Yeah if you’re not German it’s hard to explain how widespread this belief about the “Rape of Berlin” (and East Prussia) is. Everyone knows this and 99.9% accept it as true. It’s just common knowledge here, something entirely uncontentious. It’s not even part of school education, I reckon it just got passed down from the war generation through the generations. Was definitely one of the first things I ever learned about WW2.
Like go on r/germany and try doubting it in any way.
The concept of Soviets and the Red Army in particular raping innocent German women and girls appears to have started during the war as Nazi propaganda. It was just super convenient for the Allies (excl. USSR) to pick up the already ingrained propaganda and run with it when it came time to end the war.
When you dig into it, most anti-communist myths have Nazi origins.
While the particular Berlin stories originated from nazis, entire “bolshevik rape horde” started way before, during revolution and stayed after. Especially polish propganda in 1920+ spreaded it left and right.
I reckon it’s probably a mix of surviving war time propaganda and panic/rumors that spread during the war. Many people would’ve just believed it, West Germany didn’t do much to combat beliefs like this so it just got passed down through the generations. If you grow up believing this kind of stuff and you’re not particularly politically/historically educated there’s a good chance you’ll just pass it on.
Probably how it happened in my family. Grandparents fled from East Prussia, they’s have heard rumors and propaganda, they told their children, they told me. People around me believed it too, so not much of a reason to doubt it for a long time.
Yeah if you’re not German it’s hard to explain how widespread this belief about the “Rape of Berlin” (and East Prussia) is. Everyone knows this and 99.9% accept it as true. It’s just common knowledge here, something entirely uncontentious. It’s not even part of school education, I reckon it just got passed down from the war generation through the generations. Was definitely one of the first things I ever learned about WW2.
Like go on r/germany and try doubting it in any way.
In Poland it’s casually mentioned everywhere where the period is mentioned. Even the pulp romance books are full of it.
It’s 100% purposeful and targeted propaganda, and i bet in Germany it’s the same.
Where did this belief even come from? Because if I heard someone say that shit I’d have follow up questions
The concept of Soviets and the Red Army in particular raping innocent German women and girls appears to have started during the war as Nazi propaganda. It was just super convenient for the Allies (excl. USSR) to pick up the already ingrained propaganda and run with it when it came time to end the war.
When you dig into it, most anti-communist myths have Nazi origins.
While the particular Berlin stories originated from nazis, entire “bolshevik rape horde” started way before, during revolution and stayed after. Especially polish propganda in 1920+ spreaded it left and right.
I believe that there were also cases of US commanders blaming crimes that their own soldiers committed on “those evil, rape-happy Russians.”
Probably the nazis who weren’t summarily executed and went on to live long lives in Worst Germany 🤢
I reckon it’s probably a mix of surviving war time propaganda and panic/rumors that spread during the war. Many people would’ve just believed it, West Germany didn’t do much to combat beliefs like this so it just got passed down through the generations. If you grow up believing this kind of stuff and you’re not particularly politically/historically educated there’s a good chance you’ll just pass it on.
Probably how it happened in my family. Grandparents fled from East Prussia, they’s have heard rumors and propaganda, they told their children, they told me. People around me believed it too, so not much of a reason to doubt it for a long time.
A plausible explanation given the mass suicides that also happened out of fear of the Red Army. Promise Me You’ll Shoot Yourself: The Mass Suicide of Ordinary Germans in 1945
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