A Lesson in History

I’m reading a non-fiction historical novel on World War I – “The Bitter Road to Freedom: The Human Cost of Allied Victory in World War II Europe” written by William Hitchcock.  I must say, from the first page I was appalled at what I read.  When we hear of any of the world wars, we often hear about German imperialism and Allied victory.  But we never hear much about what individual people suffered throughout this brutal war.  And this book explores this.

I literally shed tears as I read about millions of people practically being left to starve in Holland under German occupation.  And about the civilian lives lost in northern France from D-Day and afterwards.  Not all of them were killed by enemy Germans; some were killed by Allied air raids.  Dead civilians were a “necessary part of war.”  I read about the soldiers themselves faced harsh months on the battle fronts, hungry and freezing.  I honestly can’t begin to fathom the psychological effects of being surrounded by dead bodies and death.  The conditions under which these men fought are truly astonishing.

But, what hit me the hardest, where I shed the tears, was when I read about the brutality of the armies in their treatment of women.  The baser carnal man was revealed during World War II.  All the armies, not just the Germans, were involved in the raping of women across Europe.  Everywhere they went, soldiers took advantage of the female population.  No more so than in East Germany when it was conquered in 1945.  I read about an elderly woman found lying dead in an alley with a telephone receiver between her legs.  I don’t need to go into details here, use your imagination.

I also read about fathers who were forced to watch as their daughters were raped by countless men in succession.  And about the despair these young women felt, the emotional scars left by such violation.  One father even gave his daughter the noose to hang herself.  I didn’t read about this in the book, but I have learned elsewhere about Japanese “Comfort Houses.”  Women were forcibly taken from their homes wherever the Japanese conquered, and forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers during the war.  “Comfort Women,” they call them.  And this didn’t only happen sixty years ago.  It happened in Rwanda only in 1994.

 I can’t wrap my head around the millions of women and girls whose lives were wrecked by ruthless soldiers.  It’s in the past, but even now, as I read, I feel enraged.  How could this happen? WHY would someone do that to another human being?  The way I see it, this war, and any war for that matter, reduces human beings to mere animals.  There is no other explanation for using vulnerable women and girls and forcibly taking what no man has a right to take without consent.  Women have suffered immensely over the years.  And war seems to bring the greatest tragedies for them.

I recommend this book.  It’s interesting; sad, but interesting.