How were women treated in the USSR and Europe who had relationships with fascist soldiers during the war?

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Despite the fact that all the worst aspects of human life were mixed in the war, it continued, and therefore there was a place for love, creating a family and having children. Considering that irreconcilable enemies were forced to coexist with each other for quite a long time, warm feelings often arose between them. Moreover, the hostilities assumed that men on both sides were away from home and their women. Next to strangers and also yearning for a strong shoulder.

Even after the war ended, 3.5 million German soldiers remained in the territory of the Union in the status of "prisoners of war". They helped rebuild the cities they had ruined, and often worked side by side with Soviet women. Considering that the majority of Soviet men had not yet returned from the front, and many even left their wives as widows, feelings often arose between German prisoners of war and Soviet citizens, despite legal prohibitions and moral norms.

In the camps in which German prisoners of war were kept, women prepared food, they also worked in the shops and performed the role of service personnel. Any extra-legal relationship between women and Germans was immediately recorded by colleagues in the reports. For example, the duty officer of the camp No. 437 in Cherepovets found a nurse who was kissing a German, which he reported in a memo. And another prisoner of war, who was in special hospital No. 3732, managed to have an affair with two Soviet women at once, and this, despite his unenviable position. Both the nurse and her rival, the head of the hospital's supply department, were fired. And with shame.

It would seem that it was surprising that some fell in love with others, since life brought them together in one place, at one time. After all, life went on - even in the camp conditions, amateur competitions were held, after which, however, new couples were created, because there was an opportunity to look at the captives with different eyes. Not as people deprived of freedom and will, but as young, talented and perky. So, in the camp №437, the daughter of one of the workers fell in love with a German who performed at a concert and even sent him a bouquet as a sign of her sympathy. This was immediately reported to the right place.

Any nonsense was enough to be suspected of being connected with the Germans. So, under suspicion came the doctor of camp No. 437, who spent too much time alone with the German, looked at something with him through a microscope and studied a foreign language. She was immediately "taken on a pencil." It was not even possible to dance with the Germans at cultural evenings. Everyone who was seen in suspicious connections was brought up for discussion at a party meeting, based on its results, they could be fired from their jobs.

Or maybe I want to get married?

However, Soviet women were not always the patronizing party in these relations. Many re-escorted Germans could receive goods that were in great deficit in the Union. Despite the fact that in February 1947 a decree was issued that prohibited marriages between citizens of the USSR and foreigners, no one could prohibit civil marriages. Therefore, cases when a Soviet woman and a former prisoner began to live as one family are not at all uncommon.

A certain Max Hartmann really wanted to become a citizen of the USSR, in order to marry a Soviet girl, he wrote letters to Moscow, but in fact received refusals, because he was told that he could count on Soviet citizenship only after he was released from prisoner of war status, and this will only happen in Germany.

The attitude towards Hungarians and Romanians was softer, many women managed to leave with them to their husbands' homeland, when, a few years after the war, prisoners of war were repatriated. Although the authorities in every possible way prevented the citizens of the USSR from leaving somewhere, searches were arranged, letters were taken away.

The party leadership unequivocally considered women who were seen in relations with the Germans to be traitors and women of easy virtue. So, in the documents of the Chekists, a list of the categories of citizens was provided who, first of all, were to undergo cleansing after the liberation of the territories occupied by the Germans. This list included women who had connections with officers. Then this measure extended to any women who were seen in voluntary close relationships with any representatives of the Wehrmacht. As punishment, children were often taken away from such women.

But often they were shot without trial or investigation immediately after the liberation of the territory from the invaders. Three witnesses were enough to confirm voluntary relations with the Germans for the death sentence to be brought into effect.

Attempts by the authorities to limit romantic relationships

Anyone who was noticed to be too loyal to the prisoners of war was immediately taken out for discussion at party meetings. As a punishment, they could take away their membership card, fire them, ruin their reputation. Moreover, it was possible to get there both for the case and for completely trifling moments. Thus, the nurse of the hospital No. 2715 was convicted at the party meeting for sitting by the prisoner's bed all night and talking about love. While earlier such zeal for work was not noticed in her. She might have confused the assignments. For this, she was fired from her job, closed for her access to the Komsomol organization, and the German was sent to the battalion battalion.

Another nurse was even convicted of smoking and washing her hair in the presence of a prisoner, she was "taken on a pencil" and warned that her cheeky behavior casts a shadow on the entire team. Active propaganda work was also carried out from the pages of newspapers. So, in one of the issues of the regional newspapers, a note appeared that the worker of the forestry section dared to dance and have fun with the prisoners of war. However, not only women, but also prisoners of war had to be responsible for such actions. The convoy was strengthening, the guards literally followed on their heels.

The struggle was also fought at the legislative level. Orders were written, bans were imposed and obstacles were set up. Preventive conversations were often held with women who were in close contact with the Germans by the nature of their work. For these purposes, even a special course of lectures was developed. Those women who nevertheless managed to discredit themselves with this kind of connection were considered class immature, or bourgeois-minded. So, one of the doctors, who was too caring for the prisoners, came from a fairly well-to-do family, which previously could even afford a servant. This served as an explanation for her non-Soviet behavior.

Unauthorized persons could not enter the territory of the camp, and the number of personnel necessarily included persons who were supposed to identify such incidents and report them. In 1945, a directive was issued, which ordered the dismissal of morally unstable women. Then all the workers who had connections with the captives were dismissed. But dismissals under this article continued until 1949, that is, this did not solve the problem in any way.

