Red Army rape statue removed in Gdansk
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
14.10.2013 08:53
An illegally installed statue of a Soviet soldier raping a pregnant woman has been removed in Gdansk, northern Poland.
Photo: Jerzy Szumczyk
“The artist was detained and released after questioning,” police spokesperson Aleksandra Siewert told Polish Radio.
“The matter will be taken up on Monday by the prosecutor's office,” she confirmed.
The statue, entitled Komm Frau (Come Here Woman) was installed on Gdansk's Avenue of Victory (Aleja Zwyciestwa) late on Saturday evening.
Artist Jerzy Szumczyk, a fifth year student at Gdansk's Academy of Fine Arts, told Polish Radio that he had read extensively on the subject of rape by the Red Army as it advanced across Eastern Europe towards Berlin from 1944-45.
Szumczyk claimed he “was unable to cope with it” and so created a statue to express his feelings.
Historians have estimated that over 1 million German women were raped by Soviet soldiers from 1944-45.
Prior to the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Gdansk was a free city (Danzig). Over 95 percent of the inhabitants were German.
The rape of Polish women was also commonplace (1944-47) during the Soviet liberation of Poland, although to a significantly lesser degree, with highest estimates at 100,000. (nh)