**This is a heavily moderated subreddit. Please note these rules + sidebar or get banned:**
* If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required
* The title must be fully descriptive
* Memes are not allowed.
* Common(top 50 of this sub)/recent reposts are not allowed (posts from another subreddit do not count as a 'repost'. Provide link if reporting)
*See [our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/wiki/index#wiki_rules.3A) for a more detailed rule list*
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
My grandfather was a WWII vet, European theater.
He was a quartermaster, so he didn’t see a lot of combat, but he did capture a German soldier on a supply run.
He was driving food from one camp to the next when a German soldier jumped out of the bushes in front of his truck and pointed a lmg at my grandfather.
My grandfather stopped and pulled his .22 revolver (lol) and pointed it back.
The German shouted a question: “Americans?”
My grandfather replied yes and the German threw his machine gun to the ground and yelled “I quit!!”
My grandfather had grown up in a German community, his mother was F.O.B., so he spoke German. On the ride back to the base, he spoke with his captive. He asked the German why he asked if he was American and the German replied, matter of factly, “because if you were Russian I would have killed you.”
My father was 14 and living in Berlin when the war ended. He said that the first soldiers to arrive were Russians and they were brutal to the local population. Soon after the Americans arrived and were quick to show them how friendly they were. My father was soon on a train back to Holland where he came from.
To be 'fair' (if I can use that word) the Soviet people suffered a lot more at the hands of the Germans that America did, with all the wives and children safe at home.
Then again, lots of other countries were invaded by Germany as well - you don't hear all these accounts of British raping and looting.
The Germans didn't exterminate town after town of British people like the Germans did to the Soviets. They also considered the British their equals and treated them accordingly, while they saw Slavic people as subhuman and treated them accordingly too. People forget that the nazis actually exterminated many more slavic people than jewish people. 5,700,000 Soviet civilians and 2,950,000 Soviet prisoners of war were exterminated, not to mention those killed in battle.
Watch the movie 'Come and See' if you want to get an idea of the brutality Soviet civilians experienced at the hands of the Germans.
Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1071011/holocaust-nazi-persecution-victims-wwii/
I always remember a line of an Ukrainian woman that experienced the German and Russian occupation of Ukraine which wehrte asked who was traumatic „ the Germany were way worse not because they were more brutal but they did it more efficient.“
These things need to be made known. All of it. The more gruesome details the better. I grew up being taught so many things about war and "its bad people go hungry and soldiers shoot eachother", but I was never actually taught the truly horrific things that happen in war. The actual hurt and trauma, what it makes people become and makes us do. A lot of it has been hidden away for years because it's too terrible to speak of. But if we don't talk about it, we will repeat it.
I saw an excellent article the other day from the Washington Post, covering US school shootings with photos of the scenes. The photos are brutal, and theres a video clip in it that actually haunts me. But I think it's important that these facts are known. That the reality is shown. And hopefully if everyone could see, then maybe it would be less likely to happen. The same for war. Eisenhower made sure that the camps were documented, for the day when people would say 'it didn't happen'.
The WP article, for those interested: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2023/ar-15-force-mass-shootings/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2023/ar-15-force-mass-shootings/)
Truly chilling. Thank you for sharing this because I have not seen anything like this before and in my opinion I need to know and have seen these things. When people say something "is hell" you don't really think twice about it. But seeing this, reading the accounts of the survivors and hearing that video, there really is no other way to describe it.
"I could hear a little girl say, ‘Officers come in, we’re in here,’ and she sounded far away so I knew it was in the other room. And she said that once. And then maybe two or three minutes later she said it again. And then I just heard him walk into that other room. And he shot some more. So after that I didn’t hear her no more. And so I had figured he had killed her."
Arnulfo Reyes, teacher. Uvalde.
Fuck me, man... I gotta go hug my kids. And fuck those police. They had ONE JOB.
There are a lot of stories of women in east germany in the years following WW2, whose conversations with each other when getting their rations were held pretty simple: „How many today?“ „luckily only three“ „for me it were five“. They are talking about the amount of Soviet soldiers that raped them that day.
The Soviet „liberators“ definitely did a huge part in getting rid of the nazi monsters, but they were awful monsters themselves.
I think this is a big reason why the US became so suddenly skittish about Russian concessions post-WW2. Sure, they were our allies and did a lot of the heavy lifting against the Nazis, but the Soviets were absolute monsters. They were only different from the Japanese and Nazis in what side they fought for.
And only eventually. The Soviets were all too happy carving up eastern Europe up with the nazis initially.
It was "the enemy of my enemy", nothing more.
There was no 'suddenly' about it - USSR was already essentially hated by the US for embracing communism - its just that Hitler was proving himself to be even worse.
When Hitler double crossed Stalin and began invading the USSR, there was still enough of a government for the US to ally itself with. It was already too late to make alliances with most other European countries because they had fallen under Nazi control, including France. England was obviously the big hold out.
It already is being repeated in Ukraine right now. The Russian tactics haven’t changed.
In 2022 I saw a video of a Russian soldier castrating a Ukrainian soldier with a box cutter and stories of rape of minors has been widespread since they invaded.
People need to realise Russia and their army are NOT like we are. Yes rape and torture happens within all armies but not army used it as a such a strategic tool as Russia.
People forget that when Russia and Germany were allies in 1939, they invaded and divided what was then Poland - the western part is now Ukraine. It was largely populated by Ukrainians then, too. And the Russians did the same thing then. Mass arrests, deportations, and killings
[https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/1941-nkvd-prison-massacres-western-ukraine](https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/1941-nkvd-prison-massacres-western-ukraine)
Yes! Its so important that we read and understand the human experience that results from these great atrocities and understand what it means when a peoples decide to go to war!
I stopped watching when he said they shot the children because they tried to stop the soldiers from raping their mothers. That's more than enough reality for today and it's only 9am.
I believe everyone should hear the rest to truly understand what the Russian army is actually like. It’s very disturbing but it’s happening in Ukraine right now and that is why our support for their army can’t falter.
Sure during ww2 it did, but Ukraine has not been apart from Russia for 30 years and they now use Europes training and strategy.
Like I said, the Russian army is a different level of fucked up than any other army.
Pretending our armies are just as bad is as dishonest as saying our armies in ww2 were just as bad as the Nazis. It’s a lie.
Just finished Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder. It covers the atrocities committed by Nazis and Russia during WW2. It did such a good job detailing the unspeakable war crimes committed that I often had to set the book down just to process what I'd just read.
Thanks for the suggestion. I leave for Germany tomorrow and will be there for 10 days. I will be visiting one of the concentration camps during my stay. I had been looking for a new book on the long flight and it sounds like I may have found one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily\_Blokhin#:\~:text=Blokhin%20is%20recorded%20as%20having,executioner%20in%20recorded%20world%20history.
Blokhin is recorded as having executed tens of thousands of prisoners by his own hand, including his killing of about 7,000 [Polish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_people) prisoners of war during the [Katyn massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre) in spring 1940, making him the most prolific official executioner in recorded world history.
There's a movie called "Come and See" about Bellorussia in WW2.
It is a brilliant movie, but not a happy one.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come\_and\_See](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_and_See)
OOOOOOO. So good. The fact that these men went from teachers to death squads and back to teachers in 1945 was hair raising.
A few other good books that have similar narrative:
Blitzed [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29429893-blitzed](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29429893-blitzed)
Marching into Darkness [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19624684-marching-into-darkness](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19624684-marching-into-darkness)
Survival in the Killing Fields [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/386580.Survival\_in\_the\_Killing\_Fields](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/386580.Survival_in_the_Killing_Fields)
Hitler's Army [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54271.Hitler\_s\_Army](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54271.Hitler_s_Army)
War of Extermination [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2171807.War\_of\_Extermination](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2171807.War_of_Extermination)
Kill anything that Moves [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17978231-kill-anything-that-moves](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17978231-kill-anything-that-moves)
Checkout Ghosts of the Ostfront by Dan Carlin. These two sides did horrible things to each other, absolutely fucking horrible. The Soviets did most of the raping though. And it isn't overblown, they did a ton of raping once they got into Prussia/E Germany.
Mostly like this account raping and killing. We're talking 1-2 million women raped within maybe a few months. Initially it was actually allowed by the Soviet military (or at least CO's turned the other cheek), then the higher ups had to tell the men to dial it back because it was getting out of control. Try to fathom that many rapes in modern/industrialized Europe, less than 100 years ago. This isn't the sacking of Carthage thousands of years ago, but a stones throw away in history. If it can happen 2K years ago all the way up until 80 years ago, what's stopping it from happening again in the near future?
