>The survivor agreed to share her story with us. The conv

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>The survivor agreed to share her story with us. The conversation we had is translated from German
>Elsa Schmidt was just twelve years old in 1945 when the Soviet Union invaded her home city of Berlin
>"We'd been losing the war for a while before that. By that time, everyone knew it was coming." said the eighty-four year-old woman. "There were a lot of rumors about the Russians back then. I didn't believe most of them. I thought no one could really be that cruel. I suppose I have no place to talk, though. I was German."
>"I had two male friends, Hans and Alex. Hans was terrified of the rumors. One day Hans stole my bicycle and rode west to surrender to the Americans. He died in 1970 from a heart attack. Alex was like me and didn't believe the rumors. He died in 1945."
>"The Russians came in. If you were a man and resisted in any way, you died. If you obeyed, you might die anyway. Anything not nailed down was stolen. Anything nailed down and valuable they broke with a hammer and stole."
>"There was a field outside of Berlin. I don't remember its real name, but to we girls, it became the Rape Field. I saw girls as young as seven get raped. I saw women as old as eighty get raped. I got raped. The Russians were merciless."
>"One day Americans heard about the Rape Field and rode over in a car. I thought 'Finally! Rescuers!' They argued with the Russians for a bit, then the Russians fired into the air and the Americans got scared and drove away."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40985528