist mobilization and the collapse of the Soviet State By Mark R. Beissinger]</ref>

Other estimates are that between 133<ref>[http://www.january20.net/ 20 January]</ref> and 137<ref name=BBC>
{{cite news
|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1477933.stm
|title= Eyewitness: A republic loses faith
|publisher= [[BBC News]]
|author= Elchin Khalilov
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> people died with unofficial number reaching 300.<ref name="Azerbaijan International">
{{cite news
|url= http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html
|title= Black January: Baku (1990). Behind the Scenes - A Photojournalist's Perspective
|publisher= [[Azerbaijan International]]
|month= Spring| year= 1998
|pages= 33–37
|last1= |first1= Reza
|last2= Blair |first2= Betty
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> Up to 800 were injured and 5 went missing.<ref name="Turkish Weekly">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.turkishweekly.net/op-ed/2460/20-january-1990-black-face-of-the-red-terror-in-azerbaijan.html
|title= 20 January 1990: Black Face of the Red Terror in Azerbaijan
|publisher= [[Turkish Weekly]]
|author= Shamkhal Abilov
|date= 2010-01-9
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}</ref> An additional 26 people were killed in [[Neftchala]] and Lankaran regions of the country.<ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://today.az/news/society/59767.html
|title= Azerbaijan commemorates the anniversary of 20th January tragedy
|publisher= Today.az
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> The Soviet army soldiers used [[5.45x39mm#Wounding effects|5.45 mm caliber bullets with a shifted center of gravity]] designed to sheer after entering the body thus causing an excessive physical damage to the body.<ref>
{{Cite press release
| title = 20 January Tragedy Monstrous Crime Against Azerbaijani People Humanism and Humanity
| publisher = Embassy of Azerbaijan Republic in Kazakhstan
| date = January 17, 2006
| url = http://www.azembassy.kz/news/images/press-Y3Q1p.pdf
| accessdate = 20 January 2010}}</ref><ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://www.525.az/view.php?lang=ru&menu=17&id=8225
|title= 20 января – день печали и надменности
|trans_title= 20 January - Day of sorrow and disdain
|publisher= 525-ci qazet
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref>. January 20 is marked as the Day of the Nationwide Sorrow in Azerbaijan.<ref>[http://www.president.az/browse.php?sec_id=56 President of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan. Bloody Memories]</ref>

== State of Emergency ==

President Gorbachev and other officials asserted that it was necessary to stop pogroms and violence against the Armenian population and to thwart efforts by extremists to overthrow the Azerbaijani government. The governemnt's decree said: "Extremist groups are organizing mass disorders fanning national enmity. They are committing bold criminal acts, mining roads and bridges, shelling settlements, taking hostages." <ref> Austin American Statesman Jan 16, 1990</ref>

Human Rights watch claimed that the Soviet Government was not concerned the safety of the Armenian population, but that their military intervention was pre-meditated.<ref name="hrw"/>

Defense Minister Yazov also said that nationalists were plotting a coup d'etat in Azerbaijan: "a meeting was planned at which it was proposed to declare the transfer of power into the hands of the People's Front." He noted how the "Popular Front" declared its own state of emergency in Baku before the action was taken and how Soviet state organs "ceased to control the situation." <ref>San Francisco Chronicle. Jan 27, 1990.pg. A.11</ref>

A special session of the Supreme Council (Parliament) of [[Azerbaijan SSR]] held on January 22, 1990 at the request of public and by initiative of the group of MPs tried to initially assess the January 20 events and adopted some documents condemning the crackdown operation by Soviet army.

== Black January ==
[[File:The tragedy of January 20.jpg|thumb|300px|Azerbaijani stamp with photos of Black January]]
The [[Human Rights Watch]] report entitled "Black January in Azerbaijan" states: "Indeed, the violence used by the Soviet Army on the night of January 19–20 was so out of proportion to the resistance offered by Azerbaijanis as to constitute an exercise in collective punishment. Since Soviet officials have stated publicly that the purpose of the intervention of Soviet troops was to prevent the ouster of the Communist-dominated government of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the nationalist-minded, noncommunist opposition, the punishment inflicted on Baku by Soviet soldiers may have been intended as a warning to nationalists, not only in Azerbaijan, but in the other Republics of the Soviet Union."

"The subsequent events in the Baltic Republics - where, in a remarkable parallel to the events in Baku, alleged civil disorder was cited as justification for violent intervention by Soviet troops -further confirms that the Soviet Government has demonstrated that it will deal harshly with nationalist movements," continues the Human Rights Watch report.

During the Black January crackdown, the Soviets managed to suppress all efforts to disseminate news from Azerbaijan to the local population and the international community. On the eve of the Soviet military invasion in [[Baku]], one of leaders of Popular Front, Ekhtibar Mamedov proposed to Kremlin officials to appear on Azerbaijani TV at 8 PM announcing First Secretary of Azerbaijani Communist Party, [[Abdurrahman Vazirov]] would be leaving and no troops would invade Baku which would restore the order.<ref name="NYT"/> Instead, an energy supply source to Azerbaijani TV and State Radio was blown up by intelligence officers at 7:15 PM in order to cut off the population from any source of information. TV and radio was silent and all print media was banned.<ref name="Turkish Weekly"/> But [[Mirza Khazar]] and his staff at [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] succeeded in broadcasting daily reports from Baku,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html |title= Black January 1990|publisher =Azerbaijan International |author= |accessdate=2009-02-26}}</ref> making it the only source of news to Azerbaijanis within and outside of the country for several days. The Kremlin leadership tried hard to keep the outside world and the population inside Azerbaijan unaware of the military invasion, but Mirza Khazar and his staff foiled this attempt. Thanks to Mirza Khazar and his staff at Radio Liberty, Azerbaijanis in and outside Azerbaijan, as well as the international community, learned about the Soviet invasion and gained a chance to organize protest actions. Shocked by this "surprising" development, the government of the [[USSR]] complained officially to the [[United States]] about Radio Liberty's<ref>[http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-05/entertainment/ca-1371_1_radio-liberty Soviet Officials Charge Voice of America, Radio Liberty Fueled Riots]</ref> coverage of the military invasion of Azerbaijan. The January 20, 1990, broadcasts turned Mirza Khazar into a legend among [[Azerbaijanis]] in and outside Azerbaijan. Malahat Aghajanqizi, a well-known Azerbaijani poetess and writer, described Mirza Khazar’s appearance on radio at the time of the Soviet military invasion as follows: “On January 20, Mirza Khazar with his God-given divine voice, gave hope to the dying Azerbaijani people.”<ref>[http://mirzexezerinsesi.net/articles/2008/11/29/melahet-agacanqizi-mirze-xezerin-sesi Article on Mirza Khazar]</ref>

The Wall Street Journal editorial of January 4, 1995 claimed that Gorbachev chose to use violence against "independence-seeking Azerbaijan."

[[File:SV100165-azer genocide memorial.jpg|thumb|200px||A Memorial dedicated to all victims of [[March Days]] and Black January.]]

== Independence ==
On October 18, 1991, the Parliament of Azerbaijan restored the country's independence. Gorbachev later apologized to Azerbaijan by stating: "The declaration of a state emergency in Baku was the biggest mistake of my political career". In 1994, the [[National Assembly of Azerbaijan]] adopted a full political and legal evaluation of the Black January events. According to the decree of the [[President of Azerbaijan]] [[Heydar Aliyev]] from December 16, 1999, all victims of the crackdown were awarded an honorary title of the "Martyr of January 20" ({{lang-az|20 yanvar şəhidi}}).

== See also ==
* [[History of Azerbaijan]]
* [[History of the Soviet Union]]
* [[April 9, 1989 Massacre]]
* [[Jeltoqsan]]
* [[January Events (Lithuania)]]
* [[January 1991 events in Latvia]]

== Notes and references ==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== External links ==
* [http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html Black January: Baku (1990) / Azerbaijan International (Spring 1998)]
* http://www.january20.net
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1477933.stm

{{Fall of Communism}}
{{Azerbaijan topics}}
{{Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict}}
{{coord missing|Azerbaijan}}

[[Category:History of Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Massacres in Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Massacres in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Riots in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:1990 in the Soviet Union]]

[[ar:السبت الأسود]]
[[az:Qara Yanvar]]
[[fr:Janvier Noir]]
[[id:Januari Hitam]]
[[ka:შავი იანვარი]]
[[pt:Janeiro Negro]]
[[ro:Ianuarie negru]]
[[ru:Чёрный январь]]
[[tr:Kara Ocak]]

Schwarzer Januar

2010-03-24T07:04:31Z

76.191.230.178: /* State of Emergency */ Added Gorbachev's account.

{{infobox military conflict
| conflict = Black January''' {{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}
| partof = [[Azerbaijan#Restoration of independence|Azerbaijani national independence movement]]
| image =
| caption = Soviet tanks in Baku during Black January
| date = January 19-20, 1990
| place = [[Baku]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[Soviet Union]]
| coordinates =
| map_type =
| latitude =
| longitude =
| map_size =
| map_caption =
| map_label =
| territory =
| result = Invasion of Baku and massacre of civilians
| status =
| combatant1 = {{flag|Azerbaijan|}}
| combatant2 = {{flag|Soviet Union}}
*{{flagicon image|Red Army flag.svg}} [[Red Army|Soviet Army]]
*[[File:Emblema KGB.svg|19px|link=]] [[KGB]] [[special forces]]
| combatant3 =
| commander1 =
| commander2 =
| commander3 =
| strength1 =
| strength2 = 26,000 troops
| strength3 =
| casualties1 = 133-137 civilians killed More than 800 injured
| casualties2 =
| casualties3 =
| notes =
}}

'''Black January''' ({{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}), also known as '''Black Saturday''' or the '''January Massacre''' was a violent crackdown of the Azerbaijani independence movement in [[Baku]] on January 19–20, 1990, pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] during the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]].

The [[Memorial Society]] and [[Helsinki Watch]] reported that they had found compelling evidence that the imposition of the state of emergency had led to an unwarranted breach of [[civil liberties]] and that Soviet troops had used unjustified force resulting in many deaths.<ref name="BJ">Robert Kushen, Aryeh Neier. ''Conflict in the Soviet Union: Black January in Azerbaidzhan'', [[Human Rights Watch]], 1991, p. 3</ref> This includes the usage of armoured vehicles, bayonets and firing on clearly marked ambulances.<ref name="BJ"/> In the resolution of January 22, 1990 the [[Supreme Soviet]] of the [[Azerbaijan SSR]] declared that the decree of the [[Presidium of the Supreme Soviet#USSR Supreme Soviet|Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet]] of January 19, used to impose emergency rule in [[Baku]] and military deployment, constituted an act of aggression.<ref>Kushen, Neier, p. 45</ref> Black January is seen as the rebirth of the [[Azerbaijan|Azerbaijan Republic]].

== Events ==
[[File:SV100182.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Victims of Black January.]]
In December 1989, Azerbaijanis living in regions bordering [[Iran]] ripped down the border fences demanding closer ties with ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Iran. Local government of [[Jalilabad]] surrendered to rioters turning over the administration to [[Azerbaijani Popular Front Party|Popular Front of Azerbaijan]]. This was followed by a non-violent turnover of [[Lankaran]] administration to Popular Front two week later.<ref name="NYT">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/29/world/upheaval-east-soviet-union-force-last-resort-armed-power-salvages-moscow-s.html?pagewanted=2
|title= UPHEAVAL IN THE EAST: SOVIET UNION; Force as a Last Resort: Armed Power Salvages Moscow's Facing Authority
|publisher= [[The New York Times]]
|author= Bill Keller
|date= 1990-01-28
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> On January 10, 1990, the parliament of [[Armenia]] voted to include [[Nagorno-Karabakh]] in its budget and allowed its inhabitants vote in Armenian elections thus disregarding Soviet authority and Azerbaijani jurisdiction and causing rage throughout Azerbaijan. This led to demonstrations which demanded the ousting of [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] [[communist]] officials and called for independence from the [[Soviet Union]]. Their rhetoric was, according to a [[Human Rights Watch]] report, "heavily anti-Armenian".<ref name=hrw>[http://hrw.org/reports/1995/communal/ Human Rights Watch. “Playing the "Communal Card": Communal Violence and Human Rights”]</ref> On January 12, the Popular Front organized a national defense committee with branches in factories and offices in Baku to mobilize people for battle with Armenians.<ref name="NYT"/>

Beginning on January 13, 1990, a [[Pogrom of Armenians in Baku|repetition of the pogroms]] of [[Sumgait]] was carried out in Baku against [[Armenians in Azerbaijan|Armenians]]. Armenians were thrown to their deaths from the balconies of upper-story apartments. Around 90 Armenians were murdered in the [[pogrom]]s. The Popular Front of Azerbaijan claimed that the pogroms were the result of "Armenian aggression." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=pletup86PMQC&pg=PA90&dq=Popular+Front+baku+armenians&lr= Black Garden By Thomas De Waal]</ref> The Popular Front instigated the attacks and local authorities did nothing to stop the violence. These attacks were mainly done by young Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia.<ref name="NYT"/> Baku's 300,000 Armenians hastily escaped.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=cB50CI0Xd5IC&pg=PA399&dq=Baku+300,000+armenians&lr= Highlanders By Yo'av Karny]</ref>

Local Azerbaijan authorities were unable to restore order because of internal quarreling and divisions that paralyzed their ability to act. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=JoGrR_9o3SUC&pg=PA96&dq=gorbachev+baku+1990+yazov+soldiers&lr=&cd=16#v=onepage&q=&f=false On My Country and the World, Mikhail Gorbachev]</ref> Azerbaijan authorities also ordered the Interior Ministry troops to abstain from intervening in the riots against Armenians. <ref>[Democracy, ethnic diversity, and security in post-communist Europe Anita Inder Singh]</ref> On January 15, the authorities declared states of emergency in other parts of Azerbaijan (but not in Baku), and the pogrom activity began to subside. At the same time, fearing an intervention of the central Soviet authorities, Popular Front activists began a blockade of military barracks.<ref name=hrw/> They had already taken ''de facto'' control in a number of Azerbaijani regions.<ref name=hrw/> On January 18, the Popular Front ordered supporters to barricade the main access routes into Baku using hundreds of cars, trucks and buses. The next day, Soviet authorities evacuated its representatives and local officials moving them to military command post on the outskirts of the city where Soviet Minister of Defense, [[Dmitry Yazov]] and Interior Minister [[Vadim Bakatin]] positioned.<ref name="NYT"/>

Late at night on January 19, 1990, 26,000 Soviet troops stormed [[Baku]] in order to crush the Popular Front. In the course of the storming, the troops attacked the protesters, firing in the crowds. The shooting continued for three days. They acted pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] (which continued on for more than 4 months) declared by the [[USSR]] Supreme Soviet Presidium, signed by President [[Gorbachev]]. The state of emergency was, however, disclosed to the [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] public only several hours<ref name=hrw/> after the beginning of the storming, when many citizens already lay wounded or dead in the streets, hospitals and morgues of Baku.