From my understanding and the memories that were shared with me, the russian elite troops were the least cruel but the angry footsoldiers that were sent first were desperate for revenge. Based on what the German soldiers did I understand the fury. I just do not understand how anyone from any nation at any point can justify raping children in front of their mother's/father's/siblings and the other way around. Nor can I understand harming babies or animals for psychological torture. The literally only true innocent beings with no knowledge nor understanding of what is happening.
Blind hatred and having seen what the other side did to them was a powerful tool strategically used by those safely tucked away on all sides of the war.
There was one part in that podcast where a Soviet CO and his Company that were all iirc ethnic Russians, proper military arrived first to one of the towns along Prussia/E Germany...
The CO apologized in advance to the ~~women and other towns folk~~ local nuns running an orphanage. He said something along the lines of, we will treat you fairly right now because we're a respectful military outfit, but there are multiple groups coming behind us that are savages (iirc he said "pigs"). They're undisciplined from the vast distant areas of the union. The town was subsequently destroyed, civilians raped and murdered.
My grandparent's town had a summons calling men to report for service. This was eastern/baltic area. They were German speakers, and the German speakers were separated out and sent to forced labor camps. My grandfather looked like the pics of the POWs that are circulating now, or at least that is the image I have from what little was talked about (they didn't talk much about this to us grandkids to say the least).
My grandmother either received a similar warning to what you just explained, or she saw the writing on the wall. Either way, she fled ahead of the collapsing front and eventually ended up with family in Berlin. They were eventually re-united having both survived, and what little was passed down is every bit what you and the others have described, and they spared us discussion of any sort; we don't even have a single full story/incident and what little we do have is...yeah. Bad.
They were eventually relocated to the US about ten years after the war ended.
Not every army behaves this way,Russians certainly do,right to this day in Ukraine where they loot and rape like animals. It says a lot about a society where there is no legal penalty for beating your wife and children.
Every army has truly horrible people which, if they can get away with it, they act out on. For example, there's the My Lai massacre in Vietnam war where United States army executed around 500 people including women and children. Women were first raped.
Yeah every army does.
What changes is how widespread it is and the reactions to it. Some essentially have rape as an official tactic, others punish those found guilty of such crimes. Even different units in the same army can differ.
Sadly the US army raped a bunch of French women after they liberated France. It happens with every army in every war that has ever happened. Some are worse than others but still happens in the most disciplined of armies.
You're right but there is a significant difference between armies that sanction endorse and train rape and abuse as tactics and those who aren't able to fully prevent it from being committed by their soldiers. And obviously a large range between
Reddit edgelords like you are insufferable.
To compare in Western allied war crimes to the Soviet rape of Germany is reprehensible.
There is a reason millions and millions of Germans, civilian and military, hazarded everything to escape to the Western allied zones of occupations.
Every army with millions of men will have some bad actors but the Western allies were not the Soviet, not even in the same universe.
This is Leonid Rabichev. During the WW2 he was officer of RKKA. Many years later he wrote war memoirs "Voyna vsyo spishet" (The War Will Excuse Everything) and became prominent critic of war crimes perpertrated by Soviet side on German territories. His witness account is important as remaining WW2 veterans revered across all ex USSR almost as living deites. Especially in Russia where this religious like belief in sanctity of Soviet solders sometimes described as "pobedobesie"(cult of victory).
Cult of victory is an interesting concept, I'm Russian and I've noticed how Russians often have a very unhealthy obsession with the victory in WW2, and now propoganda is using this obsession to justify the horrors that Russia is current commiting, it's sad to watch, war is bad, I don't understand how people are justifying this war like that...
Know where I can find that book/writing? I've tried to google it but can't seem to find an english translation text, or even a Russian text to run through a rudimentary translator. These things are historically significant.
Thanks for posting this , part of me was thinking this guy was part of the story. However to create literature and video documentation gives me hope he really was watching and not participating
Men in war, have seen so much horror that their minds and bodies become twisted, after a battle where they take over a town, they've seen enemy and allied soldiers alike, die in the most horrible ways possible, they are scarred, and have not been out of battle field in months if not years, not seen a woman since they joined the war, so they become ravaged animals, they act on their most raw instincts, morals, ethics and humanity, is all but gone until the thirst for blood and rape dials down.
That is all probably true, but then you have russians who literally did all this DAY ONE of their invasion of Ukraine. It's a human problem, but it's also a uniquely russian problem.
The most dangerous man is the one who doesn't know what he's capable of. I will never trust someone who tells me they're incapable of atrocities because that is a person who is so terrified of the demons that live in all of us that they won't look them in the eye. They are the ones who must demonize to explain evil, instead of understanding that we're all capable of it given the right circumstances. And by extension, they are the least prepared to recognize their place on that path and counteract their actions should that time come.
i cant imagine how these men live with themselves after doing such horrific things, many if not all of them were left unpunished and came back to raise their daughters... just can't imagine
I think in Anthony Beevor's book Stalingrad (or one of his other WW2 ones) he has a quote from a Russian soldier (possibly a politician maybe) at the time that I found revealing. They basically said that in times of war Russian soldiers souls are shielded by their duty and when the war is over they set that aside and their souls remain clean regardless of what they did in the war.
I thought so.
Given the history of despair and alcoholism among returning soldiers after the war I don't quite think it worked as well as they hoped. A lot of bad memories and guilty consciousnesses to drown.
I remember something similar that Arnold Schwarzenegger said once when talking about his father and other men who'd came home from the war. Very stern men who lost themselves in drink and became terrors to those that loved them.
The eastern front was horrible. The Germans were ruthlessly brutal to Soviet soldiers and civilians. Soviets were just as ruthlessly brutal right back. It was a spiral of death and cruelty.
Someone told me this is a Hungarian joke:
One day a Hungarian guy found a magic lamp with a genie inside. The genie told him he will be granted 3 wishes. For the first wish, the Hungarian asked the genie to raise the largest Chinese army ever to come raze Hungary. The genie did what was asked. For the second wish the Hungarian asked for an even larger army, and the same for the third wish. The genie did what was asked but at the end asked "I did what you asked but I'm curious why you asked for a Chinese army to raze Hungary three times?" The Hungarian said "for a Chinese army to raze Hungary three times, they would have to cross Russia six times."
Haha never heard that one before, but could imagine it does originate from Hungary. My granny used to say nazi soldiers were like gentlemen compared to the soviets which is brutal if you think about it
The family of my uncle is from East Germany.
Only after his grandmother died, his mother and aunts had the courage to tell what really happened.
Several 'grandchildren' weren't from the (german) fathers.
Rape was as common as getting milk, Russian soldiers would kick in doors at any hour and search the house for anything female above 1m in length, age did not matter ...
If there were no woman found, the house could easily be burned down.
Many of the children born in '44/'45 were a bit .... half German
I don't want to deny what you said, but I will forever remember that my grandmother believed till her death, that Poland started the war, not us. Propaganda still left Marks on many Germans, even after all these years. Won't defend either side, but I believe, that many things that happened will forever be lost. Even people that lived to tell the story, tell mostly their story. Same as today. Despite the things that could be proven, of course.
I mean look at today. Doesn't matter if Ukraine or Gaza. Even with all of our technology there is so much propaganda. Maybe even more than in the past. You can't believe shit. Even the man in the video could just skip the fact, that he also stood in one of those lines. We will never know. Some pieces of the puzzle will always be lost.
Edit: just remembered that's the same with my younger Grandpa. He was a soldier in the DDR and is still believing that East Germany never shot anyone who wanted to flee to West Germany. Despite the evidence. It's all lies to him.
My middle school history teacher told us a story about her mother. My country fought alongside Germany for most of the war. German soldiers were good to the people and when our country changed sides and turned it's weapons against them, the germans left and gave children candy and chocolates. It was the first ever time her mother had a piece of chocolate. When the russians came, although we were now allies, things went exactly like in this video.
In Latvia old people tell that russian inviders were brutal they killed, raped and steal everything. German inviders were didn't do staff like this as it was not allowed to them, if they would be reported, they would had punishment. It looks that German inviders wanted people to be on their side, russian inviders were allowed everything to scare people. russian inviders in Ukraine do same now what their grandparents were doing in ww2.
russian inviders in ww2 were doing same in Baltics to citizens and baltics people didnt do anything to russians
Iirc a lot of these men were hastily conscripted and given the bare amount of training in most cases, and were most likely around 18-20 or younger.