How they treated fascist mistresses in Europe

However, it was wrong to believe that women were treated more severely in the USSR than elsewhere. The fate of the former lovers of the fascists in Europe was also unenviable. The French especially distinguished themselves, it seems that they took out all their anger on women. For those who got their hands on and had enough strength. They were immediately nicknamed "bedding" and began to persecute "horizontal collaborators" in every possible way, there were more than 20 thousand of them.

No, the authorities were not officially involved in this, but in fairness it should be noted that they did not particularly interfere with this. Activists broke into the houses of such women, dragged them by force into the street and, to the cheers of the crowd, shaved them naked. Some of them drew a swastika on their faces, especially those who were widely dispersed burned out the stigma. Duty interrogations turned not just into stories about the connection with the Germans, but answers to intimate questions.

However, this seemed not enough, most of these women, in addition to the "lynching", were sentenced to real terms of imprisonment. Norwegian women were also sentenced to real prison terms for having ties with enemies. Before that, the crowd mocked them in every possible way, they were taken naked through the streets, doused with slop. In the Netherlands, in 1945, 500 women were killed in lynching in just one day.

The fruits of "love"

Despite the fact that children are not responsible for their fathers, in wartime, when human life was worth absolutely nothing, children who "should not have been" did not really care for anyone. Humiliated and unhappy simply by the fact of their birth, they fully felt what it was like to be an unnecessary person. Calculating how many "German" children were born during the occupation is perhaps an impossible task. But in France and Norway they were able to calculate. It is believed that French women gave birth to 200 thousand children from the Germans, and 10-12 thousand were born in Norway.

In Norway, German children were recognized as mentally disabled and sent to institutions for the mentally ill. Medicines were tested on them. They received rehabilitation only in 2005, but how many of them survived to this moment, and whether they were able to return to normal life is an open question.

The French, despite the fact that they were cruel to women, treated children born of vicious ones much softer. They were simply forbidden to give German names and learn German. However, mothers from such children most often refused.

Almost nothing is known about the children who gave birth to Soviet women from German soldiers. It is likely that the old Soviet principle was at work here - if you keep silent about the problem, hide it, then it ceases to exist. Rare archival data, which contains information about children born during the war in the occupation territories, indicate that no measures were taken against them, they lived and grew up like ordinary children. Well, except that here not to recall the proverb that "you cannot put a scarf on every mouth", therefore, it is also impossible to call the life of such children in the USSR completely ordinary.

The historian Ivan Maisky, then deputy people's commissar for foreign affairs, wrote a letter to Stalin, which became the only archival document on such a delicate issue. In this document, he says that if you leave them to live in the same place where they were born, then their life will be terrible. He proposes to take the children away from their mothers and, having given a new name and surname, put them in an orphanage, making information on it closed.

Through the years and distances - war love stories

In periods when human life was worthless, rape was not considered a crime at all. In addition, women in the occupied territory were perceived as a trophy and the violence towards them did not surprise anyone. However, sometimes women gave in, realizing that this was a way to survive, to get protection, shelter and food.

However, true love stories also happened in spite of everything. So, Maria Vasilieva and Otto Adam became symbols of vivid feelings, devotion to each other, who preferred to die together than be separated. This took place in Rylsk, during the period when it was occupied. He was a lieutenant and chief of an armory. She - held the post of secretary of the German headquarters, well, and a partisan. And now feelings flare up between them, she, of course, hides her connection with the partisans to the last, but he still finds out the truth.

An important moment in this love story is the choice of a German officer - after all, what will be more important for him the honor of the officer's uniform and patriotic feelings for his native country and the Wehrmacht, or a girlfriend who is fighting for the enemy force? He chose Maria and began to help the partisans through her. Instead, they flee to a partisan unit, but this story has a tragic ending. They are surrounded by Germans and they prefer to commit suicide on their own.

Another story with Fenya Ostrik and Wilhelm Dietz had a happy ending, although the lovers could never live and breathe deeply. An ordinary Ukrainian girl and a German officer met by chance, the romance was stormy and fast. The girl did not see him as an enemy and a murderer, he was always friendly, polite. She studied German at school and pretty quickly they were able to communicate fluently. He saved the girl from being taken to Germany for compulsory work, which earned gratitude from her parents and even managed to get a blessing from them for their marriage.

The plan was as follows. After the war, Wilhelm remains in the USSR, his own people consider him missing, but even in his wife's homeland, he cannot feel at ease. He hides in the hayloft and begins to learn Russian, and so that he could be mistaken for one of his own. Then he began to occasionally appear in the village, posing as Feni's husband, who allegedly works in Kiev and therefore rarely comes. They had a child together, and the father still preferred to hide from strangers. Even the son learned the truth only after his father passed away. However, a German officer who lived to old age at one time was even able to go home, where he found his name on a memorial plaque.

The German side did not at all approve of ties with Russian girls. The Slavic race was considered unworthy for the Aryan, in fact, a soldier who had an affair with a local girl was threatened with trial, but most often the leadership turned a blind eye to this.

For most of the prisoners of war, returning to their homeland remained a cherished dream, despite the fact that many had time to grow roots in Russia. Before they were sent home, farewell evenings were often held in the camps, where former captives talked about their plans for life, left photographs as a keepsake. For a huge number of people, these years have presented loved ones, whom they remembered with longing and warmth for the rest of their lives. After all, love and affection cannot be canceled by any directive or decree.