According to one report, 93 Azerbaijanis and 29 Russian soldiers were killed in the street skirmishes. Other reports state that 21 soldiers were killed and 90 wounded in the fighting. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=kiBHkRtRmIIC&pg=PA195&dq=29+soldiers+killed+soviet+1990+baku+January+one+report&lr=&cd=7#v=onepage&q=29%20soldiers%20killed%20soviet%201990%20baku%20January%20one%20report&f=false Remembrance and denial: the case of the Armenian genocide By Richard G. Hovannisian]</ref> <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=0TfIphAdnGwC&pg=PA377&dq=wounded+soldiers+Baku+soviet+1990+January&lr=&cd=2#v=onepage&q=wounded%20soldiers%20Baku%20soviet%201990%20January&f=false Nationalist mobilization and the collapse of the Soviet State By Mark R. Beissinger]</ref>

Other estimates are that between 133<ref>[http://www.january20.net/ 20 January]</ref> and 137<ref name=BBC>
{{cite news
|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1477933.stm
|title= Eyewitness: A republic loses faith
|publisher= [[BBC News]]
|author= Elchin Khalilov
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> people died with unofficial number reaching 300.<ref name="Azerbaijan International">
{{cite news
|url= http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html
|title= Black January: Baku (1990). Behind the Scenes - A Photojournalist's Perspective
|publisher= [[Azerbaijan International]]
|month= Spring| year= 1998
|pages= 33–37
|last1= |first1= Reza
|last2= Blair |first2= Betty
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> Up to 800 were injured and 5 went missing.<ref name="Turkish Weekly">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.turkishweekly.net/op-ed/2460/20-january-1990-black-face-of-the-red-terror-in-azerbaijan.html
|title= 20 January 1990: Black Face of the Red Terror in Azerbaijan
|publisher= [[Turkish Weekly]]
|author= Shamkhal Abilov
|date= 2010-01-9
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}</ref> An additional 26 people were killed in [[Neftchala]] and Lankaran regions of the country.<ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://today.az/news/society/59767.html
|title= Azerbaijan commemorates the anniversary of 20th January tragedy
|publisher= Today.az
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> The Soviet army soldiers used [[5.45x39mm#Wounding effects|5.45 mm caliber bullets with a shifted center of gravity]] designed to sheer after entering the body thus causing an excessive physical damage to the body.<ref>
{{Cite press release
| title = 20 January Tragedy Monstrous Crime Against Azerbaijani People Humanism and Humanity
| publisher = Embassy of Azerbaijan Republic in Kazakhstan
| date = January 17, 2006
| url = http://www.azembassy.kz/news/images/press-Y3Q1p.pdf
| accessdate = 20 January 2010}}</ref><ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://www.525.az/view.php?lang=ru&menu=17&id=8225
|title= 20 января – день печали и надменности
|trans_title= 20 January - Day of sorrow and disdain
|publisher= 525-ci qazet
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref>. January 20 is marked as the Day of the Nationwide Sorrow in Azerbaijan.<ref>[http://www.president.az/browse.php?sec_id=56 President of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan. Bloody Memories]</ref>

== State of Emergency ==

President Gorbachev and other officials asserted that it was necessary to stop pogroms and violence against the Armenian population and to thwart efforts by extremists to overthrow the Azerbaijani government. The governemnt's decree said: "Extremist groups are organizing mass disorders fanning national enmity. "They are committing bold criminal acts, mining roads and bridges, shelling settlements, taking hostages." <ref> Austin American Statesman Jan 16, 1990</ref>

According to [[Human Rights Watch]], "while the Kremlin's ostensible reason for the military action was to safeguard the Armenian population, most evidence simply does not support this contention. For example, documents of the military procurator's office in Baku examined by Human Rights Watch/Helsinki indicate that the military action was being planned even before the January 13, 1990 pogroms".<ref name="hrw"/>

Then Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov stated that the use of force in Baku was intended to prevent a ''de facto'' overthrow of local government by the non-communist opposition, namely the Popular Front of Azerbaijan (PFA), to prevent their victory in the upcoming elections scheduled for March 1990, and to destroy them as a political force, ensuring that the Communist government remained in power.<ref>
{{cite news
| url= http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/72560980.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jan+27%2C+1990&author=Michael+Dobbs&pub=The+Washington+Post+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=a.13&desc=Soviets+Say+Troops+Used+To+Avert+Coup+in+Baku%3BNationalists+Said+to+Plan+Seizure+of+Power
| title= Soviets Say Troops Used To Avert Coup in Baku;Nationalists Said to Plan Seizure of Power
| publisher= The Washington Post
| author = Michael Dobbs
| date=1990-01-27
| accessdate=2010-03-05
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
| url= http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/inside/publications/1999_NK_Book.pdf
| title= The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
| publisher= Uppsala University
| work=Department of East European Studies
| author = Svante Cornell
| date=1999
| volume=46
| issue=
| accessdate=2010-03-05
}}</ref>

A special session of the Supreme Council (Parliament) of [[Azerbaijan SSR]] held on January 22, 1990 at the request of public and by initiative of the group of MPs tried to initially assess the January 20 events and adopted some documents condemning the crackdown operation by Soviet army.

== Black January ==
[[File:The tragedy of January 20.jpg|thumb|300px|Azerbaijani stamp with photos of Black January]]
The [[Human Rights Watch]] report entitled "Black January in Azerbaijan" states: "Indeed, the violence used by the Soviet Army on the night of January 19–20 was so out of proportion to the resistance offered by Azerbaijanis as to constitute an exercise in collective punishment. Since Soviet officials have stated publicly that the purpose of the intervention of Soviet troops was to prevent the ouster of the Communist-dominated government of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the nationalist-minded, noncommunist opposition, the punishment inflicted on Baku by Soviet soldiers may have been intended as a warning to nationalists, not only in Azerbaijan, but in the other Republics of the Soviet Union."

"The subsequent events in the Baltic Republics - where, in a remarkable parallel to the events in Baku, alleged civil disorder was cited as justification for violent intervention by Soviet troops -further confirms that the Soviet Government has demonstrated that it will deal harshly with nationalist movements," continues the Human Rights Watch report.

During the Black January crackdown, the Soviets managed to suppress all efforts to disseminate news from Azerbaijan to the local population and the international community. On the eve of the Soviet military invasion in [[Baku]], one of leaders of Popular Front, Ekhtibar Mamedov proposed to Kremlin officials to appear on Azerbaijani TV at 8 PM announcing First Secretary of Azerbaijani Communist Party, [[Abdurrahman Vazirov]] would be leaving and no troops would invade Baku which would restore the order.<ref name="NYT"/> Instead, an energy supply source to Azerbaijani TV and State Radio was blown up by intelligence officers at 7:15 PM in order to cut off the population from any source of information. TV and radio was silent and all print media was banned.<ref name="Turkish Weekly"/> But [[Mirza Khazar]] and his staff at [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] succeeded in broadcasting daily reports from Baku,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html |title= Black January 1990|publisher =Azerbaijan International |author= |accessdate=2009-02-26}}</ref> making it the only source of news to Azerbaijanis within and outside of the country for several days. The Kremlin leadership tried hard to keep the outside world and the population inside Azerbaijan unaware of the military invasion, but Mirza Khazar and his staff foiled this attempt. Thanks to Mirza Khazar and his staff at Radio Liberty, Azerbaijanis in and outside Azerbaijan, as well as the international community, learned about the Soviet invasion and gained a chance to organize protest actions. Shocked by this "surprising" development, the government of the [[USSR]] complained officially to the [[United States]] about Radio Liberty's<ref>[http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-05/entertainment/ca-1371_1_radio-liberty Soviet Officials Charge Voice of America, Radio Liberty Fueled Riots]</ref> coverage of the military invasion of Azerbaijan. The January 20, 1990, broadcasts turned Mirza Khazar into a legend among [[Azerbaijanis]] in and outside Azerbaijan. Malahat Aghajanqizi, a well-known Azerbaijani poetess and writer, described Mirza Khazar’s appearance on radio at the time of the Soviet military invasion as follows: “On January 20, Mirza Khazar with his God-given divine voice, gave hope to the dying Azerbaijani people.”<ref>[http://mirzexezerinsesi.net/articles/2008/11/29/melahet-agacanqizi-mirze-xezerin-sesi Article on Mirza Khazar]</ref>

The Wall Street Journal editorial of January 4, 1995 claimed that Gorbachev chose to use violence against "independence-seeking Azerbaijan."

[[File:SV100165-azer genocide memorial.jpg|thumb|200px||A Memorial dedicated to all victims of [[March Days]] and Black January.]]

== Independence ==
On October 18, 1991, the Parliament of Azerbaijan restored the country's independence. Gorbachev later apologized to Azerbaijan by stating: "The declaration of a state emergency in Baku was the biggest mistake of my political career". In 1994, the [[National Assembly of Azerbaijan]] adopted a full political and legal evaluation of the Black January events. According to the decree of the [[President of Azerbaijan]] [[Heydar Aliyev]] from December 16, 1999, all victims of the crackdown were awarded an honorary title of the "Martyr of January 20" ({{lang-az|20 yanvar şəhidi}}).

== See also ==
* [[History of Azerbaijan]]
* [[History of the Soviet Union]]
* [[April 9, 1989 Massacre]]
* [[Jeltoqsan]]
* [[January Events (Lithuania)]]
* [[January 1991 events in Latvia]]

== Notes and references ==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== External links ==
* [http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html Black January: Baku (1990) / Azerbaijan International (Spring 1998)]
* http://www.january20.net
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1477933.stm

{{Fall of Communism}}
{{Azerbaijan topics}}
{{Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict}}
{{coord missing|Azerbaijan}}

[[Category:History of Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Massacres in Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Massacres in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Riots in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:1990 in the Soviet Union]]

[[ar:السبت الأسود]]
[[az:Qara Yanvar]]
[[fr:Janvier Noir]]
[[id:Januari Hitam]]
[[ka:შავი იანვარი]]
[[pt:Janeiro Negro]]
[[ro:Ianuarie negru]]
[[ru:Чёрный январь]]
[[tr:Kara Ocak]]

Schwarzer Januar

2010-03-24T07:02:23Z

76.191.230.178: /* Events */

{{infobox military conflict
| conflict = Black January''' {{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}
| partof = [[Azerbaijan#Restoration of independence|Azerbaijani national independence movement]]
| image =
| caption = Soviet tanks in Baku during Black January
| date = January 19-20, 1990
| place = [[Baku]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[Soviet Union]]
| coordinates =
| map_type =
| latitude =
| longitude =
| map_size =
| map_caption =
| map_label =
| territory =
| result = Invasion of Baku and massacre of civilians
| status =
| combatant1 = {{flag|Azerbaijan|}}
| combatant2 = {{flag|Soviet Union}}
*{{flagicon image|Red Army flag.svg}} [[Red Army|Soviet Army]]
*[[File:Emblema KGB.svg|19px|link=]] [[KGB]] [[special forces]]
| combatant3 =
| commander1 =
| commander2 =
| commander3 =
| strength1 =
| strength2 = 26,000 troops
| strength3 =
| casualties1 = 133-137 civilians killed More than 800 injured
| casualties2 =
| casualties3 =
| notes =
}}

'''Black January''' ({{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}), also known as '''Black Saturday''' or the '''January Massacre''' was a violent crackdown of the Azerbaijani independence movement in [[Baku]] on January 19–20, 1990, pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] during the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]].