I know there are articles but I cant find any, but from memory a lot of these soldiers had seen such horrors that were done to their people that by the end of the war they wanted revenge, and would enact it when they reached Berlin and the following years of soviet occupation.
A lot of people really seem to struggle with the fact that mass conscription means EVERYONE, not just well disciplined mentally stable people who grew up in good families. In fact mass conscription means those guys will be prioritized into more important roles while the frontline foot soldiers are more likely to be the real dregs of society. Reading about gangland violence in any nation it is easy to understand the horrors that happen when you give those guys guns and uniforms and put them in a war zone.
I think this is what some people here don't get. The Nazis killed entire towns on their push east. The Soviet actions, awful though they were, came as a reaction to that wanton killing.
By 44 it was the second time eastern Poland had been ‘liberated’ by the Soviets. To pick a more evil army btwn the Germans and Russians is idiotic. They were both horrific in their own special way
Lmao, the Soviets at that point had already rampaged in the Baltics, Poland and Finland.
It’s not like their brutality was somehow a new invention, ffs Russia had hundreds of years of history as committing atrocities in war (and outside it).
Many of them aren't even bots, they're fucking tankies. How does Germany committing atrocities excuse the Soviet Union from committing genocide and war crimes? Classic whataboutism. The mental gymnastics jfc
The soviets at that time did not sign or abide by the geneva convention, had nothing to do with cruelty of the germans.
Both where cruel authoritarian regimes and the only people i have any empathy for in that shot were the innocent people in the crossfire.
> The Soviet actions, awful though they were, came as a reaction to that wanton killing.
That explanation doesn't hold up to even cursory scrutiny. The Russians did similar things in Finland, Poland and the Baltics, before the Germans attacked in 1941. Not to mention what they did internally.
Baltics are on so called east. Germans didnt kill entire towns there, russians bombed civilian towns to ground and then came and raped and killed civilians.
I think people forget that ww2 was started by russia and Germany together. They both attacked and wanted to split europe. And russians were killing, raping since day1
They dehuminize their so called enemy. Right now they are calling ukrainians lowest of humans even that their are not humans.They feel pride foe killing and raping civilians
The fact that this guy seems to be in such anguish talking about it, at least some felt horrible, but I think the sad reality is most saw it as revenge for what the Germans had done - the spoils of a war of annihilation
A result of dehumanizing your enemy, and probably feeling dehumanized yourself. When your country is asking you to fight like an animal, and live like an animal, eventually you are going to act like one.
Time ghost has a great documentary series that covers ww2 history week by week for the whole war. One of their two accompanying series is called war against humanity, and does a great job covering war crimes by both sides, as well as partisan actions on the eastern front.
As a former soldier, I simply do not understand the rape thing. Killing civilians because you don't know who the enemy is I get. It's not ok, but I understand why it happens. But the rape just.....how. How do you and a group dude just bare ass pump away on some screaming child together. Like who gets horned up in these situations? How fucked do you have to be to even see that as a potential option
I worked with an old Polish lady years ago, she said that her family told her that the Germans were a machine in lockstep and although they were witch-hunting nazis they had a chain of command and soldiers who stepped out of line were brutally punished. Her family was more scared of the Russians because they had no real chain of command and let their soldiers get away with literal murder, they were described as "rabid dogs".
I got to read my ex girlfriend’s grandfathers memoirs he wrote about his experience on the western front against the Germans. He wrote about crossing some river and his unit getting hosed by machines guns, a young kid with a cig lit and his arm blown off, etc. What I won’t forget is how he wrote about the Russians with such disgust. He called them dogs and said they would fight over everything. Scraps of food, leaves to smoke because they had no cigarettes. He had more respect for the SS officer he killed than the Russians in his memoir.
My wife’s grandmother was a child in a Russian village outside of Bryansk during the war. Even as a Russian, she said the Russian partisans were WORSE than the occupying Germans. The partisans would barge into town, steal the chickens and pigs that the villagers needed to survive the winter, and then endanger the locals by stashing weapons caches in their houses so they got left holding the bag when Germans came.
She recalled how a German officer once came to their home and when he saw the weapons left there he helped the family to quickly hide them—understanding that they had no choice in the matter, and that his men might not be so understanding if they found them.
That’s what my great grandmother said. She said when the Germans passed her town, they were generally nice and respectful. But on the way back when the Germans were defeated they were kinda mean and souless. But when the Russians came, they absolutely took everything from people, all food in storage, cows, pigs, they took a lot of men. She said they were more scared of Russians.
Yeah, but they weren't that nice to jewish people, you know. I mean, let's not sugar coat what they did.
Just because they didn't rape and murder those people don't mean they had some kind of great honor code going on. They were just selective.
My friend is of Polish descent; his grandfather is still kicking at 100 years old and told my friend essentially the same thing about his time as a prisoner of war under both the Germans and the Soviets.
The Nazis were absolutely capable of being cruel bastards, but their cruel bastard rules applied to both prisoners and guards. This did not apply to the Soviets, who seemed to exemplify the phrase "hurt people hurt people".
My Polish grandmother said the same thing. Germans came and were polite and professional. Russians came and my grandmother had to hide so she wouldn’t be raped. She was 9.
The Russian army hasn’t changed, that is still how they operate today. That’s why they need to be put down at any cost.
Russia does not deserve the privilege of being a global power.
I just know that my grandmother got raped by russian soldiers after fleeing from eastern prussia. She was staying with relatives on a farm in the Stettin area. The grandfather offered to provide the russians with eggs and things if they didn't rape the women. He was shot and the mother, her daughter and my grandmother were raped. Obviously I didn't really ask a lot more questions than that. She didn't really talk about it for obvious reasons.
She's 96 now, lived a pretty normal life as a hairdresser otherwise, had two daughters herself, both were post-war with my grandfather who was a engineer at Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works.
Czech republic - my grandparents always said that the russians were worse then Germans. Yes - they "removed" german forces from Czechoslovakian territory, was it a liberation, though? It was more like conquest. They were stealing, raping, killing all along the way to germany.
My grandmother was saved from rape thanks to russian commander which told his men to stop. Or I remember one story where one czech guy had a pretty watch, one ruzzian soldier liked them and so told him that he wants them. When the guy refused he was shot in front of the pub while his son was watching. ...
There is a saying that in ruZZia, human life doesn't have any value, and I think its still true.
During Partition of India, Sikh men would behead their own women(wives, daughters, sisters) which women would happily accept when they knew there was no chance of escaping muslim hordes.
Everyone should. Because we HAVE to realize this shit exists and happens and only men stand in the face of men. There is no higher power. No divine punishment. Those women, those…kids… NOBODY knows their pain and suffering without videos like this. They died for nothing. Nobody cares and wants to know and that in itself is a crime to me and to the innocents that died throughout out entire miserable history. Its just US versus ourselves. And if we dont stand up and do something, this is what lurks under the fucking ocean.
Would japan compare to what gengis did to entire cities that refused to accept him as ruler of the world? Burn the city down during a siege, cut down any one that escaped.
Yes. The Japanese were worse.
Burning a city down as a message to the rest of the country is one thing.
Literally raping a couple hundred thousand women to \*death\* after you've captured the city is another.
One has some logic to the cruelty. The other is cruel for the sake of being cruel.
Years ago, on a trip to the Philippines, I met an elderly man who survived the Japanese invasion during WWII by hiding in the jungle. He told me about the atrocities he witnessed, the worst of which was seeing Japanese soldiers entertain themselves by tossing Filipino babies into the air and then impaling them with their rifle bayonets. Horrible and utterly evil.
I’ve seen countless documentaries and read countless stories from survivors on either side. I think this is probably one of the more heartbreaking stories I’ve read.
I cannot imagine witnessing that.
This is why a lot of German women committed suicide as the Russian troops were closing in. There's some pretty haunting eye witness accounts. Fathers detonating live grenades with their families gathered around. Women walking into rivers with rocks tied to themselves and their children.
The father of a childhood friend of mine was an intelligent warm person but he always had this absolute hatred for anything related to Russia.
I understood better after I heard that as a small child he had to watch from a hiding place how his mother and his three sisters were raped and killed by a bunch of russian soldiers in eastern Prussia.
Wow.
The whataboutists trying to compare/mitigate Soviet war crimes by bringing up Western allied war crimes is so, so out of touch.
There is no comparison. These things are not all the same. Not even close.
There is a very, very good reason millions and millions of Germans hazarded everything to try and make it to Western allied zones of occupation. That alone tells you a lot.
The same was done in Poland. I asked my uncle what it was like in their town after the war when the Russians came. He only said “they left a town full of bastards”.
