Table of contents:
- The horrific fate of female health workers in German captivity
- What awaited a woman sniper in German captivity
- The tragic story of female intelligence officers captured by the Germans
- How Soviet women prisoners of war shocked the Germans
Video: Why the Germans did not recognize Soviet women as military personnel and how they mocked the brave Red Army women
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
From time immemorial, war has been the lot of men. However, the Great Patriotic War refuted this stereotype: thousands of Soviet patriots went to the front and fought for the freedom of the Fatherland on an equal basis with the stronger sex. For the first time, the Nazis faced so many women in the units of the active Red Army, so they did not immediately recognize them as military personnel. Almost throughout the entire war, an order was in force, according to which the Red Army women were equated with partisans and were subject to execution. But many Soviet women and girls were destined for an equally tragic fate - to survive German captivity, torture and bullying.
The horrific fate of female health workers in German captivity
Tens of thousands of women health workers were mobilized into the Red Army. Many, after completing a course of training, volunteered to go to the front or to the people's militia. Despite the humanity of the medical profession, the Germans treated the captured nurses, orderlies and medical orderlies with the same cruelty as the rest of the prisoners of war.
There is a lot of evidence of atrocities perpetrated against Soviet female medical workers. A captive nurse or nurse could be raped by a whole company of soldiers. Eyewitnesses told how they found shot Russian nurses on the roads in winter - naked, with obscene inscriptions on their bodies. One day, Soviet soldiers found the numb corpse of a nineteen-year-old nurse, impaled on a stake, with gouged eyes, her chest cut off, and gray hair. And those who got to the concentration camp were expected to work hard, inhuman conditions of detention, bullying and violence from the guards.
What awaited a woman sniper in German captivity
No other army in the world could boast of such a number of snipers as it was during the Great Patriotic War in the Red Army. From the middle of the summer of 1943 until the end of the war, the Central Women's School of Sniper Training graduated over a thousand snipers and more than 400 instructors. Female shooters inflicted damage to enemy personnel no less than male snipers. The fascists feared and fiercely hated the brave Red Army women and dubbed them "invisible horror."
There are cases when German soldiers still showed some condescension to young snipers, however, as a rule, the gender factor did not play any role. The girls realized that it was better for them not to be captured, therefore, in addition to the necessary sniper equipment, they took grenades with them and often, being surrounded by enemies, blew themselves up. Those who could not do this faced terrible torment.
So, the Hero of the Soviet Union Tatyana Baramzina, covering the retreat of her comrades, was seriously wounded, fell into the hands of the Nazis and was severely tortured. Her body was found with her eyes gouged out and her head pierced by a shot from an anti-tank rifle.
Sniper Maria Golyshkina said that her partner Anna Sokolova was captured and, after sophisticated torture, was hanged. The Nazis tried to recruit the girls-shooters who fell into the concentration camp, but there is no evidence that one of them agreed to cooperate. The female snipers who passed through the concentration camps preferred not to go into the details of their stay in fascist captivity, not wanting to remember the horrors of the past.
The tragic story of female intelligence officers captured by the Germans
History knows many feats performed by young Soviet intelligence officers. The name of the Komsomol member Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, a soldier of the reconnaissance and sabotage unit of the headquarters of the Western Front, became a symbol of heroism and dedication. Yesterday's schoolgirl went to the front as a volunteer. In November 1941, during the execution of the command's assignment - to commit arson in several settlements of the Moscow region - she fell into the hands of the Germans.
The girl was subjected to many hours of inhuman torture and humiliation. According to the mistress of the house in which the saboteur was tortured, Zoya bravely endured the bullying, did not ask for mercy and did not give the enemy any information. All the inhabitants of the village of Petrishchevo were driven to a demonstration execution, and the fearless eighteen-year-old partisan managed to turn to her compatriots with a fiery speech. To intimidate local residents, the body hung on the square for about a month, and drunken fascists, amused, stabbed him with bayonets.
Almost simultaneously with Zoya, her colleague in the sabotage group, 22-year-old Vera Voloshin, tragically died. Residents of the state farm Golovkovo, near which the girl was seized, recalled that she, bleeding to death, beaten to death with rifle butts, stood very proudly before her death and sang "Internationale" with a noose around her neck.
How Soviet women prisoners of war shocked the Germans
Soviet women not only displayed miracles of heroism at the front. During their stay in captivity, they amazed the Nazis with their moral qualities. Upon entering the concentration camp, all women were examined by a gynecologist in order to identify sexually transmitted diseases. German doctors were surprised to state the fact that more than 90% of unmarried Russian women under the age of 21 retained their virginity. This indicator was strikingly different from similar data for Western Europe. Soviet girls demonstrated high morality even in war, where a woman was constantly among the representatives of the opposite sex and was the object of their close attention.
While in prison, Soviet women were striking in their resilience. The prisoners were forced to live in terrible sanitary conditions, without the slightest possibility of maintaining hygiene. In addition, they worked hard physically, were often subjected to sexual violence, for trying to avoid which they were severely punished. Another characteristic feature of Soviet women prisoners of war was rebelliousness. So, having arrived at the Ravensbrück concentration camp, Russian women demanded compliance with the norms of the Geneva Convention, refused to go to work, and went on hunger strikes. And having received the punishment in the form of several hours of marching on the parade ground, they turned it into their triumph - they walked, singing in chorus "Get up, the country is huge …".
Look at the photo of brave citizens of the Soviet Union, who, despite these horrors, found the courage to defend their country - in this collection.
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