The [[Memorial Society]] and [[Helsinki Watch]] reported that they had found compelling evidence that the imposition of the state of emergency had led to an unwarranted breach of [[civil liberties]] and that Soviet troops had used unjustified force resulting in many deaths.<ref name="BJ">Robert Kushen, Aryeh Neier. ''Conflict in the Soviet Union: Black January in Azerbaidzhan'', [[Human Rights Watch]], 1991, p. 3</ref> This includes the usage of armoured vehicles, bayonets and firing on clearly marked ambulances.<ref name="BJ"/> In the resolution of January 22, 1990 the [[Supreme Soviet]] of the [[Azerbaijan SSR]] declared that the decree of the [[Presidium of the Supreme Soviet#USSR Supreme Soviet|Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet]] of January 19, used to impose emergency rule in [[Baku]] and military deployment, constituted an act of aggression.<ref>Kushen, Neier, p. 45</ref> Black January is seen as the rebirth of the [[Azerbaijan|Azerbaijan Republic]].

== Events ==
[[File:SV100182.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Victims of Black January.]]
In December 1989, Azerbaijanis living in regions bordering [[Iran]] ripped down the border fences demanding closer ties with ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Iran. Local government of [[Jalilabad]] surrendered to rioters turning over the administration to [[Azerbaijani Popular Front Party|Popular Front of Azerbaijan]]. This was followed by a non-violent turnover of [[Lankaran]] administration to Popular Front two week later.<ref name="NYT">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/29/world/upheaval-east-soviet-union-force-last-resort-armed-power-salvages-moscow-s.html?pagewanted=2
|title= UPHEAVAL IN THE EAST: SOVIET UNION; Force as a Last Resort: Armed Power Salvages Moscow's Facing Authority
|publisher= [[The New York Times]]
|author= Bill Keller
|date= 1990-01-28
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> On January 10, 1990, the parliament of [[Armenia]] voted to include [[Nagorno-Karabakh]] in its budget and allowed its inhabitants vote in Armenian elections thus disregarding Soviet authority and Azerbaijani jurisdiction and causing rage throughout Azerbaijan. This led to demonstrations which demanded the ousting of [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] [[communist]] officials and called for independence from the [[Soviet Union]]. Their rhetoric was, according to a [[Human Rights Watch]] report, "heavily anti-Armenian".<ref name=hrw>[http://hrw.org/reports/1995/communal/ Human Rights Watch. “Playing the "Communal Card": Communal Violence and Human Rights”]</ref> On January 12, the Popular Front organized a national defense committee with branches in factories and offices in Baku to mobilize people for battle with Armenians.<ref name="NYT"/>

Beginning on January 13, 1990, a [[Pogrom of Armenians in Baku|repetition of the pogroms]] of [[Sumgait]] was carried out in Baku against [[Armenians in Azerbaijan|Armenians]]. Armenians were thrown to their deaths from the balconies of upper-story apartments. Around 90 Armenians were murdered in the [[pogrom]]s. The Popular Front of Azerbaijan claimed that the pogroms were the result of "Armenian aggression." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=pletup86PMQC&pg=PA90&dq=Popular+Front+baku+armenians&lr= Black Garden By Thomas De Waal]</ref> The Popular Front instigated the attacks and local authorities did nothing to stop the violence. These attacks were mainly done by young Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia.<ref name="NYT"/> Baku's 300,000 Armenians hastily escaped.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=cB50CI0Xd5IC&pg=PA399&dq=Baku+300,000+armenians&lr= Highlanders By Yo'av Karny]</ref>

Local Azerbaijan authorities were unable to restore order because of internal quarreling and divisions that paralyzed their ability to act. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=JoGrR_9o3SUC&pg=PA96&dq=gorbachev+baku+1990+yazov+soldiers&lr=&cd=16#v=onepage&q=&f=false On My Country and the World, Mikhail Gorbachev]</ref> Azerbaijan authorities also ordered the Interior Ministry troops to abstain from intervening in the riots against Armenians. <ref>[Democracy, ethnic diversity, and security in post-communist Europe Anita Inder Singh]</ref> On January 15, the authorities declared states of emergency in other parts of Azerbaijan (but not in Baku), and the pogrom activity began to subside. At the same time, fearing an intervention of the central Soviet authorities, Popular Front activists began a blockade of military barracks.<ref name=hrw/> They had already taken ''de facto'' control in a number of Azerbaijani regions.<ref name=hrw/> On January 18, the Popular Front ordered supporters to barricade the main access routes into Baku using hundreds of cars, trucks and buses. The next day, Soviet authorities evacuated its representatives and local officials moving them to military command post on the outskirts of the city where Soviet Minister of Defense, [[Dmitry Yazov]] and Interior Minister [[Vadim Bakatin]] positioned.<ref name="NYT"/>

Late at night on January 19, 1990, 26,000 Soviet troops stormed [[Baku]] in order to crush the Popular Front. In the course of the storming, the troops attacked the protesters, firing in the crowds. The shooting continued for three days. They acted pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] (which continued on for more than 4 months) declared by the [[USSR]] Supreme Soviet Presidium, signed by President [[Gorbachev]]. The state of emergency was, however, disclosed to the [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] public only several hours<ref name=hrw/> after the beginning of the storming, when many citizens already lay wounded or dead in the streets, hospitals and morgues of Baku.

According to one report, 93 Azerbaijanis and 29 Russian soldiers were killed in the street skirmishes. Other reports state that 21 soldiers were killed and 90 wounded in the fighting. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=kiBHkRtRmIIC&pg=PA195&dq=29+soldiers+killed+soviet+1990+baku+January+one+report&lr=&cd=7#v=onepage&q=29%20soldiers%20killed%20soviet%201990%20baku%20January%20one%20report&f=false Remembrance and denial: the case of the Armenian genocide By Richard G. Hovannisian]</ref> <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=0TfIphAdnGwC&pg=PA377&dq=wounded+soldiers+Baku+soviet+1990+January&lr=&cd=2#v=onepage&q=wounded%20soldiers%20Baku%20soviet%201990%20January&f=false Nationalist mobilization and the collapse of the Soviet State By Mark R. Beissinger]</ref>

Other estimates are that between 133<ref>[http://www.january20.net/ 20 January]</ref> and 137<ref name=BBC>
{{cite news
|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1477933.stm
|title= Eyewitness: A republic loses faith
|publisher= [[BBC News]]
|author= Elchin Khalilov
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> people died with unofficial number reaching 300.<ref name="Azerbaijan International">
{{cite news
|url= http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html
|title= Black January: Baku (1990). Behind the Scenes - A Photojournalist's Perspective
|publisher= [[Azerbaijan International]]
|month= Spring| year= 1998
|pages= 33–37
|last1= |first1= Reza
|last2= Blair |first2= Betty
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> Up to 800 were injured and 5 went missing.<ref name="Turkish Weekly">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.turkishweekly.net/op-ed/2460/20-january-1990-black-face-of-the-red-terror-in-azerbaijan.html
|title= 20 January 1990: Black Face of the Red Terror in Azerbaijan
|publisher= [[Turkish Weekly]]
|author= Shamkhal Abilov
|date= 2010-01-9
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}</ref> An additional 26 people were killed in [[Neftchala]] and Lankaran regions of the country.<ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://today.az/news/society/59767.html
|title= Azerbaijan commemorates the anniversary of 20th January tragedy
|publisher= Today.az
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> The Soviet army soldiers used [[5.45x39mm#Wounding effects|5.45 mm caliber bullets with a shifted center of gravity]] designed to sheer after entering the body thus causing an excessive physical damage to the body.<ref>
{{Cite press release
| title = 20 January Tragedy Monstrous Crime Against Azerbaijani People Humanism and Humanity
| publisher = Embassy of Azerbaijan Republic in Kazakhstan
| date = January 17, 2006
| url = http://www.azembassy.kz/news/images/press-Y3Q1p.pdf
| accessdate = 20 January 2010}}</ref><ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://www.525.az/view.php?lang=ru&menu=17&id=8225
|title= 20 января – день печали и надменности
|trans_title= 20 January - Day of sorrow and disdain
|publisher= 525-ci qazet
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref>. January 20 is marked as the Day of the Nationwide Sorrow in Azerbaijan.<ref>[http://www.president.az/browse.php?sec_id=56 President of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan. Bloody Memories]</ref>

== State of Emergency ==
According to [[Human Rights Watch]], "while the Kremlin's ostensible reason for the military action was to safeguard the Armenian population, most evidence simply does not support this contention. For example, documents of the military procurator's office in Baku examined by Human Rights Watch/Helsinki indicate that the military action was being planned even before the January 13, 1990 pogroms".<ref name="hrw"/>

The Soviet army was trying to rescue the authoritarian regime, the rule of Communist Party and Soviet Union.

Almost the whole population of [[Baku]] turned out to bury the dead on the third day - January 22. For another 40 days, the country stayed away from work in a sign of mourning and mass protest.

Then Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov stated that the use of force in Baku was intended to prevent a ''de facto'' overthrow of local government by the non-communist opposition, namely the Popular Front of Azerbaijan (PFA), to prevent their victory in the upcoming elections scheduled for March 1990, and to destroy them as a political force, ensuring that the Communist government remained in power.<ref>
{{cite news
| url= http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/72560980.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jan+27%2C+1990&author=Michael+Dobbs&pub=The+Washington+Post+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=a.13&desc=Soviets+Say+Troops+Used+To+Avert+Coup+in+Baku%3BNationalists+Said+to+Plan+Seizure+of+Power
| title= Soviets Say Troops Used To Avert Coup in Baku;Nationalists Said to Plan Seizure of Power
| publisher= The Washington Post
| author = Michael Dobbs
| date=1990-01-27
| accessdate=2010-03-05
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
| url= http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/inside/publications/1999_NK_Book.pdf
| title= The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
| publisher= Uppsala University
| work=Department of East European Studies
| author = Svante Cornell
| date=1999
| volume=46
| issue=
| accessdate=2010-03-05
}}</ref>

A special session of the Supreme Council (Parliament) of [[Azerbaijan SSR]] held on January 22, 1990 at the request of public and by initiative of the group of MPs tried to initially assess the January 20 events and adopted some documents condemning the crackdown operation by Soviet army.

== Black January ==
[[File:The tragedy of January 20.jpg|thumb|300px|Azerbaijani stamp with photos of Black January]]
The [[Human Rights Watch]] report entitled "Black January in Azerbaijan" states: "Indeed, the violence used by the Soviet Army on the night of January 19–20 was so out of proportion to the resistance offered by Azerbaijanis as to constitute an exercise in collective punishment. Since Soviet officials have stated publicly that the purpose of the intervention of Soviet troops was to prevent the ouster of the Communist-dominated government of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the nationalist-minded, noncommunist opposition, the punishment inflicted on Baku by Soviet soldiers may have been intended as a warning to nationalists, not only in Azerbaijan, but in the other Republics of the Soviet Union."

"The subsequent events in the Baltic Republics - where, in a remarkable parallel to the events in Baku, alleged civil disorder was cited as justification for violent intervention by Soviet troops -further confirms that the Soviet Government has demonstrated that it will deal harshly with nationalist movements," continues the Human Rights Watch report.

During the Black January crackdown, the Soviets managed to suppress all efforts to disseminate news from Azerbaijan to the local population and the international community. On the eve of the Soviet military invasion in [[Baku]], one of leaders of Popular Front, Ekhtibar Mamedov proposed to Kremlin officials to appear on Azerbaijani TV at 8 PM announcing First Secretary of Azerbaijani Communist Party, [[Abdurrahman Vazirov]] would be leaving and no troops would invade Baku which would restore the order.<ref name="NYT"/> Instead, an energy supply source to Azerbaijani TV and State Radio was blown up by intelligence officers at 7:15 PM in order to cut off the population from any source of information. TV and radio was silent and all print media was banned.<ref name="Turkish Weekly"/> But [[Mirza Khazar]] and his staff at [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] succeeded in broadcasting daily reports from Baku,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html |title= Black January 1990|publisher =Azerbaijan International |author= |accessdate=2009-02-26}}</ref> making it the only source of news to Azerbaijanis within and outside of the country for several days. The Kremlin leadership tried hard to keep the outside world and the population inside Azerbaijan unaware of the military invasion, but Mirza Khazar and his staff foiled this attempt. Thanks to Mirza Khazar and his staff at Radio Liberty, Azerbaijanis in and outside Azerbaijan, as well as the international community, learned about the Soviet invasion and gained a chance to organize protest actions. Shocked by this "surprising" development, the government of the [[USSR]] complained officially to the [[United States]] about Radio Liberty's<ref>[http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-05/entertainment/ca-1371_1_radio-liberty Soviet Officials Charge Voice of America, Radio Liberty Fueled Riots]</ref> coverage of the military invasion of Azerbaijan. The January 20, 1990, broadcasts turned Mirza Khazar into a legend among [[Azerbaijanis]] in and outside Azerbaijan. Malahat Aghajanqizi, a well-known Azerbaijani poetess and writer, described Mirza Khazar’s appearance on radio at the time of the Soviet military invasion as follows: “On January 20, Mirza Khazar with his God-given divine voice, gave hope to the dying Azerbaijani people.”<ref>[http://mirzexezerinsesi.net/articles/2008/11/29/melahet-agacanqizi-mirze-xezerin-sesi Article on Mirza Khazar]</ref>

The Wall Street Journal editorial of January 4, 1995 claimed that Gorbachev chose to use violence against "independence-seeking Azerbaijan."

