Anonyma - Preview

"Better a Russkie on the belly than a bullet in the brain."

That was a cynical line that made the rounds in Germany during the closing days of WWII. German women learned quickly: rape or death.

Antony Beevor is one of the only historians I have read who looks closely into the mass-rape of Eastern European and German women by vengeful Russian soldiers. Most historians mention the rapes in passing, if at all, and then skip to the part where Hitler shoots himself.

The fall of Germany is mainly pitched as a race to the finish line, the Russians coming from the east, the US and British forces from the west. In most books, there is a great big gaping hole: the torture, abuse, and war crimes committed against the German citizenry by Russian forces.

In these days of great emotion for over 4000 troops lost in Iraq, it is simply staggering to recall the Total War that was WWII. The Russians appreciated the Total War concept with gusto. The battle for Germany resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths in the space of months. The Battle of Berlin saw the deaths of tens of thousands in only days.

Seiburg, 1945
Stalin demanded that Russia be the first to conquer Berlin. He saw the end-game of WWII as an opportunity to secure as much geography as the Russians could get their hands on before the British and Americans showed up. Berlin was the prize of the war. It did not matter how many Russian soldiers died in this effort, nor did it matter how many German civilians were slaughtered. The Russian soldier had a free pass to commit the most heinous of war crimes, and they did, especially against women.

Why doesn't this receive much press in the history books? For one thing, the Russians won. That absolves a lot of guilt. Winners write history. Another reason is that shortly after WWII, Eastern Europe was cut off from the rest of the world. Many of these women did not and could not tell their stories. Certainly the Russians weren't going to tell them for them. And finally, a touch of payback: feeling sorry for German women seems somehow anathema since the Germans themselves were the perpetrators of so much misery and murder.

There's a new film being released about the mass rape of German women. It's called Anonyma - Eine Frau In Berlin [A Woman in Berlin]. It's a story that needs to be told, and frankly I'm pleasantly surprised to find it being put on film so it can reach a wide audience. One cautionary note, though: I saw a preview for it, and it looks like a Hollywood love story has been added to the film. This always makes me nervous. Love stories can add something, or they can completely tank a film. We'll see how it goes.