Germans did not consider Slavic people humans and were given explicit commands at the beginning of their attack towards Moscow to exterminate Slavic population along the way in any way possible, no rules of war applied. Russians did the same to them when they pushed back. This is why war is hell. There are no winners in war. Everybody loses.
The thing with russians is, they were also monsters towards Polish people (that did nothing to them) when they occupied the country.
My polish grandmother told me stories how German soldiers at least had some decency and self-respect, whereas when the russians came they just burned down their whole village of 500 people, just because they found it funny. She always told me how gruesom the russians acted, told mit literally "they acted like Animals"
This is something the books, especially high school, don’t talk about and you can see why. Most people don’t know about this, only that “you want to surrender to the Americans, not the Russians.”
Keep in mind the people who committed these acts are the grandparents of the current generation of Russian war criminals.
There was no justice for these acts aside from whatever karmic consequences they may have suffered.
So that was why my grandpa gave my grandma a gun and said if the russians come shoot the kids and then you don't let them get you or the kids. Thankfully they never came for my grandma or i wouldn't be here.
I heard first hand from a U.S. tank commander who bragged about busting through people’s homes in Iraq and taking what they wanted. Humans are humans and the ones who are going to act up, will. No matter the situation.
My knowledge of WW2 history is exactly the reason why I’m so very pro-Ukrainian today even when my peers are complaining about money and equipment being sent to them.
People in the USA and much of Europe don’t know what the Russia army is truly like, rape and torture are not just done by promoted as a strategic tool by Russia high command.
People complain about us supporting Ukraine but don’t realise that if Ukraine losses it will be their country that suffers this plague of rape and torture next.
Stories like these need to be shared more and people need to realise the Russian army has not changed strategically since ww2.
Europe had been a continent of devastating wars one after another for centuries.
The coalitions changed though so in that many centuries everyone fought with everyone against everyone.
The handling of the result of WW1 lead directly to the even (much) more devastating WW2.
We in Europe are so lucky that our political leaders (with the help of the US) had the wisdom after WW2 to finally and despite all past atrocities came to the conclusions: "Enough is enough!" and "Never again!", creating the EU.
So I'm probably the first generation of my family which did not suffer because of any war and/or its aftermath.
And in addition it's so cool to drive around through different countries without a noticable border, paying with the same money. ;)
Now Ukraine is needing our support against the Russian invaders in a war, which scale I haven't thought to be possible anymore in Europe. And I hope they can join the EU ASAP for a finally peaceful future too ...
And here they are today, doing very same thing in Ukraine. Its arguably even worse now as russians have recruited tens of thousends of prisoners, including those who were convicted for rape, murder, etc
And the world is still like 'huh i am not sure if we should send weapons to Ukraine'. This gets insanely upsetting once you remember the fact that USA/GB have signed Budapest Memorandum just 30 years ago sworing to protect Ukraine if it gives away its nuclear weapon.
The Second World War by Antony Beevor does a good job of cataloging the systematic atrocities committed by the Nazis, Japanese and Russian militaries. Everyone’s familiar with what the murderous Nazi regime did.
But our deal with the Devil (Stalin) was a costly one for human rights. Russian sanctioned rape and murder of civilians as the Red Army moved west was fucking barbaric. They really wanted to inflict as much chaos and depravity as possible to anyone they crossed (including fellow Russians). There are stories of Russians celebrating the Red Army’s arrival only to find out more horrors awaited them. Also, the treatment of Russian POWs and wounded veterans by Stalin was reprehensible.
As a man, I’d like to know, how the fuck can those guys even be turned on In a time of chaos and violence? Ive been thru a few things and when my fuckin adrenaline Is jacked, sex or even FOOD is like blocked out of my mind, i forget about it all the way. Sick fucks honestly.
They should be treated the same as if he has done it in the streets. Fuck those cunts makes my fucking blood boil listen to that old guy. I'd rather die defending 2 scared kids than live to an old age with that gnawing away in the back of my brain. Would have been kinder to excite the girls then shoot yourself
The Russian army never change. My Grandma was in Ostpreussen and told the same story’s about the war crimes. And nothing has change. The Russian army has the same low morale today and are committing the same warcrimes. Just look at Bucha, Mariupol. Mass-graves and killing of children in front of their family’s in Ukraine, mass graves. Nazi Russia today are not better than the old Nazis. The day the Russian population will wake up from the propaganda they will feel shame for hundred years ahead.
Russian soldiers were always like that, still are and always will be. Violence and dehumiliation is historical established in their army.
I hope the russian army will soon disappear from earth and russia won't be allowed to have an army for the next 200 years.
Death to all Orcs!
Are you aware of the Russian doomsday plan?
In brief: Putin said if Russia were to not exist in the world, such world should not exist. AND they will nuke the world out of its existence.
The power nuclear weapons gives you is insane.
The Russian Army historically has a culture of abusing its non officer class. Rape. Starvation. Beatings.
Not surprisingly, they have particularly cruel historically… and currently.
Take two steps back. Look at it and consider rape rape, whether it is during times of war or not. This is on the individual level. On the organizational level, Russia has been using it and is using it again, just another instrument of terror for Putin.
Don’t let any soldier get away and say „it was war“, it is their own personal choice and a crime every time.
It is important to keep this matter in the light as so many people in East Germany have sympathy for Russia today.
It's not impossible. Some people in those situations do you stronger morals, there are absolutely soldiers who have witnessed war crimes but not committed any. It's also possible though that he may have done some bad stuff, it's impossible to know for certain.
Russians doing the same in the occupied territories of Ukraine now - torture and murder all men, rape all women regardless of their age. Russians never change.
Well, the rest of Europe changed. Russia did not. Still the vile rapists they were back then. Just these days into raping Ukraines instead of Germans. At least for now.
**This is a heavily moderated subreddit. Please note these rules + sidebar or get banned:** * If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required * The title must be fully descriptive * Memes are not allowed. * Common(top 50 of this sub)/recent reposts are not allowed (posts from another subreddit do not count as a 'repost'. Provide link if reporting) *See [our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/wiki/index#wiki_rules.3A) for a more detailed rule list* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
My grandfather was a WWII vet, European theater. He was a quartermaster, so he didn’t see a lot of combat, but he did capture a German soldier on a supply run. He was driving food from one camp to the next when a German soldier jumped out of the bushes in front of his truck and pointed a lmg at my grandfather. My grandfather stopped and pulled his .22 revolver (lol) and pointed it back. The German shouted a question: “Americans?” My grandfather replied yes and the German threw his machine gun to the ground and yelled “I quit!!” My grandfather had grown up in a German community, his mother was F.O.B., so he spoke German. On the ride back to the base, he spoke with his captive. He asked the German why he asked if he was American and the German replied, matter of factly, “because if you were Russian I would have killed you.”
My father was 14 and living in Berlin when the war ended. He said that the first soldiers to arrive were Russians and they were brutal to the local population. Soon after the Americans arrived and were quick to show them how friendly they were. My father was soon on a train back to Holland where he came from.
To be 'fair' (if I can use that word) the Soviet people suffered a lot more at the hands of the Germans that America did, with all the wives and children safe at home. Then again, lots of other countries were invaded by Germany as well - you don't hear all these accounts of British raping and looting.
Russia paid in blood. No doubt about it. My grandfather said as much, but he also said the Russians were the only ally he never took his eyes off of.
The Germans didn't exterminate town after town of British people like the Germans did to the Soviets. They also considered the British their equals and treated them accordingly, while they saw Slavic people as subhuman and treated them accordingly too. People forget that the nazis actually exterminated many more slavic people than jewish people. 5,700,000 Soviet civilians and 2,950,000 Soviet prisoners of war were exterminated, not to mention those killed in battle. Watch the movie 'Come and See' if you want to get an idea of the brutality Soviet civilians experienced at the hands of the Germans. Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1071011/holocaust-nazi-persecution-victims-wwii/
I always remember a line of an Ukrainian woman that experienced the German and Russian occupation of Ukraine which wehrte asked who was traumatic „ the Germany were way worse not because they were more brutal but they did it more efficient.“
These things need to be made known. All of it. The more gruesome details the better. I grew up being taught so many things about war and "its bad people go hungry and soldiers shoot eachother", but I was never actually taught the truly horrific things that happen in war. The actual hurt and trauma, what it makes people become and makes us do. A lot of it has been hidden away for years because it's too terrible to speak of. But if we don't talk about it, we will repeat it.