[[File:SV100165-azer genocide memorial.jpg|thumb|200px||A Memorial dedicated to all victims of [[March Days]] and Black January.]]

== Independence ==
On October 18, 1991, the Parliament of Azerbaijan restored the country's independence. Gorbachev later apologized to Azerbaijan by stating: "The declaration of a state emergency in Baku was the biggest mistake of my political career". In 1994, the [[National Assembly of Azerbaijan]] adopted a full political and legal evaluation of the Black January events. According to the decree of the [[President of Azerbaijan]] [[Heydar Aliyev]] from December 16, 1999, all victims of the crackdown were awarded an honorary title of the "Martyr of January 20" ({{lang-az|20 yanvar şəhidi}}).

== See also ==
* [[History of Azerbaijan]]
* [[History of the Soviet Union]]
* [[April 9, 1989 Massacre]]
* [[Jeltoqsan]]
* [[January Events (Lithuania)]]
* [[January 1991 events in Latvia]]

== Notes and references ==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== External links ==
* [http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html Black January: Baku (1990) / Azerbaijan International (Spring 1998)]
* http://www.january20.net
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1477933.stm

{{Fall of Communism}}
{{Azerbaijan topics}}
{{Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict}}
{{coord missing|Azerbaijan}}

[[Category:History of Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Massacres in Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Massacres in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Riots in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:1990 in the Soviet Union]]

[[ar:السبت الأسود]]
[[az:Qara Yanvar]]
[[fr:Janvier Noir]]
[[id:Januari Hitam]]
[[ka:შავი იანვარი]]
[[pt:Janeiro Negro]]
[[ro:Ianuarie negru]]
[[ru:Чёрный январь]]
[[tr:Kara Ocak]]

Schwarzer Januar

2010-03-24T07:00:37Z

76.191.230.178: /* Events */

{{infobox military conflict
| conflict = Black January''' {{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}
| partof = [[Azerbaijan#Restoration of independence|Azerbaijani national independence movement]]
| image =
| caption = Soviet tanks in Baku during Black January
| date = January 19-20, 1990
| place = [[Baku]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[Soviet Union]]
| coordinates =
| map_type =
| latitude =
| longitude =
| map_size =
| map_caption =
| map_label =
| territory =
| result = Invasion of Baku and massacre of civilians
| status =
| combatant1 = {{flag|Azerbaijan|}}
| combatant2 = {{flag|Soviet Union}}
*{{flagicon image|Red Army flag.svg}} [[Red Army|Soviet Army]]
*[[File:Emblema KGB.svg|19px|link=]] [[KGB]] [[special forces]]
| combatant3 =
| commander1 =
| commander2 =
| commander3 =
| strength1 =
| strength2 = 26,000 troops
| strength3 =
| casualties1 = 133-137 civilians killed More than 800 injured
| casualties2 =
| casualties3 =
| notes =
}}

'''Black January''' ({{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}), also known as '''Black Saturday''' or the '''January Massacre''' was a violent crackdown of the Azerbaijani independence movement in [[Baku]] on January 19–20, 1990, pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] during the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]].

The [[Memorial Society]] and [[Helsinki Watch]] reported that they had found compelling evidence that the imposition of the state of emergency had led to an unwarranted breach of [[civil liberties]] and that Soviet troops had used unjustified force resulting in many deaths.<ref name="BJ">Robert Kushen, Aryeh Neier. ''Conflict in the Soviet Union: Black January in Azerbaidzhan'', [[Human Rights Watch]], 1991, p. 3</ref> This includes the usage of armoured vehicles, bayonets and firing on clearly marked ambulances.<ref name="BJ"/> In the resolution of January 22, 1990 the [[Supreme Soviet]] of the [[Azerbaijan SSR]] declared that the decree of the [[Presidium of the Supreme Soviet#USSR Supreme Soviet|Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet]] of January 19, used to impose emergency rule in [[Baku]] and military deployment, constituted an act of aggression.<ref>Kushen, Neier, p. 45</ref> Black January is seen as the rebirth of the [[Azerbaijan|Azerbaijan Republic]].

== Events ==
[[File:SV100182.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Victims of Black January.]]
In December 1989, Azerbaijanis living in regions bordering [[Iran]] ripped down the border fences demanding closer ties with ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Iran. Local government of [[Jalilabad]] surrendered to rioters turning over the administration to [[Azerbaijani Popular Front Party|Popular Front of Azerbaijan]]. This was followed by a non-violent turnover of [[Lankaran]] administration to Popular Front two week later.<ref name="NYT">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/29/world/upheaval-east-soviet-union-force-last-resort-armed-power-salvages-moscow-s.html?pagewanted=2
|title= UPHEAVAL IN THE EAST: SOVIET UNION; Force as a Last Resort: Armed Power Salvages Moscow's Facing Authority
|publisher= [[The New York Times]]
|author= Bill Keller
|date= 1990-01-28
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> On January 10, 1990, the parliament of [[Armenia]] voted to include [[Nagorno-Karabakh]] in its budget and allowed its inhabitants vote in Armenian elections thus disregarding Soviet authority and Azerbaijani jurisdiction and causing rage throughout Azerbaijan. This led to demonstrations which demanded the ousting of [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] [[communist]] officials and called for independence from the [[Soviet Union]]. Their rhetoric was, according to a [[Human Rights Watch]] report, "heavily anti-Armenian".<ref name=hrw>[http://hrw.org/reports/1995/communal/ Human Rights Watch. “Playing the "Communal Card": Communal Violence and Human Rights”]</ref> On January 12, the Popular Front organized a national defense committee with branches in factories and offices in Baku to mobilize people for battle with Armenians.<ref name="NYT"/>

Beginning on January 13, 1990, a [[Pogrom of Armenians in Baku|repetition of the pogroms]] of [[Sumgait]] was carried out in Baku against [[Armenians in Azerbaijan|Armenians]]. Armenians were thrown to their deaths from the balconies of upper-story apartments. Around 90 Armenians were murdered in the [[pogrom]]s. The Popular Front of Azerbaijan claimed that the pogroms were the result of "Armenian aggression." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=pletup86PMQC&pg=PA90&dq=Popular+Front+baku+armenians&lr= Black Garden By Thomas De Waal]</ref> The Popular Front instigated the attacks and local authorities did nothing to stop the violence. These attacks were mainly done by young Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia.<ref name="NYT"/> Baku's 300,000 Armenians hastily escaped.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=cB50CI0Xd5IC&pg=PA399&dq=Baku+300,000+armenians&lr= Highlanders By Yo'av Karny]</ref>

Local Azerbaijan authorities were unable to restore order because of internal quarreling and divisions that paralyzed their ability to act. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=JoGrR_9o3SUC&pg=PA96&dq=gorbachev+baku+1990+yazov+soldiers&lr=&cd=16#v=onepage&q=&f=false On My Country and the World, Mikhail Gorbachev]</ref> Azerbaijan authorities also ordered the Interior Ministry troops to abstain from intervening in the riots against Armenians. <ref>[Democracy, ethnic diversity, and security in post-communist Europe Anita Inder Singh]</ref> On January 15, the authorities declared states of emergency in other parts of Azerbaijan (but not in Baku), and the pogrom activity began to subside. At the same time, fearing an intervention of the central Soviet authorities, Popular Front activists began a blockade of military barracks.<ref name=hrw/> They had already taken ''de facto'' control in a number of Azerbaijani regions.<ref name=hrw/> On January 18, the Popular Front ordered supporters to barricade the main access routes into Baku using hundreds of cars, trucks and buses. The next day, Soviet authorities evacuated its representatives and local officials moving them to military command post on the outskirts of the city where Soviet Minister of Defense, [[Dmitry Yazov]] and Interior Minister [[Vadim Bakatin]] positioned.<ref name="NYT"/>

Late at night on January 19, 1990, 26,000 Soviet troops stormed [[Baku]] in order to crush the Popular Front. In the course of the storming, the troops attacked the protesters, firing in the crowds. The shooting continued for three days. They acted pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] (which continued on for more than 4 months) declared by the [[USSR]] Supreme Soviet Presidium, signed by President [[Gorbachev]]. The state of emergency was, however, disclosed to the [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] public only several hours<ref name=hrw/> after the beginning of the storming, when many citizens already lay wounded or dead in the streets, hospitals and morgues of Baku.

According to one report, 93 Azerbaijanis and 29 Russian soldiers were killed in the street skirmishes. Other reports state that 21 soldiers were killed and 90 wounded in the fighting. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=Me4SpO1nSVsC&pg=PA377&dq=Baku+1990+soldiers+killed+wounded&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Baku%201990%20soldiers%20killed%20wounded&f=false Nationalist mobilization and the collapse of the Soviet State
By Mark R. Beissinger]</ref> <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=0TfIphAdnGwC&pg=PA377&dq=wounded+soldiers+Baku+soviet+1990+January&lr=&cd=2#v=onepage&q=wounded%20soldiers%20Baku%20soviet%201990%20January&f=false Nationalist mobilization and the collapse of the Soviet State By Mark R. Beissinger]</ref>

Other estimates are that between 133<ref>[http://www.january20.net/ 20 January]</ref> and 137<ref name=BBC>
{{cite news
|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1477933.stm
|title= Eyewitness: A republic loses faith
|publisher= [[BBC News]]
|author= Elchin Khalilov
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> people died with unofficial number reaching 300.<ref name="Azerbaijan International">
{{cite news
|url= http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html
|title= Black January: Baku (1990). Behind the Scenes - A Photojournalist's Perspective
|publisher= [[Azerbaijan International]]
|month= Spring| year= 1998
|pages= 33–37
|last1= |first1= Reza
|last2= Blair |first2= Betty
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> Up to 800 were injured and 5 went missing.<ref name="Turkish Weekly">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.turkishweekly.net/op-ed/2460/20-january-1990-black-face-of-the-red-terror-in-azerbaijan.html
|title= 20 January 1990: Black Face of the Red Terror in Azerbaijan
|publisher= [[Turkish Weekly]]
|author= Shamkhal Abilov
|date= 2010-01-9
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}</ref> An additional 26 people were killed in [[Neftchala]] and Lankaran regions of the country.<ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://today.az/news/society/59767.html
|title= Azerbaijan commemorates the anniversary of 20th January tragedy
|publisher= Today.az
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> The Soviet army soldiers used [[5.45x39mm#Wounding effects|5.45 mm caliber bullets with a shifted center of gravity]] designed to sheer after entering the body thus causing an excessive physical damage to the body.<ref>
{{Cite press release
| title = 20 January Tragedy Monstrous Crime Against Azerbaijani People Humanism and Humanity
| publisher = Embassy of Azerbaijan Republic in Kazakhstan
| date = January 17, 2006
| url = http://www.azembassy.kz/news/images/press-Y3Q1p.pdf
| accessdate = 20 January 2010}}</ref><ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://www.525.az/view.php?lang=ru&menu=17&id=8225
|title= 20 января – день печали и надменности
|trans_title= 20 January - Day of sorrow and disdain
|publisher= 525-ci qazet
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref>. January 20 is marked as the Day of the Nationwide Sorrow in Azerbaijan.<ref>[http://www.president.az/browse.php?sec_id=56 President of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan. Bloody Memories]</ref>

== State of Emergency ==
According to [[Human Rights Watch]], "while the Kremlin's ostensible reason for the military action was to safeguard the Armenian population, most evidence simply does not support this contention. For example, documents of the military procurator's office in Baku examined by Human Rights Watch/Helsinki indicate that the military action was being planned even before the January 13, 1990 pogroms".<ref name="hrw"/>

The Soviet army was trying to rescue the authoritarian regime, the rule of Communist Party and Soviet Union.

Almost the whole population of [[Baku]] turned out to bury the dead on the third day - January 22. For another 40 days, the country stayed away from work in a sign of mourning and mass protest.

Then Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov stated that the use of force in Baku was intended to prevent a ''de facto'' overthrow of local government by the non-communist opposition, namely the Popular Front of Azerbaijan (PFA), to prevent their victory in the upcoming elections scheduled for March 1990, and to destroy them as a political force, ensuring that the Communist government remained in power.<ref>
{{cite news
| url= http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/72560980.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jan+27%2C+1990&author=Michael+Dobbs&pub=The+Washington+Post+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=a.13&desc=Soviets+Say+Troops+Used+To+Avert+Coup+in+Baku%3BNationalists+Said+to+Plan+Seizure+of+Power
| title= Soviets Say Troops Used To Avert Coup in Baku;Nationalists Said to Plan Seizure of Power
| publisher= The Washington Post
| author = Michael Dobbs
| date=1990-01-27
| accessdate=2010-03-05
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
| url= http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/inside/publications/1999_NK_Book.pdf
| title= The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
| publisher= Uppsala University
| work=Department of East European Studies
| author = Svante Cornell
| date=1999
| volume=46
| issue=
| accessdate=2010-03-05
}}</ref>

A special session of the Supreme Council (Parliament) of [[Azerbaijan SSR]] held on January 22, 1990 at the request of public and by initiative of the group of MPs tried to initially assess the January 20 events and adopted some documents condemning the crackdown operation by Soviet army.

