How many rapes did the Wehrmacht commit in the Soviet Union during World War II?
Upvote:11
TL;DR version: Between 442 462 and 1 245 450 people in all countries of the Eastern Front.
Long version
Warning: I believe a bad estimate is better than no estimate at all and I'm aware of the flaws of this "method". If you know a better one, I'm all ears. Maybe you can take these calculations and improve them.
Miriam Gebhardt writes in her book Als die Soldaten kamen: Die Vergewaltigung deutscher Frauen am Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges (German, "When the soldiers came: Rapes of German women at the end of World War II) that
- at least 190 000 German women were raped by American troops (positions 60 and 459 of 5321 in the Kindle edition of the book above),
- 50 000 by the French (pos. 459),
- 45 000 by the British,
- 15 000 by the Soviets and
- 10 000 by the Belgians.
We can estimate the number of rapes per soldier. The author of that book writes that the maximum number of troops stationed in Germany was, at its peak,
- 600 000 for US (beginning of 1946, pos. 312 of 5321) and
- 400 000 for the British (pos. 325 of 5321).
No data is available in the book for the French and Belgians. The data for the Soviets (1 500 000 in 1945, 800 000 in 1949) is available, but looks suspicious to me (reason see below).
From these data we can calculate the estimate of rapes per soldier:
- 190 000 rapes / 600 000 troops = 0,3167 rapes per soldier
- 45 000 rapes / 400 000 troops = 0,1125
For the Soviets that estimate would be an order of estimate lower, which doesn't look believable to me.
If we assume that the Germans in the Soviet Union raped with roughly the same intensity as the Americans and the British in Germany, we can get an estimate by multiplying rapes per soldier by the strength of the German troops in the Soviet Union. This assumption can be justified by the claim that ideas about sexual violence at war used by the Nazis and the Allies were similar: Regina Mühlhäuser writes in her paper Eine Frage der Ehre. Anmerkungen zur Sexualität deutscher Soldaten während des Zweiten Weltkriegs (German; "A question of honor // Notes about the sexuality of German soldiers during World War II"):
In the middle of the 20th century Göring's argumentation was in accordance with the values and norms system in Europe and the USA.
[...]
In 1946 [acts of sexual violence] were considered by the Allies not as a crime to be punished, but as a natural side effect of the war.
According to Wikipedia there were 3 933 000 German troops on the Eastern Front.
This results in following estimates of German rapes in the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yougslavia (and other German adversaries on the Eastern Front):
- 3 933 000 troops * 0,3167 rapes per American soldier = 1 245 450 rapes
- 3 933 000 troops * 0,1125 rapes per British soldier = 442 463 rapes
For comparison: According to Miriam Gebhardt, 860 000 German women were raped between 1945 and 1955 in all Germany (Eastern and Western), by all occupational powers.
More post
- 📝 Did the USSR pledge support to Czechoslovakia before the Munich Agreement?
- 📝 Did Hitler plan a war with his allies?
- 📝 What do historians mean when they talk about "supply side" and "demand side" explanations of the industrial revolution?
- 📝 Is there a general term for epicycles, deferents, and eccentrics in Ptolemaic astronomy?
- 📝 Were there any developed countries that became "undeveloped" for reasons other than war?
- 📝 Did Hitler and Nazi officials give interviews and cooperate with the Weimar republic general press?
- 📝 Why does the name "England" hold no reference to the Saxons?
- 📝 Did the Tamil People discover that the earth was round 2000 years ago?
- 📝 Why is Lal Bahadur Shastri's death in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, still a mystery?
- 📝 Who was "Lt.-Commander R.T. Chaloner Woods"?
- 📝 Why does the M61 Vulcan have a flash suppressor?
- 📝 What Were the Main Causes of World War One?
- 📝 Did Hamilton really send Burr an "itemised list of thirty years of disagreements"?
- 📝 What language was the Charter of Liberties written in?
- 📝 Did Age of Sail fighting vessels have any anti-spall technology?
- 📝 What was the evidence against Peter Pond who was accused of ordering John Ross’s murder?
- 📝 When and why did tank crews cover their tank markings in WWII?
- 📝 What did the founding fathers of America think about immigration?
- 📝 Did "music pendants" exist in the 1800s/early 1900s?
- 📝 Were Alexander the Great and Hephaestion lovers?
- 📝 Why couldn't the Ottoman Empire modernise at the same time as Meiji Japan did?
- 📝 Why did Arthur Philip decide to move to Port Jackson two days after arriving in Botany Bay?
- 📝 How would a WW1 pilot signal a request to surrender in-flight?
- 📝 Why was North and South America less developed than other parts of the world?
- 📝 Could there have been wars between the Aztecs and the Persians?
- 📝 Where can I find maps and other historical resources / references of Calcutta / Kolkata in the Victorian era?
- 📝 How were 19th century American diplomats paid?
- 📝 Did Ancient Egyptians in the 2nd millennium BC practice Astrology?
- 📝 When the national leader is a foreigner
- 📝 Why did the Tripartite Pact take so long to sign?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How many rapes did the Wehrmacht commit in the Soviet Union during World War II?
- 📝 Did the Soviet Union get a net border gain from China during World War II?
- 📝 How did a criminal trial in the Soviet Union work after World War 2?
- 📝 Why didn't Imperial Japan attack the Soviet Union during World War 2?
- 📝 How did the Nazis plan to defeat America during World War II?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union not "grant" Inner Mongolia to Mongolia after World War Two?
- 📝 How did the Allies communicate during World War II?
- 📝 How much did the western world know about the Soviet Union pre-WWII?
- 📝 Why did Britain and France not declare war against the Soviet Union when it invaded Poland in WW2?
- 📝 How did such a relatively minor event as the assassination of an archduke start World War I?
- 📝 Did the Soviets excel in one area of weaponry during World War II?
- 📝 Did the King of Siam offer war elephants to the Union during the Civil War?
- 📝 What did Germany do in World War II about the different rail gauge in the Soviet Union?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union out-pace the US during the space-race?
- 📝 What was the ratio women to men after World War 2 in the Soviet Union
- 📝 How close was the Soviet Union to collapsing during WW2?
- 📝 Could the Soviet Union have continued fighting World War II without Caucasus oil?
- 📝 Did the Axis try to "bribe" Turkey into joining them during World War II?
- 📝 How were the Bulgarians regarded by the Nazis during World War II?
- 📝 How did the Japanese treat captured "Flying Tigers" in World War II?
- 📝 How many pens were used by MacArthur to end the final chapter of World War II and where are they now?
- 📝 Why did the Union army favor a "western" route to approaching Richmond during the American Civil War
- 📝 How long did it take US fleet submarines during World War 2 to charge their batteries?
- 📝 How did diplomats of the Axis powers travel and communicate among themselves in World War II
- 📝 How many suicide attack (kamikaze) pilots died and how many of them successfully hit ships during World War II?
- 📝 How did Soviet soldiers resist tanks during the battle of Shumshu?
- 📝 During the Second World War, did the Germans expect that Japan would declare war on Russia?
- 📝 What effect did the Mafia have during World War 2?
- 📝 Did the Central Powers during World War 1 try to sue for peace before the Armistice?
- 📝 How many British prisoners of war were taken by the Wehrmacht and how many died?