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Historians estimate that more than 1. We have discussed extensively on the rape committed by Russian, American and French soldiers on German women during and after WW2. A silly illusion. These men were as immoral and boorish as the Russians and Japanese. In fact having sex was encouraged by their commanders as matter of policy. Amorous and lustful men made better fighters and killers, the thinking went. There is evidence that sexual violence was institutionalized in the German army.

Yorick Smaal receives funding from the Australian Research Council for his current project on boys, sex and crime. In our sexual histories series, authors explore changing sexual mores from antiquity to today. Armies make men. Routine, order and discipline bring out the greatest masculine characteristics. Uniforms transform young males just beginning their lives from nobody to somebody.

Until , there were around military brothels of this kind in German-occupied Europe. The Foreign Ministry of the Polish Government in Exile issued a document on May 3, , describing the mass kidnapping raids conducted in Polish cities with the aim of capturing young women for sexual slavery at brothels run by the German military. One of the soldiers pulls out a pocket flashlight and shines it on one of the women, straight into her eyes. The two women turn their pale faces to us, expressing weariness and resignation. The first one is about 30 years old.