We were young, strong, and four years without women. So we tried to catch German women and.... Ten men raped one girl. There were not enough women; the entire population run from the Soviet Army. So we had to take young, twelve or thirteen year-old. If she cried, we put something into her mouth. We thought it was fun. Now I can not understand how I did it. A boy from a good family.... But that was me
A woman telephone operator from the Soviet Army recalled:
When we occupied every town, we had first three days for looting and ... [rapes]. That was unofficial of course. But after three days one could be court-martialed for doing this.... I remember one raped German woman laying naked, with hand grenade between her legs. Now I feel shame, but I did not feel shame back then.... Do you think it was easy to forgive [the Germans]? We hated to see their clean undamaged white houses. With roses. I wanted them to suffer. I wanted to see their tears. Decades had to pass until I started feeling pity for them