The Silent War

5-year-old Marga Dieter knew how to keep quiet, and survive, in wartime Germany.

Thanks to Magnatune recording artist Vito Paternoster for the use of "Suite II in re minore - prelude" in the
production of this week's podcast. This is sampled under an Attribution 2.5 Creative Commons license.
http://magnatune.com/artists/paternoster
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/

Marga Dieter is the author of "Aamie's War: Women and Children on the German Homefront"
http://aamieswar.com

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[timo1595]

"They came into the cellar where we were hiding," said one survivor of a town taken before Berlin, "and pointed their weapons at me and the other two women and ordered us into the yard. In the yard twelve soldiers in turn raped me. Other soldiers did the same to my two neighbours. The following night six drunken soldiers broke into our cellar and raped us in front of the children. On 5 February, three soldiers came, and on 6 February eight drunken soldiers also raped and beat us."

[timo1595]

If you survive the firestorm of the front-line troops who blast their way into buildings, enter rooms, tunnels, cellars and bunkers grenade-first and need persuading that your little boy is not in the SS (to be shot on sight), you will fall into the hands of the second-line troops, who are worse. Consolidating rather than fighting, they have time to plunder, particularly wrist-watches, bicycles and alcohol; in the evenings they go woman-hunting. Any woman, any age, any condition.

[timo1595]

For their part Soviet soldiers were inspired by hatred for all things German. They gang-raped German women, young and old, and looted anything they could find, even removing panes of glass and bags of nails to send back home.