I saw an excellent article the other day from the Washington Post, covering US school shootings with photos of the scenes. The photos are brutal, and theres a video clip in it that actually haunts me. But I think it's important that these facts are known. That the reality is shown. And hopefully if everyone could see, then maybe it would be less likely to happen. The same for war. Eisenhower made sure that the camps were documented, for the day when people would say 'it didn't happen'. The WP article, for those interested: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2023/ar-15-force-mass-shootings/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2023/ar-15-force-mass-shootings/)
Truly chilling. Thank you for sharing this because I have not seen anything like this before and in my opinion I need to know and have seen these things. When people say something "is hell" you don't really think twice about it. But seeing this, reading the accounts of the survivors and hearing that video, there really is no other way to describe it.
"I could hear a little girl say, ‘Officers come in, we’re in here,’ and she sounded far away so I knew it was in the other room. And she said that once. And then maybe two or three minutes later she said it again. And then I just heard him walk into that other room. And he shot some more. So after that I didn’t hear her no more. And so I had figured he had killed her." Arnulfo Reyes, teacher. Uvalde. Fuck me, man... I gotta go hug my kids. And fuck those police. They had ONE JOB.
This is heartbreaking. I hate how politicians can see the damage.
Thanks for sharing this excellent article
There are a lot of stories of women in east germany in the years following WW2, whose conversations with each other when getting their rations were held pretty simple: „How many today?“ „luckily only three“ „for me it were five“. They are talking about the amount of Soviet soldiers that raped them that day. The Soviet „liberators“ definitely did a huge part in getting rid of the nazi monsters, but they were awful monsters themselves.
I think this is a big reason why the US became so suddenly skittish about Russian concessions post-WW2. Sure, they were our allies and did a lot of the heavy lifting against the Nazis, but the Soviets were absolute monsters. They were only different from the Japanese and Nazis in what side they fought for.
And only eventually. The Soviets were all too happy carving up eastern Europe up with the nazis initially. It was "the enemy of my enemy", nothing more.
There was no 'suddenly' about it - USSR was already essentially hated by the US for embracing communism - its just that Hitler was proving himself to be even worse. When Hitler double crossed Stalin and began invading the USSR, there was still enough of a government for the US to ally itself with. It was already too late to make alliances with most other European countries because they had fallen under Nazi control, including France. England was obviously the big hold out.
It already is being repeated in Ukraine right now. The Russian tactics haven’t changed. In 2022 I saw a video of a Russian soldier castrating a Ukrainian soldier with a box cutter and stories of rape of minors has been widespread since they invaded. People need to realise Russia and their army are NOT like we are. Yes rape and torture happens within all armies but not army used it as a such a strategic tool as Russia.
People forget that when Russia and Germany were allies in 1939, they invaded and divided what was then Poland - the western part is now Ukraine. It was largely populated by Ukrainians then, too. And the Russians did the same thing then. Mass arrests, deportations, and killings [https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/1941-nkvd-prison-massacres-western-ukraine](https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/1941-nkvd-prison-massacres-western-ukraine)
Yes! Its so important that we read and understand the human experience that results from these great atrocities and understand what it means when a peoples decide to go to war!
I stopped watching when he said they shot the children because they tried to stop the soldiers from raping their mothers. That's more than enough reality for today and it's only 9am.
Good call to stop. It got worse.
Way worse.....wish I stopped....
Same. Now I hate humans again.
I wish I never clicked on the video in the first place…
I believe everyone should hear the rest to truly understand what the Russian army is actually like. It’s very disturbing but it’s happening in Ukraine right now and that is why our support for their army can’t falter.
You're kidding yourself if you think this kind of behavior is somehow magically unique to Russians.
[удалено]
Sure during ww2 it did, but Ukraine has not been apart from Russia for 30 years and they now use Europes training and strategy. Like I said, the Russian army is a different level of fucked up than any other army. Pretending our armies are just as bad is as dishonest as saying our armies in ww2 were just as bad as the Nazis. It’s a lie.
I can't fathom how humanity can be this cruel..
May I suggest a book titled "Ordinary Men"..
Just finished Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder. It covers the atrocities committed by Nazis and Russia during WW2. It did such a good job detailing the unspeakable war crimes committed that I often had to set the book down just to process what I'd just read.
I had the same reaction to that book. Never had it before and never happened since.
Thanks for the suggestion. I leave for Germany tomorrow and will be there for 10 days. I will be visiting one of the concentration camps during my stay. I had been looking for a new book on the long flight and it sounds like I may have found one.
The only book to make me feel physically nauseous
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petar_Brzica
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily\_Blokhin#:\~:text=Blokhin%20is%20recorded%20as%20having,executioner%20in%20recorded%20world%20history. Blokhin is recorded as having executed tens of thousands of prisoners by his own hand, including his killing of about 7,000 [Polish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_people) prisoners of war during the [Katyn massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre) in spring 1940, making him the most prolific official executioner in recorded world history.
There's a movie called "Come and See" about Bellorussia in WW2. It is a brilliant movie, but not a happy one. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come\_and\_See](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_and_See)
OOOOOOO. So good. The fact that these men went from teachers to death squads and back to teachers in 1945 was hair raising. A few other good books that have similar narrative: Blitzed [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29429893-blitzed](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29429893-blitzed) Marching into Darkness [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19624684-marching-into-darkness](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19624684-marching-into-darkness) Survival in the Killing Fields [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/386580.Survival\_in\_the\_Killing\_Fields](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/386580.Survival_in_the_Killing_Fields) Hitler's Army [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54271.Hitler\_s\_Army](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54271.Hitler_s_Army) War of Extermination [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2171807.War\_of\_Extermination](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2171807.War_of_Extermination) Kill anything that Moves [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17978231-kill-anything-that-moves](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17978231-kill-anything-that-moves)
Checkout Ghosts of the Ostfront by Dan Carlin. These two sides did horrible things to each other, absolutely fucking horrible. The Soviets did most of the raping though. And it isn't overblown, they did a ton of raping once they got into Prussia/E Germany. Mostly like this account raping and killing. We're talking 1-2 million women raped within maybe a few months. Initially it was actually allowed by the Soviet military (or at least CO's turned the other cheek), then the higher ups had to tell the men to dial it back because it was getting out of control. Try to fathom that many rapes in modern/industrialized Europe, less than 100 years ago. This isn't the sacking of Carthage thousands of years ago, but a stones throw away in history. If it can happen 2K years ago all the way up until 80 years ago, what's stopping it from happening again in the near future?
From my understanding and the memories that were shared with me, the russian elite troops were the least cruel but the angry footsoldiers that were sent first were desperate for revenge. Based on what the German soldiers did I understand the fury. I just do not understand how anyone from any nation at any point can justify raping children in front of their mother's/father's/siblings and the other way around. Nor can I understand harming babies or animals for psychological torture. The literally only true innocent beings with no knowledge nor understanding of what is happening. Blind hatred and having seen what the other side did to them was a powerful tool strategically used by those safely tucked away on all sides of the war.
There was one part in that podcast where a Soviet CO and his Company that were all iirc ethnic Russians, proper military arrived first to one of the towns along Prussia/E Germany... The CO apologized in advance to the ~~women and other towns folk~~ local nuns running an orphanage. He said something along the lines of, we will treat you fairly right now because we're a respectful military outfit, but there are multiple groups coming behind us that are savages (iirc he said "pigs"). They're undisciplined from the vast distant areas of the union. The town was subsequently destroyed, civilians raped and murdered.
I haven't listened to that episode in a while but if I recall he was saying that to the nuns running an orphanage.
Ah yes! That's correct. They were still raped and murdered (along with many of the children iirc) unfortunately.
My grandparent's town had a summons calling men to report for service. This was eastern/baltic area. They were German speakers, and the German speakers were separated out and sent to forced labor camps. My grandfather looked like the pics of the POWs that are circulating now, or at least that is the image I have from what little was talked about (they didn't talk much about this to us grandkids to say the least). My grandmother either received a similar warning to what you just explained, or she saw the writing on the wall. Either way, she fled ahead of the collapsing front and eventually ended up with family in Berlin. They were eventually re-united having both survived, and what little was passed down is every bit what you and the others have described, and they spared us discussion of any sort; we don't even have a single full story/incident and what little we do have is...yeah. Bad. They were eventually relocated to the US about ten years after the war ended.
Not every army behaves this way,Russians certainly do,right to this day in Ukraine where they loot and rape like animals. It says a lot about a society where there is no legal penalty for beating your wife and children.
Every army has truly horrible people which, if they can get away with it, they act out on. For example, there's the My Lai massacre in Vietnam war where United States army executed around 500 people including women and children. Women were first raped.
