Götz Aly Makes Controversial Remarks about the Contribution of Black and Asian Soldiers in WWII
Götz Aly, the popular historian, accused black Allied soldiers of the systematic rape of German women during the Second World War.
He also dismissed their contribution to defeating the Nazis on the grounds that they were forced to fight.
Mr Aly, the author of the controversial Hitler's Beneficiaries, made the remarks during a press conference at "The Third World in the Second World War", a Berlin exhibition aimed at recognising the role of thousands of Africans and Asians in defeating Nazism.
Though he was invited to speak, Mr Aly dismissed what he called a "politically correct" version of history and argued that, in fact, people from colonised countries had a "parallel interest" with the Nazis in defeating imperial nations such as Britain and France.
He compared the behaviour of Britain and France's black soldiers to the notorious mass rapes by the Russians in eastern Germany and Berlin.
"Every town in southwest Germany could tell stories of rape by black soldiers", which was "no different to the Russian" practice of systematic rape, Mr Aly claimed.
He also described Britain and France's black and Asian soldiers as "unfree liberators", whose contribution to the defeat of Hitler ought therefore not be celebrated...
... Mr Aly, a respected but controversial figure, is best known for Hitler's Beneficiaries, which argues that the Nazis bought the loyalty of ordinary Germans by equitably redistributing loot plundered from Jews and conquered European territory
Read entire article at telegraph.co.uk
He also dismissed their contribution to defeating the Nazis on the grounds that they were forced to fight.
Mr Aly, the author of the controversial Hitler's Beneficiaries, made the remarks during a press conference at "The Third World in the Second World War", a Berlin exhibition aimed at recognising the role of thousands of Africans and Asians in defeating Nazism.
Though he was invited to speak, Mr Aly dismissed what he called a "politically correct" version of history and argued that, in fact, people from colonised countries had a "parallel interest" with the Nazis in defeating imperial nations such as Britain and France.
He compared the behaviour of Britain and France's black soldiers to the notorious mass rapes by the Russians in eastern Germany and Berlin.
"Every town in southwest Germany could tell stories of rape by black soldiers", which was "no different to the Russian" practice of systematic rape, Mr Aly claimed.
He also described Britain and France's black and Asian soldiers as "unfree liberators", whose contribution to the defeat of Hitler ought therefore not be celebrated...
... Mr Aly, a respected but controversial figure, is best known for Hitler's Beneficiaries, which argues that the Nazis bought the loyalty of ordinary Germans by equitably redistributing loot plundered from Jews and conquered European territory