== Black January ==
[[File:The tragedy of January 20.jpg|thumb|300px|Azerbaijani stamp with photos of Black January]]
The [[Human Rights Watch]] report entitled "Black January in Azerbaijan" states: "Indeed, the violence used by the Soviet Army on the night of January 19–20 was so out of proportion to the resistance offered by Azerbaijanis as to constitute an exercise in collective punishment. Since Soviet officials have stated publicly that the purpose of the intervention of Soviet troops was to prevent the ouster of the Communist-dominated government of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the nationalist-minded, noncommunist opposition, the punishment inflicted on Baku by Soviet soldiers may have been intended as a warning to nationalists, not only in Azerbaijan, but in the other Republics of the Soviet Union."

"The subsequent events in the Baltic Republics - where, in a remarkable parallel to the events in Baku, alleged civil disorder was cited as justification for violent intervention by Soviet troops -further confirms that the Soviet Government has demonstrated that it will deal harshly with nationalist movements," continues the Human Rights Watch report.

During the Black January crackdown, the Soviets managed to suppress all efforts to disseminate news from Azerbaijan to the local population and the international community. On the eve of the Soviet military invasion in [[Baku]], one of leaders of Popular Front, Ekhtibar Mamedov proposed to Kremlin officials to appear on Azerbaijani TV at 8 PM announcing First Secretary of Azerbaijani Communist Party, [[Abdurrahman Vazirov]] would be leaving and no troops would invade Baku which would restore the order.<ref name="NYT"/> Instead, an energy supply source to Azerbaijani TV and State Radio was blown up by intelligence officers at 7:15 PM in order to cut off the population from any source of information. TV and radio was silent and all print media was banned.<ref name="Turkish Weekly"/> But [[Mirza Khazar]] and his staff at [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] succeeded in broadcasting daily reports from Baku,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html |title= Black January 1990|publisher =Azerbaijan International |author= |accessdate=2009-02-26}}</ref> making it the only source of news to Azerbaijanis within and outside of the country for several days. The Kremlin leadership tried hard to keep the outside world and the population inside Azerbaijan unaware of the military invasion, but Mirza Khazar and his staff foiled this attempt. Thanks to Mirza Khazar and his staff at Radio Liberty, Azerbaijanis in and outside Azerbaijan, as well as the international community, learned about the Soviet invasion and gained a chance to organize protest actions. Shocked by this "surprising" development, the government of the [[USSR]] complained officially to the [[United States]] about Radio Liberty's<ref>[http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-05/entertainment/ca-1371_1_radio-liberty Soviet Officials Charge Voice of America, Radio Liberty Fueled Riots]</ref> coverage of the military invasion of Azerbaijan. The January 20, 1990, broadcasts turned Mirza Khazar into a legend among [[Azerbaijanis]] in and outside Azerbaijan. Malahat Aghajanqizi, a well-known Azerbaijani poetess and writer, described Mirza Khazar’s appearance on radio at the time of the Soviet military invasion as follows: “On January 20, Mirza Khazar with his God-given divine voice, gave hope to the dying Azerbaijani people.”<ref>[http://mirzexezerinsesi.net/articles/2008/11/29/melahet-agacanqizi-mirze-xezerin-sesi Article on Mirza Khazar]</ref>

The Wall Street Journal editorial of January 4, 1995 claimed that Gorbachev chose to use violence against "independence-seeking Azerbaijan."

[[File:SV100165-azer genocide memorial.jpg|thumb|200px||A Memorial dedicated to all victims of [[March Days]] and Black January.]]

== Independence ==
On October 18, 1991, the Parliament of Azerbaijan restored the country's independence. Gorbachev later apologized to Azerbaijan by stating: "The declaration of a state emergency in Baku was the biggest mistake of my political career". In 1994, the [[National Assembly of Azerbaijan]] adopted a full political and legal evaluation of the Black January events. According to the decree of the [[President of Azerbaijan]] [[Heydar Aliyev]] from December 16, 1999, all victims of the crackdown were awarded an honorary title of the "Martyr of January 20" ({{lang-az|20 yanvar şəhidi}}).

== See also ==
* [[History of Azerbaijan]]
* [[History of the Soviet Union]]
* [[April 9, 1989 Massacre]]
* [[Jeltoqsan]]
* [[January Events (Lithuania)]]
* [[January 1991 events in Latvia]]

== Notes and references ==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== External links ==
* [http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html Black January: Baku (1990) / Azerbaijan International (Spring 1998)]
* http://www.january20.net
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1477933.stm

{{Fall of Communism}}
{{Azerbaijan topics}}
{{Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict}}
{{coord missing|Azerbaijan}}

[[Category:History of Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Massacres in Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Massacres in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Riots in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:1990 in the Soviet Union]]

[[ar:السبت الأسود]]
[[az:Qara Yanvar]]
[[fr:Janvier Noir]]
[[id:Januari Hitam]]
[[ka:შავი იანვარი]]
[[pt:Janeiro Negro]]
[[ro:Ianuarie negru]]
[[ru:Чёрный январь]]
[[tr:Kara Ocak]]

Schwarzer Januar

2010-03-24T06:58:49Z

76.191.230.178: Local authorities intentionally did nothing to stop the riots.

{{infobox military conflict
| conflict = Black January''' {{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}
| partof = [[Azerbaijan#Restoration of independence|Azerbaijani national independence movement]]
| image =
| caption = Soviet tanks in Baku during Black January
| date = January 19-20, 1990
| place = [[Baku]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[Soviet Union]]
| coordinates =
| map_type =
| latitude =
| longitude =
| map_size =
| map_caption =
| map_label =
| territory =
| result = Invasion of Baku and massacre of civilians
| status =
| combatant1 = {{flag|Azerbaijan|}}
| combatant2 = {{flag|Soviet Union}}
*{{flagicon image|Red Army flag.svg}} [[Red Army|Soviet Army]]
*[[File:Emblema KGB.svg|19px|link=]] [[KGB]] [[special forces]]
| combatant3 =
| commander1 =
| commander2 =
| commander3 =
| strength1 =
| strength2 = 26,000 troops
| strength3 =
| casualties1 = 133-137 civilians killed More than 800 injured
| casualties2 =
| casualties3 =
| notes =
}}

'''Black January''' ({{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}), also known as '''Black Saturday''' or the '''January Massacre''' was a violent crackdown of the Azerbaijani independence movement in [[Baku]] on January 19–20, 1990, pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] during the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]].

The [[Memorial Society]] and [[Helsinki Watch]] reported that they had found compelling evidence that the imposition of the state of emergency had led to an unwarranted breach of [[civil liberties]] and that Soviet troops had used unjustified force resulting in many deaths.<ref name="BJ">Robert Kushen, Aryeh Neier. ''Conflict in the Soviet Union: Black January in Azerbaidzhan'', [[Human Rights Watch]], 1991, p. 3</ref> This includes the usage of armoured vehicles, bayonets and firing on clearly marked ambulances.<ref name="BJ"/> In the resolution of January 22, 1990 the [[Supreme Soviet]] of the [[Azerbaijan SSR]] declared that the decree of the [[Presidium of the Supreme Soviet#USSR Supreme Soviet|Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet]] of January 19, used to impose emergency rule in [[Baku]] and military deployment, constituted an act of aggression.<ref>Kushen, Neier, p. 45</ref> Black January is seen as the rebirth of the [[Azerbaijan|Azerbaijan Republic]].

== Events ==
[[File:SV100182.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Victims of Black January.]]
In December 1989, Azerbaijanis living in regions bordering [[Iran]] ripped down the border fences demanding closer ties with ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Iran. Local government of [[Jalilabad]] surrendered to rioters turning over the administration to [[Azerbaijani Popular Front Party|Popular Front of Azerbaijan]]. This was followed by a non-violent turnover of [[Lankaran]] administration to Popular Front two week later.<ref name="NYT">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/29/world/upheaval-east-soviet-union-force-last-resort-armed-power-salvages-moscow-s.html?pagewanted=2
|title= UPHEAVAL IN THE EAST: SOVIET UNION; Force as a Last Resort: Armed Power Salvages Moscow's Facing Authority
|publisher= [[The New York Times]]
|author= Bill Keller
|date= 1990-01-28
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> On January 10, 1990, the parliament of [[Armenia]] voted to include [[Nagorno-Karabakh]] in its budget and allowed its inhabitants vote in Armenian elections thus disregarding Soviet authority and Azerbaijani jurisdiction and causing rage throughout Azerbaijan. This led to demonstrations which demanded the ousting of [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] [[communist]] officials and called for independence from the [[Soviet Union]]. Their rhetoric was, according to a [[Human Rights Watch]] report, "heavily anti-Armenian".<ref name=hrw>[http://hrw.org/reports/1995/communal/ Human Rights Watch. “Playing the "Communal Card": Communal Violence and Human Rights”]</ref> On January 12, the Popular Front organized a national defense committee with branches in factories and offices in Baku to mobilize people for battle with Armenians.<ref name="NYT"/>

Beginning on January 13, 1990, a [[Pogrom of Armenians in Baku|repetition of the pogroms]] of [[Sumgait]] was carried out in Baku against [[Armenians in Azerbaijan|Armenians]]. Armenians were thrown to their deaths from the balconies of upper-story apartments. Around 90 Armenians were murdered in the [[pogrom]]s. The Popular Front of Azerbaijan claimed that the pogroms were the result of "Armenian aggression." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=pletup86PMQC&pg=PA90&dq=Popular+Front+baku+armenians&lr= Black Garden By Thomas De Waal]</ref> The Popular Front instigated the attacks and local authorities did nothing to stop the violence. These attacks were mainly done by young Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia.<ref name="NYT"/> Baku's 300,000 Armenians hastily escaped.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=cB50CI0Xd5IC&pg=PA399&dq=Baku+300,000+armenians&lr= Highlanders By Yo'av Karny]</ref>

Local Azerbaijan authorities were unable to restore order because of internal quarreling and divisions that paralyzed their ability to act. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=JoGrR_9o3SUC&pg=PA96&dq=gorbachev+baku+1990+yazov+soldiers&lr=&cd=16#v=onepage&q=&f=false On My Country and the World, Mikhail Gorbachev]</ref> Azerbaijan authorities also ordered the Interior Ministry troops to abstain from intervening in the riots against Armenians. <ref>[Democracy, ethnic diversity, and security in post-communist Europe Anita Inder Singh]</ref> On January 15, the authorities declared states of emergency in other parts of Azerbaijan (but not in Baku), and the pogrom activity began to subside. At the same time, fearing an intervention of the central Soviet authorities, Popular Front activists began a blockade of military barracks.<ref name=hrw/> They had already taken ''de facto'' control in a number of Azerbaijani regions.<ref name=hrw/> On January 18, the Popular Front ordered supporters to barricade the main access routes into Baku using hundreds of cars, trucks and buses. The next day, Soviet authorities evacuated its representatives and local officials moving them to military command post on the outskirts of the city where Soviet Minister of Defense, [[Dmitry Yazov]] and Interior Minister [[Vadim Bakatin]] positioned.<ref name="NYT"/>

Late at night on January 19, 1990, 26,000 Soviet troops stormed [[Baku]] in order to crush the Popular Front. In the course of the storming, the troops attacked the protesters, firing in the crowds. The shooting continued for three days. They acted pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] (which continued on for more than 4 months) declared by the [[USSR]] Supreme Soviet Presidium, signed by President [[Gorbachev]]. The state of emergency was, however, disclosed to the [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] public only several hours<ref name=hrw/> after the beginning of the storming, when many citizens already lay wounded or dead in the streets, hospitals and morgues of Baku.

According to one report, 93 Azerbaijanis and 29 Russian soldiers were killed in the street skirmishes. Other reports state that 21 soldiers were killed and 90 wounded in the fighting. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=Me4SpO1nSVsC&pg=PA377&dq=Baku+1990+soldiers+killed+wounded&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Baku%201990%20soldiers%20killed%20wounded&f=false Nationalist mobilization and the collapse of the Soviet State
By Mark R. Beissinger]</ref> <ref>Change in Eastern/Central Europe: some implications for Southern Africa‎ - Page 82</ref>

Other estimates are that between 133<ref>[http://www.january20.net/ 20 January]</ref> and 137<ref name=BBC>
{{cite news
|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1477933.stm
|title= Eyewitness: A republic loses faith
|publisher= [[BBC News]]
|author= Elchin Khalilov
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> people died with unofficial number reaching 300.<ref name="Azerbaijan International">
{{cite news
|url= http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html
|title= Black January: Baku (1990). Behind the Scenes - A Photojournalist's Perspective
|publisher= [[Azerbaijan International]]
|month= Spring| year= 1998
|pages= 33–37
|last1= |first1= Reza
|last2= Blair |first2= Betty
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> Up to 800 were injured and 5 went missing.<ref name="Turkish Weekly">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.turkishweekly.net/op-ed/2460/20-january-1990-black-face-of-the-red-terror-in-azerbaijan.html
|title= 20 January 1990: Black Face of the Red Terror in Azerbaijan
|publisher= [[Turkish Weekly]]
|author= Shamkhal Abilov
|date= 2010-01-9
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}</ref> An additional 26 people were killed in [[Neftchala]] and Lankaran regions of the country.<ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://today.az/news/society/59767.html
|title= Azerbaijan commemorates the anniversary of 20th January tragedy
|publisher= Today.az
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> The Soviet army soldiers used [[5.45x39mm#Wounding effects|5.45 mm caliber bullets with a shifted center of gravity]] designed to sheer after entering the body thus causing an excessive physical damage to the body.<ref>
{{Cite press release
| title = 20 January Tragedy Monstrous Crime Against Azerbaijani People Humanism and Humanity
| publisher = Embassy of Azerbaijan Republic in Kazakhstan
| date = January 17, 2006
| url = http://www.azembassy.kz/news/images/press-Y3Q1p.pdf
| accessdate = 20 January 2010}}</ref><ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://www.525.az/view.php?lang=ru&menu=17&id=8225
|title= 20 января – день печали и надменности
|trans_title= 20 January - Day of sorrow and disdain
|publisher= 525-ci qazet
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref>. January 20 is marked as the Day of the Nationwide Sorrow in Azerbaijan.<ref>[http://www.president.az/browse.php?sec_id=56 President of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan. Bloody Memories]</ref>

== State of Emergency ==
According to [[Human Rights Watch]], "while the Kremlin's ostensible reason for the military action was to safeguard the Armenian population, most evidence simply does not support this contention. For example, documents of the military procurator's office in Baku examined by Human Rights Watch/Helsinki indicate that the military action was being planned even before the January 13, 1990 pogroms".<ref name="hrw"/>

The Soviet army was trying to rescue the authoritarian regime, the rule of Communist Party and Soviet Union.

