Thank God for those Catholic priests faithfully keeping all the records, otherwise this important info might not have fully come down to us as it has done.. Quite affecting... Raped by the Liberators — When 860,000 German Women Were Silenced and Four Governments Knew | WW2 youtube.com/watch?v=ov7dkGk9404 April 1945. Berlin had fallen. Inside the ruins, a 34-year-old journalist named Marta Hillers opened a notebook and began writing every night. She recorded what she witnessed with the precision of a professional — not for publication, but because she believed someone needed to document what was happening around her. Her diary became "A Woman in Berlin" — one of the only firsthand accounts written during the fall of the city. She kept it anonymous for the rest of her life. Decades later, historian Miriam Gebhardt spent years examining Bavarian church archives, parish records, and post-war medical documentation. Catholic priests had been quietly filing official reports since 1945. The records were always there. No one had looked. Gebhardt's research estimates that approximately 190,000 women were affected by American forces alone across the occupation zone. When combined with documentation from all Allied occupation forces between 1945 and the early post-war years, historians place the broader estimate at around 860,000 women across Germany and neighboring territories. Many cases were never prosecuted. Military investigations remained sealed in archives for decades. Four governments said nothing. The diary survived. The archives survived. This is the story behind them. --- DISCLAIMER This documentary is produced exclusively for historical education and documentary storytelling purposes. All events referenced are drawn from verified primary sources, peer-reviewed academic research, and declassified records. Sensitive historical events are presented factually and with full academic sourcing, consistent with established documentary journalism standards. No graphic content is included. This channel operates under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act — Fair Use.