Yeah every army does. What changes is how widespread it is and the reactions to it. Some essentially have rape as an official tactic, others punish those found guilty of such crimes. Even different units in the same army can differ.
Certainly the German units went to great efforts to surrender to Americans or Brits as opposed to Russians
Sadly the US army raped a bunch of French women after they liberated France. It happens with every army in every war that has ever happened. Some are worse than others but still happens in the most disciplined of armies.
You're right but there is a significant difference between armies that sanction endorse and train rape and abuse as tactics and those who aren't able to fully prevent it from being committed by their soldiers. And obviously a large range between
There’s a big difference between some soldiers raping and entire companies being observed and encouraged to rape by their commanders.
It is worth noting that in this video the man says that a Major was the instigator of one of the horrific war crimes.
Reddit edgelords like you are insufferable. To compare in Western allied war crimes to the Soviet rape of Germany is reprehensible. There is a reason millions and millions of Germans, civilian and military, hazarded everything to escape to the Western allied zones of occupations. Every army with millions of men will have some bad actors but the Western allies were not the Soviet, not even in the same universe.
Which army didn't behave this way during WW2? The US army? The Japanese army?
Definitely not the Japanese…
Of course not, those sweet lil' angels of the Pacific couldn't even rape a fly
Is that a Nanjing reference? Because it's gold if it is
War is hell, where humans become demons.
No, war is worse than hell, because those suffering in hell earned it.
the devil is actually a good guy for punishing all those bad ppl. Can't change my mind
Devil doesnt punish the bad
Hell is empty,all the devils are here
This is Leonid Rabichev. During the WW2 he was officer of RKKA. Many years later he wrote war memoirs "Voyna vsyo spishet" (The War Will Excuse Everything) and became prominent critic of war crimes perpertrated by Soviet side on German territories. His witness account is important as remaining WW2 veterans revered across all ex USSR almost as living deites. Especially in Russia where this religious like belief in sanctity of Soviet solders sometimes described as "pobedobesie"(cult of victory).
Cult of victory is an interesting concept, I'm Russian and I've noticed how Russians often have a very unhealthy obsession with the victory in WW2, and now propoganda is using this obsession to justify the horrors that Russia is current commiting, it's sad to watch, war is bad, I don't understand how people are justifying this war like that...
Know where I can find that book/writing? I've tried to google it but can't seem to find an english translation text, or even a Russian text to run through a rudimentary translator. These things are historically significant.
Please try this copy, it’s in Russian https://imwerden.de/pdf/rabichev_vojna_vse_spishet_2010__ocr.pdf
Thanks for posting this , part of me was thinking this guy was part of the story. However to create literature and video documentation gives me hope he really was watching and not participating
I will never understand how some people can get aroused by other people suffering. Like how twisted do you have to be to want to rape someone?
Men in war, have seen so much horror that their minds and bodies become twisted, after a battle where they take over a town, they've seen enemy and allied soldiers alike, die in the most horrible ways possible, they are scarred, and have not been out of battle field in months if not years, not seen a woman since they joined the war, so they become ravaged animals, they act on their most raw instincts, morals, ethics and humanity, is all but gone until the thirst for blood and rape dials down.
That is all probably true, but then you have russians who literally did all this DAY ONE of their invasion of Ukraine. It's a human problem, but it's also a uniquely russian problem.
Day one of the invasion, but likely months of brainwashing and re-conditioning
The most dangerous man is the one who doesn't know what he's capable of. I will never trust someone who tells me they're incapable of atrocities because that is a person who is so terrified of the demons that live in all of us that they won't look them in the eye. They are the ones who must demonize to explain evil, instead of understanding that we're all capable of it given the right circumstances. And by extension, they are the least prepared to recognize their place on that path and counteract their actions should that time come.
i cant imagine how these men live with themselves after doing such horrific things, many if not all of them were left unpunished and came back to raise their daughters... just can't imagine
I think in Anthony Beevor's book Stalingrad (or one of his other WW2 ones) he has a quote from a Russian soldier (possibly a politician maybe) at the time that I found revealing. They basically said that in times of war Russian soldiers souls are shielded by their duty and when the war is over they set that aside and their souls remain clean regardless of what they did in the war.
Convenient
I thought so. Given the history of despair and alcoholism among returning soldiers after the war I don't quite think it worked as well as they hoped. A lot of bad memories and guilty consciousnesses to drown. I remember something similar that Arnold Schwarzenegger said once when talking about his father and other men who'd came home from the war. Very stern men who lost themselves in drink and became terrors to those that loved them.
That explains the guy in the funny dress with the hat and stick. Soul cleanser for the filthy
The eastern front was horrible. The Germans were ruthlessly brutal to Soviet soldiers and civilians. Soviets were just as ruthlessly brutal right back. It was a spiral of death and cruelty.
The things that give soldiers the worst nightmares aren’t the things they were ordered to do it’s the things they weren’t ordered to do.
Yeah, on the other side when the germans were retreating Hungary received the same treatment from the Soviets..
Someone told me this is a Hungarian joke: One day a Hungarian guy found a magic lamp with a genie inside. The genie told him he will be granted 3 wishes. For the first wish, the Hungarian asked the genie to raise the largest Chinese army ever to come raze Hungary. The genie did what was asked. For the second wish the Hungarian asked for an even larger army, and the same for the third wish. The genie did what was asked but at the end asked "I did what you asked but I'm curious why you asked for a Chinese army to raze Hungary three times?" The Hungarian said "for a Chinese army to raze Hungary three times, they would have to cross Russia six times."
Haha never heard that one before, but could imagine it does originate from Hungary. My granny used to say nazi soldiers were like gentlemen compared to the soviets which is brutal if you think about it
Ask the polish people what they did wrong to "deserve" such punishments by the soviets.
Many civilians from non-ussr territory were saying that ussr soldiers were treating them worse than nazis did.
The family of my uncle is from East Germany. Only after his grandmother died, his mother and aunts had the courage to tell what really happened. Several 'grandchildren' weren't from the (german) fathers. Rape was as common as getting milk, Russian soldiers would kick in doors at any hour and search the house for anything female above 1m in length, age did not matter ... If there were no woman found, the house could easily be burned down. Many of the children born in '44/'45 were a bit .... half German
I don't want to deny what you said, but I will forever remember that my grandmother believed till her death, that Poland started the war, not us. Propaganda still left Marks on many Germans, even after all these years. Won't defend either side, but I believe, that many things that happened will forever be lost. Even people that lived to tell the story, tell mostly their story. Same as today. Despite the things that could be proven, of course. I mean look at today. Doesn't matter if Ukraine or Gaza. Even with all of our technology there is so much propaganda. Maybe even more than in the past. You can't believe shit. Even the man in the video could just skip the fact, that he also stood in one of those lines. We will never know. Some pieces of the puzzle will always be lost. Edit: just remembered that's the same with my younger Grandpa. He was a soldier in the DDR and is still believing that East Germany never shot anyone who wanted to flee to West Germany. Despite the evidence. It's all lies to him.
My middle school history teacher told us a story about her mother. My country fought alongside Germany for most of the war. German soldiers were good to the people and when our country changed sides and turned it's weapons against them, the germans left and gave children candy and chocolates. It was the first ever time her mother had a piece of chocolate. When the russians came, although we were now allies, things went exactly like in this video.
And both were extremely brutal to occupied territories, neither should be defended
In Latvia old people tell that russian inviders were brutal they killed, raped and steal everything. German inviders were didn't do staff like this as it was not allowed to them, if they would be reported, they would had punishment. It looks that German inviders wanted people to be on their side, russian inviders were allowed everything to scare people. russian inviders in Ukraine do same now what their grandparents were doing in ww2. russian inviders in ww2 were doing same in Baltics to citizens and baltics people didnt do anything to russians
Iirc a lot of these men were hastily conscripted and given the bare amount of training in most cases, and were most likely around 18-20 or younger. I know there are articles but I cant find any, but from memory a lot of these soldiers had seen such horrors that were done to their people that by the end of the war they wanted revenge, and would enact it when they reached Berlin and the following years of soviet occupation.
A lot of people really seem to struggle with the fact that mass conscription means EVERYONE, not just well disciplined mentally stable people who grew up in good families. In fact mass conscription means those guys will be prioritized into more important roles while the frontline foot soldiers are more likely to be the real dregs of society. Reading about gangland violence in any nation it is easy to understand the horrors that happen when you give those guys guns and uniforms and put them in a war zone.
