Hi Boroda,
I have read a couple of books written by British POWs who were in Eastern Germany when the Soviet Union broke through into Prussia. One episode particularly sticks in my mind.
The POW's were working for a rich Prussian family in the grounds of their castle. Before the troops arrived, a Russian staff car pulled up. The Russian officers basically told the owners to flee, because they had lost control of their troops' behaviour.
Virtually any German captured soldier was shot. (I believe that only a tiny percentage of German POWs actually survived). Rape by Russian troops was wholesale and indiscriminate. The book mentions that girls that were raped were told by the Russians to wear a white armband which would mean that they would be spared a second time, when in fact it meant that they were 'hotties' and the armband advertised this to other soldiers who went onto rape them.
These POWs did say, however that Russian soldiers were incredibly kind to children.
All I say, is that from what I have read, the Russians were utterly brutal to the Germans when the tables were turned, although as I understand it, it was not that the Soviets had any particuarly 'system' of abuse toward German civilians, but that the officers just could not prevent it from taking place.
Given what Russia was put through by the Germans, one can understand the desire for vengance that the Russians must have felt and I make no moral point about this.
Ravs
