RAPE AND FORGIVENESS - POLAND AND RUSSIA

The Red Army 'liberated' the  large town where I spend my weekends and holidays sixty-seven years ago today. The Soviet soldiers who died in the battle are commemorated in a large social-realist war memorial in an annexe to the cemetary, inscribed in Russian, and topped with a red star. Their graves, well-tended by the Poles, are there too. The Poles have erected a large wooden cross between the monument and the street.

Most Poles I know still fear and distrust the Russian government, especially Putin, though they express admiration and even affection for the Russian people: fellow Slavs.

Things are not always what they seem. The Red Army had a reputation for raping and looting as they 'liberated'. A friend's wife, aged about 60, told me the following story, and having heard similar accounts from countless other people, I believe it.

"My grandmother told me that when the Russians arrived in the town, she and my grandfather smeared my mother and her sisters with filth and put them in the cellar, reached by a trapdoor under the living room carpet. They left the front door open, otherwise they soldiers would have kicked it down and been even angrier.

"A Russian burst in and demanded to know where the girls were. My grandmother said their were no girls, so the soldier set about raping her.


"My grandfather, helpless, looked out of the window and saw a Russian officer approaching and called out to him "Rape. The're raping my wife!"


The officer came in and calmly shot the rapist through the head, in flagrante delicto, apologised for the bad behaviour, and supervised the looting of the house."


Today, as I passed the War Memorial, an open air Mass for the repose of the Russians' souls was taking place there, with soldiers from the Polish Army, Police, and civilians of an age to remember.

Forgiveness! And one soldier buried there was shot by his officer in the act of rape.