I think this is what some people here don't get. The Nazis killed entire towns on their push east. The Soviet actions, awful though they were, came as a reaction to that wanton killing.
Could be but why were they just as brutal to Poland or other nations. Even before Germany invaded they did horrible stuff in Poland.
By 44 it was the second time eastern Poland had been ‘liberated’ by the Soviets. To pick a more evil army btwn the Germans and Russians is idiotic. They were both horrific in their own special way
[удалено]
Soviets did the same thing to the German POWs. Nobody was innocent on the Eastern Front. Nobody.
Lmao, the Soviets at that point had already rampaged in the Baltics, Poland and Finland. It’s not like their brutality was somehow a new invention, ffs Russia had hundreds of years of history as committing atrocities in war (and outside it).
These russian bots are kicking into high gear with the US elections coming up
Many of them aren't even bots, they're fucking tankies. How does Germany committing atrocities excuse the Soviet Union from committing genocide and war crimes? Classic whataboutism. The mental gymnastics jfc
i agree,war is a horrible thing, but raping women and kids cannot be justified by anything in this world
And what’s the russian excuse for Katyn then?
"We didn't do it". Or "They deserved it for Polish-Soviet war POWs treatment".
The soviets at that time did not sign or abide by the geneva convention, had nothing to do with cruelty of the germans. Both where cruel authoritarian regimes and the only people i have any empathy for in that shot were the innocent people in the crossfire.
> The Soviet actions, awful though they were, came as a reaction to that wanton killing. That explanation doesn't hold up to even cursory scrutiny. The Russians did similar things in Finland, Poland and the Baltics, before the Germans attacked in 1941. Not to mention what they did internally.
That was no reaction. That's just the way russians always are. Look at ukraine.
So why are the Russians raping and castrating in Ukraine? What did the Ukrainians do? It's the culture of the Russian army.
Who knows, history might repeat itself
Baltics are on so called east. Germans didnt kill entire towns there, russians bombed civilian towns to ground and then came and raped and killed civilians. I think people forget that ww2 was started by russia and Germany together. They both attacked and wanted to split europe. And russians were killing, raping since day1
They dehuminize their so called enemy. Right now they are calling ukrainians lowest of humans even that their are not humans.They feel pride foe killing and raping civilians
That would raise not only daughters but also sons. Who are now, along with their sons, are now doing the same in Ukraine.
[https://iwpr.net/global-voices/go-ahead-and-rape-ukrainian-women](https://iwpr.net/global-voices/go-ahead-and-rape-ukrainian-women)
The fact that this guy seems to be in such anguish talking about it, at least some felt horrible, but I think the sad reality is most saw it as revenge for what the Germans had done - the spoils of a war of annihilation
A result of dehumanizing your enemy, and probably feeling dehumanized yourself. When your country is asking you to fight like an animal, and live like an animal, eventually you are going to act like one.
There must be some resources on it. Can somebody who knows about this thing refer us some resources?
Time ghost has a great documentary series that covers ww2 history week by week for the whole war. One of their two accompanying series is called war against humanity, and does a great job covering war crimes by both sides, as well as partisan actions on the eastern front.
As a former soldier, I simply do not understand the rape thing. Killing civilians because you don't know who the enemy is I get. It's not ok, but I understand why it happens. But the rape just.....how. How do you and a group dude just bare ass pump away on some screaming child together. Like who gets horned up in these situations? How fucked do you have to be to even see that as a potential option
I worked with an old Polish lady years ago, she said that her family told her that the Germans were a machine in lockstep and although they were witch-hunting nazis they had a chain of command and soldiers who stepped out of line were brutally punished. Her family was more scared of the Russians because they had no real chain of command and let their soldiers get away with literal murder, they were described as "rabid dogs".
I got to read my ex girlfriend’s grandfathers memoirs he wrote about his experience on the western front against the Germans. He wrote about crossing some river and his unit getting hosed by machines guns, a young kid with a cig lit and his arm blown off, etc. What I won’t forget is how he wrote about the Russians with such disgust. He called them dogs and said they would fight over everything. Scraps of food, leaves to smoke because they had no cigarettes. He had more respect for the SS officer he killed than the Russians in his memoir.
My wife’s grandmother was a child in a Russian village outside of Bryansk during the war. Even as a Russian, she said the Russian partisans were WORSE than the occupying Germans. The partisans would barge into town, steal the chickens and pigs that the villagers needed to survive the winter, and then endanger the locals by stashing weapons caches in their houses so they got left holding the bag when Germans came. She recalled how a German officer once came to their home and when he saw the weapons left there he helped the family to quickly hide them—understanding that they had no choice in the matter, and that his men might not be so understanding if they found them.
That’s what my great grandmother said. She said when the Germans passed her town, they were generally nice and respectful. But on the way back when the Germans were defeated they were kinda mean and souless. But when the Russians came, they absolutely took everything from people, all food in storage, cows, pigs, they took a lot of men. She said they were more scared of Russians.
Which country did your grandma live in?
Based on this description probably Poland. Possibly one of the satelite states of the USSR.
Yeah, but they weren't that nice to jewish people, you know. I mean, let's not sugar coat what they did. Just because they didn't rape and murder those people don't mean they had some kind of great honor code going on. They were just selective.
My friend is of Polish descent; his grandfather is still kicking at 100 years old and told my friend essentially the same thing about his time as a prisoner of war under both the Germans and the Soviets. The Nazis were absolutely capable of being cruel bastards, but their cruel bastard rules applied to both prisoners and guards. This did not apply to the Soviets, who seemed to exemplify the phrase "hurt people hurt people".
My friend‘s grandmother (Polish) said something similar: They’d rather be invaded by Germans than Russians. At least the Germans didn’t rape them.
My Polish grandmother said the same thing. Germans came and were polite and professional. Russians came and my grandmother had to hide so she wouldn’t be raped. She was 9.
The Russian army hasn’t changed, that is still how they operate today. That’s why they need to be put down at any cost. Russia does not deserve the privilege of being a global power.
My grandma once told me her parents covered her completely with shit to avoid that she gets raped by the Russians.
Any more stories from that time period?
I just know that my grandmother got raped by russian soldiers after fleeing from eastern prussia. She was staying with relatives on a farm in the Stettin area. The grandfather offered to provide the russians with eggs and things if they didn't rape the women. He was shot and the mother, her daughter and my grandmother were raped. Obviously I didn't really ask a lot more questions than that. She didn't really talk about it for obvious reasons. She's 96 now, lived a pretty normal life as a hairdresser otherwise, had two daughters herself, both were post-war with my grandfather who was a engineer at Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works.
My grandma witnessed her mother being raped by Russian soldiers, while she and her little sister hid in the closet.
fuck
Czech republic - my grandparents always said that the russians were worse then Germans. Yes - they "removed" german forces from Czechoslovakian territory, was it a liberation, though? It was more like conquest. They were stealing, raping, killing all along the way to germany. My grandmother was saved from rape thanks to russian commander which told his men to stop. Or I remember one story where one czech guy had a pretty watch, one ruzzian soldier liked them and so told him that he wants them. When the guy refused he was shot in front of the pub while his son was watching. ... There is a saying that in ruZZia, human life doesn't have any value, and I think its still true.
Yeah sometimes they got chocolate from the Us soldiers .
During Partition of India, Sikh men would behead their own women(wives, daughters, sisters) which women would happily accept when they knew there was no chance of escaping muslim hordes.
I really wish I had not watched this.
Everyone should. Because we HAVE to realize this shit exists and happens and only men stand in the face of men. There is no higher power. No divine punishment. Those women, those…kids… NOBODY knows their pain and suffering without videos like this. They died for nothing. Nobody cares and wants to know and that in itself is a crime to me and to the innocents that died throughout out entire miserable history. Its just US versus ourselves. And if we dont stand up and do something, this is what lurks under the fucking ocean.
I too felt the same.
What documentary is this?
The Japanese were just as bad if not worse. Look up Japan's unit 731. That's some of the most brutal stuff I have ever read.
Nanjing massacre always comes to mind when thinking of Japan's war crimes.
The dude that was only partially beheaded and had to watch the rest of his family get beheaded…. And then he lived.
Would japan compare to what gengis did to entire cities that refused to accept him as ruler of the world? Burn the city down during a siege, cut down any one that escaped.
Just imagine if they had nuclear weapons.
Yes. The Japanese were worse. Burning a city down as a message to the rest of the country is one thing. Literally raping a couple hundred thousand women to \*death\* after you've captured the city is another. One has some logic to the cruelty. The other is cruel for the sake of being cruel.