Almost the whole population of [[Baku]] turned out to bury the dead on the third day - January 22. For another 40 days, the country stayed away from work in a sign of mourning and mass protest.

Then Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov stated that the use of force in Baku was intended to prevent a ''de facto'' overthrow of local government by the non-communist opposition, namely the Popular Front of Azerbaijan (PFA), to prevent their victory in the upcoming elections scheduled for March 1990, and to destroy them as a political force, ensuring that the Communist government remained in power.<ref>
{{cite news
| url= http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/72560980.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jan+27%2C+1990&author=Michael+Dobbs&pub=The+Washington+Post+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=a.13&desc=Soviets+Say+Troops+Used+To+Avert+Coup+in+Baku%3BNationalists+Said+to+Plan+Seizure+of+Power
| title= Soviets Say Troops Used To Avert Coup in Baku;Nationalists Said to Plan Seizure of Power
| publisher= The Washington Post
| author = Michael Dobbs
| date=1990-01-27
| accessdate=2010-03-05
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
| url= http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/inside/publications/1999_NK_Book.pdf
| title= The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
| publisher= Uppsala University
| work=Department of East European Studies
| author = Svante Cornell
| date=1999
| volume=46
| issue=
| accessdate=2010-03-05
}}</ref>

A special session of the Supreme Council (Parliament) of [[Azerbaijan SSR]] held on January 22, 1990 at the request of public and by initiative of the group of MPs tried to initially assess the January 20 events and adopted some documents condemning the crackdown operation by Soviet army.

== Black January ==
[[File:The tragedy of January 20.jpg|thumb|300px|Azerbaijani stamp with photos of Black January]]
The [[Human Rights Watch]] report entitled "Black January in Azerbaijan" states: "Indeed, the violence used by the Soviet Army on the night of January 19–20 was so out of proportion to the resistance offered by Azerbaijanis as to constitute an exercise in collective punishment. Since Soviet officials have stated publicly that the purpose of the intervention of Soviet troops was to prevent the ouster of the Communist-dominated government of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the nationalist-minded, noncommunist opposition, the punishment inflicted on Baku by Soviet soldiers may have been intended as a warning to nationalists, not only in Azerbaijan, but in the other Republics of the Soviet Union."

"The subsequent events in the Baltic Republics - where, in a remarkable parallel to the events in Baku, alleged civil disorder was cited as justification for violent intervention by Soviet troops -further confirms that the Soviet Government has demonstrated that it will deal harshly with nationalist movements," continues the Human Rights Watch report.

During the Black January crackdown, the Soviets managed to suppress all efforts to disseminate news from Azerbaijan to the local population and the international community. On the eve of the Soviet military invasion in [[Baku]], one of leaders of Popular Front, Ekhtibar Mamedov proposed to Kremlin officials to appear on Azerbaijani TV at 8 PM announcing First Secretary of Azerbaijani Communist Party, [[Abdurrahman Vazirov]] would be leaving and no troops would invade Baku which would restore the order.<ref name="NYT"/> Instead, an energy supply source to Azerbaijani TV and State Radio was blown up by intelligence officers at 7:15 PM in order to cut off the population from any source of information. TV and radio was silent and all print media was banned.<ref name="Turkish Weekly"/> But [[Mirza Khazar]] and his staff at [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] succeeded in broadcasting daily reports from Baku,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html |title= Black January 1990|publisher =Azerbaijan International |author= |accessdate=2009-02-26}}</ref> making it the only source of news to Azerbaijanis within and outside of the country for several days. The Kremlin leadership tried hard to keep the outside world and the population inside Azerbaijan unaware of the military invasion, but Mirza Khazar and his staff foiled this attempt. Thanks to Mirza Khazar and his staff at Radio Liberty, Azerbaijanis in and outside Azerbaijan, as well as the international community, learned about the Soviet invasion and gained a chance to organize protest actions. Shocked by this "surprising" development, the government of the [[USSR]] complained officially to the [[United States]] about Radio Liberty's<ref>[http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-05/entertainment/ca-1371_1_radio-liberty Soviet Officials Charge Voice of America, Radio Liberty Fueled Riots]</ref> coverage of the military invasion of Azerbaijan. The January 20, 1990, broadcasts turned Mirza Khazar into a legend among [[Azerbaijanis]] in and outside Azerbaijan. Malahat Aghajanqizi, a well-known Azerbaijani poetess and writer, described Mirza Khazar’s appearance on radio at the time of the Soviet military invasion as follows: “On January 20, Mirza Khazar with his God-given divine voice, gave hope to the dying Azerbaijani people.”<ref>[http://mirzexezerinsesi.net/articles/2008/11/29/melahet-agacanqizi-mirze-xezerin-sesi Article on Mirza Khazar]</ref>

The Wall Street Journal editorial of January 4, 1995 claimed that Gorbachev chose to use violence against "independence-seeking Azerbaijan."

[[File:SV100165-azer genocide memorial.jpg|thumb|200px||A Memorial dedicated to all victims of [[March Days]] and Black January.]]

== Independence ==
On October 18, 1991, the Parliament of Azerbaijan restored the country's independence. Gorbachev later apologized to Azerbaijan by stating: "The declaration of a state emergency in Baku was the biggest mistake of my political career". In 1994, the [[National Assembly of Azerbaijan]] adopted a full political and legal evaluation of the Black January events. According to the decree of the [[President of Azerbaijan]] [[Heydar Aliyev]] from December 16, 1999, all victims of the crackdown were awarded an honorary title of the "Martyr of January 20" ({{lang-az|20 yanvar şəhidi}}).

== See also ==
* [[History of Azerbaijan]]
* [[History of the Soviet Union]]
* [[April 9, 1989 Massacre]]
* [[Jeltoqsan]]
* [[January Events (Lithuania)]]
* [[January 1991 events in Latvia]]

== Notes and references ==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== External links ==
* [http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html Black January: Baku (1990) / Azerbaijan International (Spring 1998)]
* http://www.january20.net
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1477933.stm

{{Fall of Communism}}
{{Azerbaijan topics}}
{{Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict}}
{{coord missing|Azerbaijan}}

[[Category:History of Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Massacres in Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Massacres in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Riots in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:1990 in the Soviet Union]]

[[ar:السبت الأسود]]
[[az:Qara Yanvar]]
[[fr:Janvier Noir]]
[[id:Januari Hitam]]
[[ka:შავი იანვარი]]
[[pt:Janeiro Negro]]
[[ro:Ianuarie negru]]
[[ru:Чёрный январь]]
[[tr:Kara Ocak]]

Schwarzer Januar

2010-03-24T06:52:38Z

76.191.230.178: /* Events */

{{infobox military conflict
| conflict = Black January''' {{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}
| partof = [[Azerbaijan#Restoration of independence|Azerbaijani national independence movement]]
| image =
| caption = Soviet tanks in Baku during Black January
| date = January 19-20, 1990
| place = [[Baku]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[Soviet Union]]
| coordinates =
| map_type =
| latitude =
| longitude =
| map_size =
| map_caption =
| map_label =
| territory =
| result = Invasion of Baku and massacre of civilians
| status =
| combatant1 = {{flag|Azerbaijan|}}
| combatant2 = {{flag|Soviet Union}}
*{{flagicon image|Red Army flag.svg}} [[Red Army|Soviet Army]]
*[[File:Emblema KGB.svg|19px|link=]] [[KGB]] [[special forces]]
| combatant3 =
| commander1 =
| commander2 =
| commander3 =
| strength1 =
| strength2 = 26,000 troops
| strength3 =
| casualties1 = 133-137 civilians killed More than 800 injured
| casualties2 =
| casualties3 =
| notes =
}}

'''Black January''' ({{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}), also known as '''Black Saturday''' or the '''January Massacre''' was a violent crackdown of the Azerbaijani independence movement in [[Baku]] on January 19–20, 1990, pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] during the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]].

The [[Memorial Society]] and [[Helsinki Watch]] reported that they had found compelling evidence that the imposition of the state of emergency had led to an unwarranted breach of [[civil liberties]] and that Soviet troops had used unjustified force resulting in many deaths.<ref name="BJ">Robert Kushen, Aryeh Neier. ''Conflict in the Soviet Union: Black January in Azerbaidzhan'', [[Human Rights Watch]], 1991, p. 3</ref> This includes the usage of armoured vehicles, bayonets and firing on clearly marked ambulances.<ref name="BJ"/> In the resolution of January 22, 1990 the [[Supreme Soviet]] of the [[Azerbaijan SSR]] declared that the decree of the [[Presidium of the Supreme Soviet#USSR Supreme Soviet|Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet]] of January 19, used to impose emergency rule in [[Baku]] and military deployment, constituted an act of aggression.<ref>Kushen, Neier, p. 45</ref> Black January is seen as the rebirth of the [[Azerbaijan|Azerbaijan Republic]].

== Events ==
[[File:SV100182.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Victims of Black January.]]
In December 1989, Azerbaijanis living in regions bordering [[Iran]] ripped down the border fences demanding closer ties with ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Iran. Local government of [[Jalilabad]] surrendered to rioters turning over the administration to [[Azerbaijani Popular Front Party|Popular Front of Azerbaijan]]. This was followed by a non-violent turnover of [[Lankaran]] administration to Popular Front two week later.<ref name="NYT">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/29/world/upheaval-east-soviet-union-force-last-resort-armed-power-salvages-moscow-s.html?pagewanted=2
|title= UPHEAVAL IN THE EAST: SOVIET UNION; Force as a Last Resort: Armed Power Salvages Moscow's Facing Authority
|publisher= [[The New York Times]]
|author= Bill Keller
|date= 1990-01-28
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> On January 10, 1990, the parliament of [[Armenia]] voted to include [[Nagorno-Karabakh]] in its budget and allowed its inhabitants vote in Armenian elections thus disregarding Soviet authority and Azerbaijani jurisdiction and causing rage throughout Azerbaijan. This led to demonstrations which demanded the ousting of [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] [[communist]] officials and called for independence from the [[Soviet Union]]. Their rhetoric was, according to a [[Human Rights Watch]] report, "heavily anti-Armenian".<ref name=hrw>[http://hrw.org/reports/1995/communal/ Human Rights Watch. “Playing the "Communal Card": Communal Violence and Human Rights”]</ref> On January 12, the Popular Front organized a national defense committee with branches in factories and offices in Baku to mobilize people for battle with Armenians.<ref name="NYT"/>

Beginning on January 13, 1990, a [[Pogrom of Armenians in Baku|repetition of the pogroms]] of [[Sumgait]] was carried out in Baku against [[Armenians in Azerbaijan|Armenians]]. Armenians were thrown to their deaths from the balconies of upper-story apartments. Around 90 Armenians were murdered in the [[pogrom]]s. The Popular Front of Azerbaijan claimed that the pogroms were the result of "Armenian aggression." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=pletup86PMQC&pg=PA90&dq=Popular+Front+baku+armenians&lr= Black Garden By Thomas De Waal]</ref> The Popular Front instigated the attacks and local authorities did nothing to stop the violence. These attacks were mainly done by young Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia.<ref name="NYT"/> Baku's 300,000 Armenians hastily escaped.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=cB50CI0Xd5IC&pg=PA399&dq=Baku+300,000+armenians&lr= Highlanders By Yo'av Karny]</ref>

The 12,000 strong [[Internal Troops|MVD internal troops]] and numerous Soviet army and fleet units of Baku garrison and [[Caspian Flotilla]] did not intervene to stop riots, claiming that they had no orders from Moscow authorities. On January 15, the authorities declared states of emergency in other parts of Azerbaijan (but not in Baku), and the pogrom activity began to subside. At the same time, fearing an intervention of the central Soviet authorities, Popular Front activists began a blockade of military barracks.<ref name=hrw/> They had already taken ''de facto'' control in a number of Azerbaijani regions.<ref name=hrw/> On January 18, the Popular Front ordered supporters to barricade the main access routes into Baku using hundreds of cars, trucks and buses. The next day, Soviet authorities evacuated its representatives and local officials moving them to military command post on the outskirts of the city where Soviet Minister of Defense, [[Dmitry Yazov]] and Interior Minister [[Vadim Bakatin]] positioned.<ref name="NYT"/>

Late at night on January 19, 1990, 26,000 Soviet troops stormed [[Baku]] in order to crush the Popular Front. In the course of the storming, the troops attacked the protesters, firing in the crowds. The shooting continued for three days. They acted pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] (which continued on for more than 4 months) declared by the [[USSR]] Supreme Soviet Presidium, signed by President [[Gorbachev]]. The state of emergency was, however, disclosed to the [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] public only several hours<ref name=hrw/> after the beginning of the storming, when many citizens already lay wounded or dead in the streets, hospitals and morgues of Baku.

