Berlin Turns Red

This episode deals with sexual assault. The descriptions of historic events may be triggering for some readers or listeners.

Soviet forces advanced with lightning speed since launching their offensive against Berlin in the third week of April. Two huge army groups were converging on the city from the south and east, while a third was wheeling in from the north.

On Friday, April 20, 1945, Hitler’s 56th birthday, Marshal Zhukov’s one-and-a-half-million-strong army had begun shelling the city center from its positions in the northern suburbs, while Marshal Ivan Konev’s forces were approaching the city’s southern outskirts. The Red Army had soon encircled the German forces that remained in the city, trapping the beleaguered defenders.

When the Russians finally arrived in the city center around April 28, they terrified the civilians who were cowering in their cellars. The door to the cellar in which the Schneider family was hiding was kicked open by a booted foot and, said young Helga Schneider, “We found ourselves face to face with six Russian soldiers, all aiming submachine guns at us.” Two of them had shaven heads, three wore fur caps, and one had black curly hair and a beard that came down over his chest. The soldier with the beard asked peremptorily: “Here soldaty germanskie?”

No one responded; they were too terrified.

“Soldaty germanskie?” the soldier repeated, this time with real menace in his voice.

Young Helga’s step-grandfather managed to stammer a reply: “No soldiers here.”

The Soviet infantryman looked furious. He spat out his response. “You lie! If soldaty germanskie here, you kaput!”

'War kaput!' screamed one of them. 'Hitler kaput!' He demanded the watches of everyone in the room. 'You give urri or you kaput!'

The six soldiers pointed their submachine guns at the assembled group. “War kaput!” screamed one of them. “Hitler kaput!” He demanded the watches of everyone in the room. “You give urri or you kaput!”

Everyone handed over their watches, and then the soldiers left.

But shortly afterward, two very different Soviet soldiers burst into the cellar. Drunk and heavily armed, they snarled at the terrified occupants before turning to the two teenage girls, sixteen-year-old Gudrun and fourteen-year-old Erika. “You, Fräulein! You gut! You come with me!”

Gudrun’s mother protested and was kicked in the stomach. Erika’s mother begged to take her daughter’s place and was beaten unconscious.

Young Helga Schneider buried her face in a jacket...

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