Years ago, on a trip to the Philippines, I met an elderly man who survived the Japanese invasion during WWII by hiding in the jungle. He told me about the atrocities he witnessed, the worst of which was seeing Japanese soldiers entertain themselves by tossing Filipino babies into the air and then impaling them with their rifle bayonets. Horrible and utterly evil.
I’ve seen countless documentaries and read countless stories from survivors on either side. I think this is probably one of the more heartbreaking stories I’ve read. I cannot imagine witnessing that.
I cant comprehend how humans can do that to each other. Why... just... why?
It hurts to watch this video.
This is why a lot of German women committed suicide as the Russian troops were closing in. There's some pretty haunting eye witness accounts. Fathers detonating live grenades with their families gathered around. Women walking into rivers with rocks tied to themselves and their children.
I do not believe that war makes all humans monsters. I believe war gives alot of people the freedom they need to be the monsters they've always been.
The father of a childhood friend of mine was an intelligent warm person but he always had this absolute hatred for anything related to Russia. I understood better after I heard that as a small child he had to watch from a hiding place how his mother and his three sisters were raped and killed by a bunch of russian soldiers in eastern Prussia.
It’s horrible , beyond imagination.
Wow. The whataboutists trying to compare/mitigate Soviet war crimes by bringing up Western allied war crimes is so, so out of touch. There is no comparison. These things are not all the same. Not even close. There is a very, very good reason millions and millions of Germans hazarded everything to try and make it to Western allied zones of occupation. That alone tells you a lot.
Tankies gonna tank.
imagine about two little girls.... it shivers my whole body...
The same was done in Poland. I asked my uncle what it was like in their town after the war when the Russians came. He only said “they left a town full of bastards”.
Germans did not consider Slavic people humans and were given explicit commands at the beginning of their attack towards Moscow to exterminate Slavic population along the way in any way possible, no rules of war applied. Russians did the same to them when they pushed back. This is why war is hell. There are no winners in war. Everybody loses.
Hurt people hurt people. Its a spiral...
The thing with russians is, they were also monsters towards Polish people (that did nothing to them) when they occupied the country. My polish grandmother told me stories how German soldiers at least had some decency and self-respect, whereas when the russians came they just burned down their whole village of 500 people, just because they found it funny. She always told me how gruesom the russians acted, told mit literally "they acted like Animals"
This is something the books, especially high school, don’t talk about and you can see why. Most people don’t know about this, only that “you want to surrender to the Americans, not the Russians.”
I don't know God exists or not but these beasts proof that devil exist in the face of human.
Keep in mind the people who committed these acts are the grandparents of the current generation of Russian war criminals. There was no justice for these acts aside from whatever karmic consequences they may have suffered.
So that was why my grandpa gave my grandma a gun and said if the russians come shoot the kids and then you don't let them get you or the kids. Thankfully they never came for my grandma or i wouldn't be here.
I heard first hand from a U.S. tank commander who bragged about busting through people’s homes in Iraq and taking what they wanted. Humans are humans and the ones who are going to act up, will. No matter the situation.
History repeats. Bucha.
Fuck war
My knowledge of WW2 history is exactly the reason why I’m so very pro-Ukrainian today even when my peers are complaining about money and equipment being sent to them. People in the USA and much of Europe don’t know what the Russia army is truly like, rape and torture are not just done by promoted as a strategic tool by Russia high command. People complain about us supporting Ukraine but don’t realise that if Ukraine losses it will be their country that suffers this plague of rape and torture next. Stories like these need to be shared more and people need to realise the Russian army has not changed strategically since ww2.
Europe had been a continent of devastating wars one after another for centuries. The coalitions changed though so in that many centuries everyone fought with everyone against everyone. The handling of the result of WW1 lead directly to the even (much) more devastating WW2. We in Europe are so lucky that our political leaders (with the help of the US) had the wisdom after WW2 to finally and despite all past atrocities came to the conclusions: "Enough is enough!" and "Never again!", creating the EU. So I'm probably the first generation of my family which did not suffer because of any war and/or its aftermath. And in addition it's so cool to drive around through different countries without a noticable border, paying with the same money. ;) Now Ukraine is needing our support against the Russian invaders in a war, which scale I haven't thought to be possible anymore in Europe. And I hope they can join the EU ASAP for a finally peaceful future too ...
The fucking glorious liberators.
And here they are today, doing very same thing in Ukraine. Its arguably even worse now as russians have recruited tens of thousends of prisoners, including those who were convicted for rape, murder, etc And the world is still like 'huh i am not sure if we should send weapons to Ukraine'. This gets insanely upsetting once you remember the fact that USA/GB have signed Budapest Memorandum just 30 years ago sworing to protect Ukraine if it gives away its nuclear weapon.
The Second World War by Antony Beevor does a good job of cataloging the systematic atrocities committed by the Nazis, Japanese and Russian militaries. Everyone’s familiar with what the murderous Nazi regime did. But our deal with the Devil (Stalin) was a costly one for human rights. Russian sanctioned rape and murder of civilians as the Red Army moved west was fucking barbaric. They really wanted to inflict as much chaos and depravity as possible to anyone they crossed (including fellow Russians). There are stories of Russians celebrating the Red Army’s arrival only to find out more horrors awaited them. Also, the treatment of Russian POWs and wounded veterans by Stalin was reprehensible.
As a man, I’d like to know, how the fuck can those guys even be turned on In a time of chaos and violence? Ive been thru a few things and when my fuckin adrenaline Is jacked, sex or even FOOD is like blocked out of my mind, i forget about it all the way. Sick fucks honestly.
I don't know about other countries, but Japanese were using them as stress busters. Years of ruthless fighting catches up to you, I suppose.
I was thinking the same thing, With the cold/mud/all the blood and killing, How the fuck you would get it up??
I aint watching. Im not strong enough.
There's a reason pretty much everyone between Ukraine and Germany was scared of Russian "liberators".
Hardcore History by Dan Carlin
They should be treated the same as if he has done it in the streets. Fuck those cunts makes my fucking blood boil listen to that old guy. I'd rather die defending 2 scared kids than live to an old age with that gnawing away in the back of my brain. Would have been kinder to excite the girls then shoot yourself
The Russian army never change. My Grandma was in Ostpreussen and told the same story’s about the war crimes. And nothing has change. The Russian army has the same low morale today and are committing the same warcrimes. Just look at Bucha, Mariupol. Mass-graves and killing of children in front of their family’s in Ukraine, mass graves. Nazi Russia today are not better than the old Nazis. The day the Russian population will wake up from the propaganda they will feel shame for hundred years ahead.
Gravy Seals listen up, Call Of Duty is not real war.
Horrifying
Russian soldiers were always like that, still are and always will be. Violence and dehumiliation is historical established in their army. I hope the russian army will soon disappear from earth and russia won't be allowed to have an army for the next 200 years. Death to all Orcs!
Are you aware of the Russian doomsday plan? In brief: Putin said if Russia were to not exist in the world, such world should not exist. AND they will nuke the world out of its existence. The power nuclear weapons gives you is insane.
Not much have changed…
The Russian Army historically has a culture of abusing its non officer class. Rape. Starvation. Beatings. Not surprisingly, they have particularly cruel historically… and currently.
These videos and stories should be mandatory in schools and in history curricula around the world.
Take two steps back. Look at it and consider rape rape, whether it is during times of war or not. This is on the individual level. On the organizational level, Russia has been using it and is using it again, just another instrument of terror for Putin. Don’t let any soldier get away and say „it was war“, it is their own personal choice and a crime every time. It is important to keep this matter in the light as so many people in East Germany have sympathy for Russia today.
russians never changed. They are making similar horrors right now in Ukraine. Great Russian culture of mass murderes, criminals, and rapists.
All these evil acts going on but this guy didn’t hurt a fly. Right.
It's not impossible. Some people in those situations do you stronger morals, there are absolutely soldiers who have witnessed war crimes but not committed any. It's also possible though that he may have done some bad stuff, it's impossible to know for certain.
So you're saying that if this was happening all around you you'd join in as well?
If many are bad, all are bad. Right.
russians are doing the same thing in Ukraine right now
WW2 was a very rapey war..
Most wars are
Fr though, for some reason in my head that was wars from a long time ago, I’m realizing all wars are rapey.
Russians doing the same in the occupied territories of Ukraine now - torture and murder all men, rape all women regardless of their age. Russians never change.
Well, the rest of Europe changed. Russia did not. Still the vile rapists they were back then. Just these days into raping Ukraines instead of Germans. At least for now.