According to one report, 93 Azerbaijanis and 29 Russian soldiers were killed in the street skirmishes. Other reports state that 21 soldiers were killed and 90 wounded in the fighting. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=Me4SpO1nSVsC&pg=PA377&dq=Baku+1990+soldiers+killed+wounded&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Baku%201990%20soldiers%20killed%20wounded&f=false Nationalist mobilization and the collapse of the Soviet State
By Mark R. Beissinger]</ref> <ref>Change in Eastern/Central Europe: some implications for Southern Africa‎ - Page 82</ref>

Other estimates are that between 133<ref>[http://www.january20.net/ 20 January]</ref> and 137<ref name=BBC>
{{cite news
|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1477933.stm
|title= Eyewitness: A republic loses faith
|publisher= [[BBC News]]
|author= Elchin Khalilov
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> people died with unofficial number reaching 300.<ref name="Azerbaijan International">
{{cite news
|url= http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html
|title= Black January: Baku (1990). Behind the Scenes - A Photojournalist's Perspective
|publisher= [[Azerbaijan International]]
|month= Spring| year= 1998
|pages= 33–37
|last1= |first1= Reza
|last2= Blair |first2= Betty
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> Up to 800 were injured and 5 went missing.<ref name="Turkish Weekly">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.turkishweekly.net/op-ed/2460/20-january-1990-black-face-of-the-red-terror-in-azerbaijan.html
|title= 20 January 1990: Black Face of the Red Terror in Azerbaijan
|publisher= [[Turkish Weekly]]
|author= Shamkhal Abilov
|date= 2010-01-9
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}</ref> An additional 26 people were killed in [[Neftchala]] and Lankaran regions of the country.<ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://today.az/news/society/59767.html
|title= Azerbaijan commemorates the anniversary of 20th January tragedy
|publisher= Today.az
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> The Soviet army soldiers used [[5.45x39mm#Wounding effects|5.45 mm caliber bullets with a shifted center of gravity]] designed to sheer after entering the body thus causing an excessive physical damage to the body.<ref>
{{Cite press release
| title = 20 January Tragedy Monstrous Crime Against Azerbaijani People Humanism and Humanity
| publisher = Embassy of Azerbaijan Republic in Kazakhstan
| date = January 17, 2006
| url = http://www.azembassy.kz/news/images/press-Y3Q1p.pdf
| accessdate = 20 January 2010}}</ref><ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://www.525.az/view.php?lang=ru&menu=17&id=8225
|title= 20 января – день печали и надменности
|trans_title= 20 January - Day of sorrow and disdain
|publisher= 525-ci qazet
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref>. January 20 is marked as the Day of the Nationwide Sorrow in Azerbaijan.<ref>[http://www.president.az/browse.php?sec_id=56 President of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan. Bloody Memories]</ref>

== State of Emergency ==
According to [[Human Rights Watch]], "while the Kremlin's ostensible reason for the military action was to safeguard the Armenian population, most evidence simply does not support this contention. For example, documents of the military procurator's office in Baku examined by Human Rights Watch/Helsinki indicate that the military action was being planned even before the January 13, 1990 pogroms".<ref name="hrw"/>

The Soviet army was trying to rescue the authoritarian regime, the rule of Communist Party and Soviet Union.

Almost the whole population of [[Baku]] turned out to bury the dead on the third day - January 22. For another 40 days, the country stayed away from work in a sign of mourning and mass protest.

Then Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov stated that the use of force in Baku was intended to prevent a ''de facto'' overthrow of local government by the non-communist opposition, namely the Popular Front of Azerbaijan (PFA), to prevent their victory in the upcoming elections scheduled for March 1990, and to destroy them as a political force, ensuring that the Communist government remained in power.<ref>
{{cite news
| url= http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/72560980.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jan+27%2C+1990&author=Michael+Dobbs&pub=The+Washington+Post+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=a.13&desc=Soviets+Say+Troops+Used+To+Avert+Coup+in+Baku%3BNationalists+Said+to+Plan+Seizure+of+Power
| title= Soviets Say Troops Used To Avert Coup in Baku;Nationalists Said to Plan Seizure of Power
| publisher= The Washington Post
| author = Michael Dobbs
| date=1990-01-27
| accessdate=2010-03-05
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
| url= http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/inside/publications/1999_NK_Book.pdf
| title= The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
| publisher= Uppsala University
| work=Department of East European Studies
| author = Svante Cornell
| date=1999
| volume=46
| issue=
| accessdate=2010-03-05
}}</ref>

A special session of the Supreme Council (Parliament) of [[Azerbaijan SSR]] held on January 22, 1990 at the request of public and by initiative of the group of MPs tried to initially assess the January 20 events and adopted some documents condemning the crackdown operation by Soviet army.

== Black January ==
[[File:The tragedy of January 20.jpg|thumb|300px|Azerbaijani stamp with photos of Black January]]
The [[Human Rights Watch]] report entitled "Black January in Azerbaijan" states: "Indeed, the violence used by the Soviet Army on the night of January 19–20 was so out of proportion to the resistance offered by Azerbaijanis as to constitute an exercise in collective punishment. Since Soviet officials have stated publicly that the purpose of the intervention of Soviet troops was to prevent the ouster of the Communist-dominated government of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the nationalist-minded, noncommunist opposition, the punishment inflicted on Baku by Soviet soldiers may have been intended as a warning to nationalists, not only in Azerbaijan, but in the other Republics of the Soviet Union."

"The subsequent events in the Baltic Republics - where, in a remarkable parallel to the events in Baku, alleged civil disorder was cited as justification for violent intervention by Soviet troops -further confirms that the Soviet Government has demonstrated that it will deal harshly with nationalist movements," continues the Human Rights Watch report.

During the Black January crackdown, the Soviets managed to suppress all efforts to disseminate news from Azerbaijan to the local population and the international community. On the eve of the Soviet military invasion in [[Baku]], one of leaders of Popular Front, Ekhtibar Mamedov proposed to Kremlin officials to appear on Azerbaijani TV at 8 PM announcing First Secretary of Azerbaijani Communist Party, [[Abdurrahman Vazirov]] would be leaving and no troops would invade Baku which would restore the order.<ref name="NYT"/> Instead, an energy supply source to Azerbaijani TV and State Radio was blown up by intelligence officers at 7:15 PM in order to cut off the population from any source of information. TV and radio was silent and all print media was banned.<ref name="Turkish Weekly"/> But [[Mirza Khazar]] and his staff at [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] succeeded in broadcasting daily reports from Baku,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html |title= Black January 1990|publisher =Azerbaijan International |author= |accessdate=2009-02-26}}</ref> making it the only source of news to Azerbaijanis within and outside of the country for several days. The Kremlin leadership tried hard to keep the outside world and the population inside Azerbaijan unaware of the military invasion, but Mirza Khazar and his staff foiled this attempt. Thanks to Mirza Khazar and his staff at Radio Liberty, Azerbaijanis in and outside Azerbaijan, as well as the international community, learned about the Soviet invasion and gained a chance to organize protest actions. Shocked by this "surprising" development, the government of the [[USSR]] complained officially to the [[United States]] about Radio Liberty's<ref>[http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-05/entertainment/ca-1371_1_radio-liberty Soviet Officials Charge Voice of America, Radio Liberty Fueled Riots]</ref> coverage of the military invasion of Azerbaijan. The January 20, 1990, broadcasts turned Mirza Khazar into a legend among [[Azerbaijanis]] in and outside Azerbaijan. Malahat Aghajanqizi, a well-known Azerbaijani poetess and writer, described Mirza Khazar’s appearance on radio at the time of the Soviet military invasion as follows: “On January 20, Mirza Khazar with his God-given divine voice, gave hope to the dying Azerbaijani people.”<ref>[http://mirzexezerinsesi.net/articles/2008/11/29/melahet-agacanqizi-mirze-xezerin-sesi Article on Mirza Khazar]</ref>

The Wall Street Journal editorial of January 4, 1995 claimed that Gorbachev chose to use violence against "independence-seeking Azerbaijan."

[[File:SV100165-azer genocide memorial.jpg|thumb|200px||A Memorial dedicated to all victims of [[March Days]] and Black January.]]

== Independence ==
On October 18, 1991, the Parliament of Azerbaijan restored the country's independence. Gorbachev later apologized to Azerbaijan by stating: "The declaration of a state emergency in Baku was the biggest mistake of my political career". In 1994, the [[National Assembly of Azerbaijan]] adopted a full political and legal evaluation of the Black January events. According to the decree of the [[President of Azerbaijan]] [[Heydar Aliyev]] from December 16, 1999, all victims of the crackdown were awarded an honorary title of the "Martyr of January 20" ({{lang-az|20 yanvar şəhidi}}).

== See also ==
* [[History of Azerbaijan]]
* [[History of the Soviet Union]]
* [[April 9, 1989 Massacre]]
* [[Jeltoqsan]]
* [[January Events (Lithuania)]]
* [[January 1991 events in Latvia]]

== Notes and references ==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== External links ==
* [http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html Black January: Baku (1990) / Azerbaijan International (Spring 1998)]
* http://www.january20.net
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1477933.stm

{{Fall of Communism}}
{{Azerbaijan topics}}
{{Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict}}
{{coord missing|Azerbaijan}}

[[Category:History of Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Massacres in Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Massacres in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Riots in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:1990 in the Soviet Union]]

[[ar:السبت الأسود]]
[[az:Qara Yanvar]]
[[fr:Janvier Noir]]
[[id:Januari Hitam]]
[[ka:შავი იანვარი]]
[[pt:Janeiro Negro]]
[[ro:Ianuarie negru]]
[[ru:Чёрный январь]]
[[tr:Kara Ocak]]

Schwarzer Januar

2010-03-24T06:52:10Z

76.191.230.178: /* Events */ Soviet soldiers were killed.

{{infobox military conflict
| conflict = Black January''' {{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}
| partof = [[Azerbaijan#Restoration of independence|Azerbaijani national independence movement]]
| image =
| caption = Soviet tanks in Baku during Black January
| date = January 19-20, 1990
| place = [[Baku]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[Soviet Union]]
| coordinates =
| map_type =
| latitude =
| longitude =
| map_size =
| map_caption =
| map_label =
| territory =
| result = Invasion of Baku and massacre of civilians
| status =
| combatant1 = {{flag|Azerbaijan|}}
| combatant2 = {{flag|Soviet Union}}
*{{flagicon image|Red Army flag.svg}} [[Red Army|Soviet Army]]
*[[File:Emblema KGB.svg|19px|link=]] [[KGB]] [[special forces]]
| combatant3 =
| commander1 =
| commander2 =
| commander3 =
| strength1 =
| strength2 = 26,000 troops
| strength3 =
| casualties1 = 133-137 civilians killed More than 800 injured
| casualties2 =
| casualties3 =
| notes =
}}

'''Black January''' ({{lang-az|Qara Yanvar}}), also known as '''Black Saturday''' or the '''January Massacre''' was a violent crackdown of the Azerbaijani independence movement in [[Baku]] on January 19–20, 1990, pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] during the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]].

The [[Memorial Society]] and [[Helsinki Watch]] reported that they had found compelling evidence that the imposition of the state of emergency had led to an unwarranted breach of [[civil liberties]] and that Soviet troops had used unjustified force resulting in many deaths.<ref name="BJ">Robert Kushen, Aryeh Neier. ''Conflict in the Soviet Union: Black January in Azerbaidzhan'', [[Human Rights Watch]], 1991, p. 3</ref> This includes the usage of armoured vehicles, bayonets and firing on clearly marked ambulances.<ref name="BJ"/> In the resolution of January 22, 1990 the [[Supreme Soviet]] of the [[Azerbaijan SSR]] declared that the decree of the [[Presidium of the Supreme Soviet#USSR Supreme Soviet|Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet]] of January 19, used to impose emergency rule in [[Baku]] and military deployment, constituted an act of aggression.<ref>Kushen, Neier, p. 45</ref> Black January is seen as the rebirth of the [[Azerbaijan|Azerbaijan Republic]].

