Crimes
The widely-publicized killings and rapes in places like Nemmersdorf by the Soviets led to a severe degree of fear in the entire German population of East Prussia. Even enslaved Soviet women liberated by Soviet troops were often raped by Soviet soldiers. Beevor argues that these acts of violence were motivated by a desire for revenge and retribution for crimes committed by the Nazis during their invasion of Soviet Union.
War reporter Vasily Grossman said that the rear-guard units of the advancing Soviet armies were usually responsible for a large number of the crimes committed by Red Army personnel. Wealthy civilians of East Prussia were often shot by Soviet soldiers, their goods stolen, and their houses set on fire, as a result of Soviet propaganda advocating the eradication of the aristocracy. Soviet Officers like Lev Kopelev, who tried to prevent crimes, were accused of mercy with the enemy and became Gulag prisoners.
Read more about this topic: Evacuation Of East Prussia
Famous quotes containing the word crimes:
“The worst of crimes. All the other crimes are virtues beside it: all the other dishonors are chivalry itself by comparison. Poverty blights whole cities; spreads horrible pestilences; strikes dead the very souls of all who come within sight, sound, or smell of it.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“The judges did the punishing, the criminals paid for their crimes and I, free of responsibilities, removed from judgment and from punishment, I ruled, freely, in an edenic light.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“Poor human nature, what horrible crimes have been committed in thy name!”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)