Sexual violence – the dark underbelly of liberation

For some survivors, liberation from the concentration camps by Soviet forces may have been a reprieve from the dehumanising treatment that they faced during the Holocaust. For others, particularly Jewish women, liberation led to them being further violated, albeit by a different assailant.

Earlier this year, The Ghetto Fighters’ House launched a four-part webinar, “Violated! Sexual Abuse During and After the Holocaust”, which explored the history and implications of sexual violence under the Nazi regime. The fourth and final instalment, which took place on Sunday 26 March, discussed the “Victimisation of Jewish Women by their Soviet Liberators,” revising the post-liberation narrative to include those who were most vulnerable.

“Dominant historical narratives of liberation share strong common themes of triumph, heroism, and gratitude,” said Dr Daina Eglitis, a professor of sociology who gathered testimony from many women survivors. “The celebrated story of liberation, however, is incomplete. Missing from most accounts are the voices of Jewish women survivors whose victimisation didn’t end with the arrival of their liberators.” As one survivor, Isabelle K, said in her testimony, “We were liberated, but this was a new battle.”

Eglitis’ research focused specifically on the sexual assault and exploitation of girls and women trying to find shelter and freedom after being liberated from concentration camps and death marches in the east by Soviet troops. Her work highlights the lack of women’s voices, and recognises the fact that those same men who saved them from the hands of the Nazis also posed a significant threat.

“Women’s experiences are detectable in primary sources, including published and unpublished memoirs and survivor testimonies. They are, however, largely excluded from mainstream accounts of liberation.”

She believes that this is because “women’s stories have been marginalised by cultural norms that attach shame to the victims of sexual violence rather than the perpetrators. This is done by writers and researchers who are uncomfortable with the vulnerabilities of women, and by the perceived need for nationalism, with stories that don’t interfere in the smooth telling of a heroic and triumphant past.”

Uncertainty about what lay ahead made it difficult for the women of the camps to celebrate their newfound freedom. Rebecca R, a survivor from Struthof, recalled the night that she and the other prisoners awoke to find that the Nazi guards were gone. “The Russians are here. We didn’t know to be happy or unhappy,” she said.

Another survivor, Helga H, wrote, “We were so weak, we couldn’t even cry anymore, but liberation ultimately was no pleasure either. Then, we had to sleep out in the fields because they [Soviet soldiers] raped every woman they got hold of.”

“Russians arrived. Liberation! But long, long is the night of liberation,” said Magda S in her unpublished memoir.

Eglitis said that, in reading countless testimonies and primary sources, she had uncovered three supposed explanations for the continual assault. The first was that “some Soviet soldiers sought to exact payment for liberation”. This can be seen in testimonies such as that of Miriam I, who recounted her experience of being on a train to Czechoslovakia after having lost her mother and surviving multiple concentration camps. Weak and tired, she tried to resist the assault of a Russian officer. His response was, “I freed you and you are mine. I can do anything I want with you. I gave you life.” Miriam immediately fled the train.

The second explanation was the “socialisation of women into a male standpoint” that the sexual abuse of these women was said to fulfil the “lynched sexual needs of soldiers who had spent years at the front without access to women”.

The testimony of survivor Sofiya A read, “They needed women. They grasped one, and dragged her to the corridor. Luckily the captain came in. He turned out to be a Jew. He shouted at the soldiers, and they ran away.”

Eva W, liberated from a death march originating in Stutthof, claimed that Soviet soldiers “wanted to rape all the women. They haven’t seen a woman in years.” To evade the desires of these men, women were advised to disguise themselves as old women or young boys.

The third explanation that Eglitis noticed was that “survival was often perceived by Soviet liberators as evidence of complicity”. The idea that the Nazis were ruthless fascists led the Russians to believe that Jews had no chance of escaping the camps alive. “They were suspicious of Jews who had survived, and dubious that Jews had survived at all,” she said. Many believed or suggested that Jewish women had survived only because they had sexual relations with Nazi officers. Klara K remembered a Russian officer saying, “You could live with the Germans, but you don’t want to live with us!”

“A few nights [the Soviet soldiers] used to come in and want to rape the girls. They had the attitude, ‘You slept with the Germans, you don’t want to sleep with us’. They couldn’t understand anything,” said another survivor. This suspicion continued as Jewish women were subjected to the Soviet “filtration” camps, where Russian officers continued to take advantage of them.

Eglitis concluded that though it was difficult to draw precise details from testimonies written after the fact, there was an evident pattern of abuse and violence throughout women’s stories that proves that the phenomenon of sexual violence was a significant issue. She said it was impossible to quantify the extent of the issue considering how much of the evidence had been hidden.

The information may have been concealed for the safety of the victims, but it was probably also undisclosed due to the social stigma around stories of “bodily humiliation, attempted degradation, and sexual violence”.

In a culture that imposes shame upon victims rather than perpetrators, women are often uncomfortable telling their stories and others are often uncomfortable hearing them.

“Women’s voices matter in the telling of the past,” said Eglitis. “They provide a more nuanced perspective on this period, inviting a critical and reflective approach to the mythologised images of the liberating Soviet army [which] continues to influence Russian discourse and justify Russian state violence today.”

“Liberation is a far more complex story than most historical accounts reveal,” she said. “Liberators have been venerated as heroes, but many were also, tragically, rapists who terrorised girls and women who had already survived the savagery of Nazi captivity.”