Rapes after D-Day
“The prospect of sex encouraged US soldiers to fight”
04.06.2024, 16:51
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The Allies who landed in Normandy in June 1944 were celebrated as “liberators”. But the joy was not unclouded. In the months that followed, thousands of French women were raped by US soldiers. The fate of the women was kept silent for a long time: the forgotten victims of D-Day.
They did not want to disturb the general mood of celebration: out of shame and fear of disgrace, French women who were raped by US soldiers towards the end of the Second World War remained silent for decades. Shortly before the start of the commemorations for the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings, 99-year-old Aimée Dupré decided to tell of her mother’s fate.
“She sacrificed herself to protect me,” says the old lady. She was 19 years old when about 156,000 American, British and French soldiers landed on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944. D-Day paved the way for the Allied victory over Nazi Germany. The foreign soldiers were celebrated as “liberators” who ended the German occupation of France.
“Maman, you have experienced such terrible things”
Like all the other inhabitants of the Breton village of Montours, Aimée was happy about the arrival of the liberators. But in August of the same year, something happened that would weigh on her life for the rest of her life. Two US soldiers showed up at her family farm one evening. “They were drunk, they needed a woman,” the 99-year-old recalls.
She pulls out a letter from her mother Aimée Helaudais Honoré, which she wrote later “so as not to forget anything”. The US soldiers approached her daughter, but she went out with them to protect her, she writes. “They took me to a field and raped me there in turns, each of them four times,” her daughter reads, 80 years later. “Maman, you have been through such terrible things,” she murmurs. “We waited all night. We didn’t know if she would come back or if they would shoot her,” the old lady remembers.
In October 1944, 152 US soldiers were convicted of raping French women. However, the number of perpetrators is much higher, estimates historian Mary Louise Roberts, one of the few who has dealt with the subject. She calls it “one of the great taboos of the Second World War”. “Probably hundreds, if not thousands, of rapes by US soldiers between 1944 and 1946 went unreported,” she says.
“Black soldiers were made scapegoats”
“Many women remained silent. Not only because of the shame associated with rape, but also because it did not fit with the spirit of joy with which the liberators were celebrated,” explains Roberts.
She refers to the advertising strategy of the US armed forces, which openly wooed its soldiers with the prospect of willing French women. “The French women are crazy about the Yankees,” ran the headline in the army newspaper “Stars and Stripes – that’s why we’re fighting” in September 1944. It also published numerous photos of US soldiers being kissed by French women. “The prospect of sex encouraged US soldiers to fight,” says Roberts.
During her research, the historian came across another peculiarity: those who were convicted of rape were almost all black. “Black soldiers were made scapegoats to protect the reputation of white US soldiers,” she explains. This corresponds to the racist prejudice widespread in the southern states that blacks have “unbridled sexuality.” “Nobody wanted to tarnish the image of the American hero that everyone was so proud of,” the historian sums up.