== Events ==
[[File:SV100182.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Victims of Black January.]]
In December 1989, Azerbaijanis living in regions bordering [[Iran]] ripped down the border fences demanding closer ties with ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Iran. Local government of [[Jalilabad]] surrendered to rioters turning over the administration to [[Azerbaijani Popular Front Party|Popular Front of Azerbaijan]]. This was followed by a non-violent turnover of [[Lankaran]] administration to Popular Front two week later.<ref name="NYT">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/29/world/upheaval-east-soviet-union-force-last-resort-armed-power-salvages-moscow-s.html?pagewanted=2
|title= UPHEAVAL IN THE EAST: SOVIET UNION; Force as a Last Resort: Armed Power Salvages Moscow's Facing Authority
|publisher= [[The New York Times]]
|author= Bill Keller
|date= 1990-01-28
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> On January 10, 1990, the parliament of [[Armenia]] voted to include [[Nagorno-Karabakh]] in its budget and allowed its inhabitants vote in Armenian elections thus disregarding Soviet authority and Azerbaijani jurisdiction and causing rage throughout Azerbaijan. This led to demonstrations which demanded the ousting of [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] [[communist]] officials and called for independence from the [[Soviet Union]]. Their rhetoric was, according to a [[Human Rights Watch]] report, "heavily anti-Armenian".<ref name=hrw>[http://hrw.org/reports/1995/communal/ Human Rights Watch. “Playing the "Communal Card": Communal Violence and Human Rights”]</ref> On January 12, the Popular Front organized a national defense committee with branches in factories and offices in Baku to mobilize people for battle with Armenians.<ref name="NYT"/>

Beginning on January 13, 1990, a [[Pogrom of Armenians in Baku|repetition of the pogroms]] of [[Sumgait]] was carried out in Baku against [[Armenians in Azerbaijan|Armenians]]. Armenians were thrown to their deaths from the balconies of upper-story apartments. Around 90 Armenians were murdered in the [[pogrom]]s. The Popular Front of Azerbaijan claimed that the pogroms were the result of "Armenian aggression." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=pletup86PMQC&pg=PA90&dq=Popular+Front+baku+armenians&lr= Black Garden By Thomas De Waal]</ref> The Popular Front instigated the attacks and local authorities did nothing to stop the violence. These attacks were mainly done by young Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia.<ref name="NYT"/> Baku's 300,000 Armenians hastily escaped.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=cB50CI0Xd5IC&pg=PA399&dq=Baku+300,000+armenians&lr= Highlanders By Yo'av Karny]</ref>

The 12,000 strong [[Internal Troops|MVD internal troops]] and numerous Soviet army and fleet units of Baku garrison and [[Caspian Flotilla]] did not intervene to stop riots, claiming that they had no orders from Moscow authorities. On January 15, the authorities declared states of emergency in other parts of Azerbaijan (but not in Baku), and the pogrom activity began to subside. At the same time, fearing an intervention of the central Soviet authorities, Popular Front activists began a blockade of military barracks.<ref name=hrw/> They had already taken ''de facto'' control in a number of Azerbaijani regions.<ref name=hrw/> On January 18, the Popular Front ordered supporters to barricade the main access routes into Baku using hundreds of cars, trucks and buses. The next day, Soviet authorities evacuated its representatives and local officials moving them to military command post on the outskirts of the city where Soviet Minister of Defense, [[Dmitry Yazov]] and Interior Minister [[Vadim Bakatin]] positioned.<ref name="NYT"/>

Late at night on January 19, 1990, 26,000 Soviet troops stormed [[Baku]] in order to crush the Popular Front. In the course of the storming, the troops attacked the protesters, firing in the crowds. The shooting continued for three days. They acted pursuant to a [[state of emergency]] (which continued on for more than 4 months) declared by the [[USSR]] Supreme Soviet Presidium, signed by President [[Gorbachev]]. The state of emergency was, however, disclosed to the [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijani]] public only several hours<ref name=hrw/> after the beginning of the storming, when many citizens already lay wounded or dead in the streets, hospitals and morgues of Baku.

According to one report, 93 Azerbaijanis and 29 Russian soldiers were killed in the street skirmishes. Other reports state that 21 soldiers were killed and 90 wounded in the fighting. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=Me4SpO1nSVsC&pg=PA377&dq=Baku+1990+soldiers+killed+wounded&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Baku%201990%20soldiers%20killed%20wounded&f=false Nationalist mobilization and the collapse of the Soviet State
By Mark R. Beissinger]</ref> <ref>Change in Eastern/Central Europe: some implications for Southern Africa‎ - Page 82</ref>

According to official data, between 133<ref>[http://www.january20.net/ 20 January]</ref> and 137<ref name=BBC>
{{cite news
|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1477933.stm
|title= Eyewitness: A republic loses faith
|publisher= [[BBC News]]
|author= Elchin Khalilov
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> people died with unofficial number reaching 300.<ref name="Azerbaijan International">
{{cite news
|url= http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html
|title= Black January: Baku (1990). Behind the Scenes - A Photojournalist's Perspective
|publisher= [[Azerbaijan International]]
|month= Spring| year= 1998
|pages= 33–37
|last1= |first1= Reza
|last2= Blair |first2= Betty
|date= 2001-08-15
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> Up to 800 were injured and 5 went missing.<ref name="Turkish Weekly">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.turkishweekly.net/op-ed/2460/20-january-1990-black-face-of-the-red-terror-in-azerbaijan.html
|title= 20 January 1990: Black Face of the Red Terror in Azerbaijan
|publisher= [[Turkish Weekly]]
|author= Shamkhal Abilov
|date= 2010-01-9
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}</ref> An additional 26 people were killed in [[Neftchala]] and Lankaran regions of the country.<ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://today.az/news/society/59767.html
|title= Azerbaijan commemorates the anniversary of 20th January tragedy
|publisher= Today.az
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref> The Soviet army soldiers used [[5.45x39mm#Wounding effects|5.45 mm caliber bullets with a shifted center of gravity]] designed to sheer after entering the body thus causing an excessive physical damage to the body.<ref>
{{Cite press release
| title = 20 January Tragedy Monstrous Crime Against Azerbaijani People Humanism and Humanity
| publisher = Embassy of Azerbaijan Republic in Kazakhstan
| date = January 17, 2006
| url = http://www.azembassy.kz/news/images/press-Y3Q1p.pdf
| accessdate = 20 January 2010}}</ref><ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://www.525.az/view.php?lang=ru&menu=17&id=8225
|title= 20 января – день печали и надменности
|trans_title= 20 January - Day of sorrow and disdain
|publisher= 525-ci qazet
|author=
|date= 2010-01-20
|accessdate=2010-01-20}}
</ref>. January 20 is marked as the Day of the Nationwide Sorrow in Azerbaijan.<ref>[http://www.president.az/browse.php?sec_id=56 President of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan. Bloody Memories]</ref>

== State of Emergency ==
According to [[Human Rights Watch]], "while the Kremlin's ostensible reason for the military action was to safeguard the Armenian population, most evidence simply does not support this contention. For example, documents of the military procurator's office in Baku examined by Human Rights Watch/Helsinki indicate that the military action was being planned even before the January 13, 1990 pogroms".<ref name="hrw"/>

The Soviet army was trying to rescue the authoritarian regime, the rule of Communist Party and Soviet Union.

Almost the whole population of [[Baku]] turned out to bury the dead on the third day - January 22. For another 40 days, the country stayed away from work in a sign of mourning and mass protest.

Then Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov stated that the use of force in Baku was intended to prevent a ''de facto'' overthrow of local government by the non-communist opposition, namely the Popular Front of Azerbaijan (PFA), to prevent their victory in the upcoming elections scheduled for March 1990, and to destroy them as a political force, ensuring that the Communist government remained in power.<ref>
{{cite news
| url= http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/72560980.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jan+27%2C+1990&author=Michael+Dobbs&pub=The+Washington+Post+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=a.13&desc=Soviets+Say+Troops+Used+To+Avert+Coup+in+Baku%3BNationalists+Said+to+Plan+Seizure+of+Power
| title= Soviets Say Troops Used To Avert Coup in Baku;Nationalists Said to Plan Seizure of Power
| publisher= The Washington Post
| author = Michael Dobbs
| date=1990-01-27
| accessdate=2010-03-05
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
| url= http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/inside/publications/1999_NK_Book.pdf
| title= The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
| publisher= Uppsala University
| work=Department of East European Studies
| author = Svante Cornell
| date=1999
| volume=46
| issue=
| accessdate=2010-03-05
}}</ref>

A special session of the Supreme Council (Parliament) of [[Azerbaijan SSR]] held on January 22, 1990 at the request of public and by initiative of the group of MPs tried to initially assess the January 20 events and adopted some documents condemning the crackdown operation by Soviet army.

== Black January ==
[[File:The tragedy of January 20.jpg|thumb|300px|Azerbaijani stamp with photos of Black January]]
The [[Human Rights Watch]] report entitled "Black January in Azerbaijan" states: "Indeed, the violence used by the Soviet Army on the night of January 19–20 was so out of proportion to the resistance offered by Azerbaijanis as to constitute an exercise in collective punishment. Since Soviet officials have stated publicly that the purpose of the intervention of Soviet troops was to prevent the ouster of the Communist-dominated government of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the nationalist-minded, noncommunist opposition, the punishment inflicted on Baku by Soviet soldiers may have been intended as a warning to nationalists, not only in Azerbaijan, but in the other Republics of the Soviet Union."

"The subsequent events in the Baltic Republics - where, in a remarkable parallel to the events in Baku, alleged civil disorder was cited as justification for violent intervention by Soviet troops -further confirms that the Soviet Government has demonstrated that it will deal harshly with nationalist movements," continues the Human Rights Watch report.

During the Black January crackdown, the Soviets managed to suppress all efforts to disseminate news from Azerbaijan to the local population and the international community. On the eve of the Soviet military invasion in [[Baku]], one of leaders of Popular Front, Ekhtibar Mamedov proposed to Kremlin officials to appear on Azerbaijani TV at 8 PM announcing First Secretary of Azerbaijani Communist Party, [[Abdurrahman Vazirov]] would be leaving and no troops would invade Baku which would restore the order.<ref name="NYT"/> Instead, an energy supply source to Azerbaijani TV and State Radio was blown up by intelligence officers at 7:15 PM in order to cut off the population from any source of information. TV and radio was silent and all print media was banned.<ref name="Turkish Weekly"/> But [[Mirza Khazar]] and his staff at [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] succeeded in broadcasting daily reports from Baku,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html |title= Black January 1990|publisher =Azerbaijan International |author= |accessdate=2009-02-26}}</ref> making it the only source of news to Azerbaijanis within and outside of the country for several days. The Kremlin leadership tried hard to keep the outside world and the population inside Azerbaijan unaware of the military invasion, but Mirza Khazar and his staff foiled this attempt. Thanks to Mirza Khazar and his staff at Radio Liberty, Azerbaijanis in and outside Azerbaijan, as well as the international community, learned about the Soviet invasion and gained a chance to organize protest actions. Shocked by this "surprising" development, the government of the [[USSR]] complained officially to the [[United States]] about Radio Liberty's<ref>[http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-05/entertainment/ca-1371_1_radio-liberty Soviet Officials Charge Voice of America, Radio Liberty Fueled Riots]</ref> coverage of the military invasion of Azerbaijan. The January 20, 1990, broadcasts turned Mirza Khazar into a legend among [[Azerbaijanis]] in and outside Azerbaijan. Malahat Aghajanqizi, a well-known Azerbaijani poetess and writer, described Mirza Khazar’s appearance on radio at the time of the Soviet military invasion as follows: “On January 20, Mirza Khazar with his God-given divine voice, gave hope to the dying Azerbaijani people.”<ref>[http://mirzexezerinsesi.net/articles/2008/11/29/melahet-agacanqizi-mirze-xezerin-sesi Article on Mirza Khazar]</ref>

The Wall Street Journal editorial of January 4, 1995 claimed that Gorbachev chose to use violence against "independence-seeking Azerbaijan."

[[File:SV100165-azer genocide memorial.jpg|thumb|200px||A Memorial dedicated to all victims of [[March Days]] and Black January.]]

== Independence ==
On October 18, 1991, the Parliament of Azerbaijan restored the country's independence. Gorbachev later apologized to Azerbaijan by stating: "The declaration of a state emergency in Baku was the biggest mistake of my political career". In 1994, the [[National Assembly of Azerbaijan]] adopted a full political and legal evaluation of the Black January events. According to the decree of the [[President of Azerbaijan]] [[Heydar Aliyev]] from December 16, 1999, all victims of the crackdown were awarded an honorary title of the "Martyr of January 20" ({{lang-az|20 yanvar şəhidi}}).

== See also ==
* [[History of Azerbaijan]]
* [[History of the Soviet Union]]
* [[April 9, 1989 Massacre]]
* [[Jeltoqsan]]
* [[January Events (Lithuania)]]
* [[January 1991 events in Latvia]]

== Notes and references ==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== External links ==
* [http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_blackjanuary.html Black January: Baku (1990) / Azerbaijan International (Spring 1998)]
* http://www.january20.net
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1477933.stm

{{Fall of Communism}}
{{Azerbaijan topics}}
{{Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict}}
{{coord missing|Azerbaijan}}

[[Category:History of Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Massacres in Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Massacres in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Riots in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:1990 in the Soviet Union]]

[[ar:السبت الأسود]]
[[az:Qara Yanvar]]
[[fr:Janvier Noir]]
[[id:Januari Hitam]]
[[ka:შავი იანვარი]]
[[pt:Janeiro Negro]]
[[ro:Ianuarie negru]]
[[ru:Чёрный январь]]
[[tr:Kara Ocak]]

Schwarzer Januar

2010-03-23T01:43:52Z

76.191.230.178:

Schwarzer Januar

2010-03-23T01:43:14Z

76.191.230.178: Do not censor the article