Figure 1.--Here we see German children wearing some Red Army uniform items. The photograph isjndated, but looks lik about November 1945. Given the viciouness of the fighting on the Eastern Front and the atrocities committed by the Red Army when they entered Germany, the children seem to be adapting very quickly. I has to be remembered that there are naby similarities between Soviet Communism and German NAZIism. And before the NAZIs seized power, German had important Communist and Socialist parties. And while the leadership, especilly the Communist leadership, was largely eliminated, the rank and file was not. In fact it may be that their was a greater shock for the Germans adjusting to Western style liberal democracy in the Western occupation zones. Goebbels at the end of the War comiserating in his diary that he devoted too much effort in his propaganda campaign demonizing the Soviets and not enough time attacking the Western Allies. We do not think that this was a staged photograph, although it is difficult to tell. It seems to have been taken by a Swedish journalist.

Several matters concerned German children during the Soviet occupation. This is not a well researched topic, bit it is important to sketch out the issues. The most immediate was Stalin turning the Red Army lose on German women in the areas they occupied. There is of course no precise statistics on just what occurred. There seems to be an historical consensus that some 2 million German women were raped by Red Army soldiers, some multiple times. Most of this occurred in the immediate aftermath of the entry of Red Army soldiers into German territory. The horific outburst of rape occurred in Berlin during the horrific battle for the NAZI capital. Children were affected in several ways. First of all it was not just women raped. some of the rapes were committed on German girls, mostly teenagers, but some teens as well. Second, some of the rapes occurred in front of family members including childen. And even when this did not occur, children winessed their sisters and mothers being dragged off by Red Army soldiers. Fourth, About Christmas the babies began arriving. An estimated 0.3 million German children wre fathered by Red Army soldiers. Unlike the Westen Zones, here were rarely any personal reltionship of any kind between the mother and Soviet fathers. On most cases the fathrs were unknown. And during the occupation era, there wre strict non-franternization rules imposed on the Soviet soldiers. This was attempted in the West as well, but quickly discarded as unenforceable. As a result there were far more personal relations between the occupying troops in the West than in he Soviet Zone. Many GIs took German war brides home. This did not occur in the Soviet Zone. There were many reasons for this, but particularly important was that Stalin did not want foreigners brought home who might 'infect' Soviet citizens with Western ideas. The occupation authorities, exceot fro the French accepted no responsibility for the foreign fathered babies. (The French even offered the French-fathered children, French citizenship.) Some German women asked the German authorities in the Soviet Zone for financial assistance. DDR President Wilhelm Pieck suggested that they find work to finance their living. [Satjukow and Gries] The problem did not stop here. The children as they grew up were looked down on by German society and experienced descrimination as they grew up. Children also experienced a huge shift as when the schools opened they were bombarded with Communist propaganda instead of NAZI proppaganda. We think, however, that their counterparts in the Western Occupation Zones, may have had more of a culture hock addjusting to liberal democracy. And the Hitler Youth was replaced with the Young Poneers. but had a more limited program. As the DDR was established, children were affected in various ways. DDR officials following Soviet precedents denied opportunities like university admission to mny childten who did not have working-class backgrounds. They were also affected by the inefficencies and poor performance of the economy. There was no East German Economic Miracle. Although the east German economy performed better than the Soviet and other Eastern European economies.

Sources

Satjukow, Silke and Rainer Gries. Bastards: The Children of Occupation in Germany after 1945 (Ger. lang.)

Created: 9:06 AM 11/18/2016
Last updated: 9:06 AM 11/18/2016