On May 9, 1945, Germany signed the Instrument of Surrender, declaring the victory of World War II over. Three months later, Emperor Hirohito of Japan surrendered unconditionally, and World War II came to an end.
It was the worst war in history, with about 70 million people killed, 1300 million people were injured. After the war, both Germany and the Soviet Union drafted female soldiers into the army en masse.
According to incomplete statistics, between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany conscripted nearly 500,000 women to take charge of some support work. However, with Germany announcing its unconditional surrender, what happened to these 500,000 German female soldiers?
Hitler promulgated the National Defense Act in May 1935, which made military service compulsory for German men, and every German man and woman was obliged to serve their country in wartime.
This meant that whenever there was a war in Germany, both men and women had to go to the front. Such a provision may seem vague, but according to historians, Hitler lived through World War I and knew that if Germany wanted to win in future wars, it would have to mobilize all available male soldiers and have women on combat duty in order to free up more male soldiers for front-line combat.
Hitler's strategy proved to be correct, and with the German invasion of Poland and the outbreak of World War II, eligible German women entered the non-front-line army as "Wehrmacht female assistants".
Non-frontline military work includes operating searchlights, anti-aircraft and guides, etc., to guide anti-aircraft artillery to enemy aircraft targets and reduce the pressure on male soldiers. Therefore, Hitler's Wehrmath Act not only made German men obliged to serve in the military, but also required that every German man and woman have an obligation to serve their country in wartime, in order to mobilize all available resources to ensure German victory in future wars.
During the Second World War, Germany had a relatively smooth early stage of the war, and there was no large-scale conscription of women into the army. But after 1943, the German army was losing the war on the Eastern Front, and in order to make up for the loss of soldiers on the front line, the entire population in Germany was mobilized, even including 60-year-olds and teenage children.
All human resources need to be turned to the war effort, freeing up a large number of logistical positions that can be replaced by women and students. Immediately after the Soviet Union's all-out counterattack, the war spread to Germany, and the task of "female assistant to the Wehrmacht" became heavier and heavier.
According to the recollections of Antje Chastellö, Germany's "female assistant to the Wehrmacht" in World War II, she was drafted into the Wehrmacht Navy garrison in April 1943, and her main task was to support coastal anti-aircraft artillery units.
At that time, Anjie had just turned 18 years old, and she was mainly responsible for guiding enemy targets for 10-centimeter anti-aircraft guns on the battlefield. In the past, it was all done by male soldiers, so the female members who succeeded them had to be physically fit.
The Anjie was stationed off the coast of northwestern Germany, which was not the focus of the Allied air forces. Although Anjie often had the opportunity to return home during his service, the fate of those female soldiers who fought on the Eastern Front was completely different from Anjie.
Between October 1944 and March 1945, these "Wehrmacht women" were responsible for 350 searchlight companies, and 500,000 women were directly involved in military activities, or almost 20 percent of Germany's remaining strength.
In general, during the Second World War, Germany mobilized all its human resources to turn to the war in order to make up for the losses of soldiers on the front line, and women also participated in the war, and many of them even took on the task of directly intervening in military activities.
In early 1945, Axmann, head of the German Youth Bureau, proposed a "women's combat battalion", but this proposal was ultimately rejected by the German military on the grounds that the Germans believed that women were not biologically fit for combat.
However, the implementation of the German social welfare system has made it possible for women to join the army. At that time, all years of service to the state were included in the effective length of service in the pension.
This has led some women to choose to join the military semi-voluntarily and semi-compulsorily in order to supplement their families, and their service time will also be counted towards retirement age. At the same time, they receive allowances and salaries from the military.
Although there were no female soldiers in the German army throughout World War II, these women, known as "Wehrmacht female assistants", played an important role in the army.
In the smoke of World War II, some women did not wear military uniforms, and their names were "Wehrmacht Female Assistants", which included "SS Female Assistants". But it should be noted that these "SS female assistants" are not the "female SS soldiers" that everyone misunderstands.
After the war, the Soviet Union considered these women to be resources for the war effort and should have allowed them to continue working to pay war reparations. The British, however, advocated that they be sent home, as the female assistants did not cause substantial trouble to the Allies.
The USSR finally agreed with the British, and as a result, the "female assistants of the Wehrmacht" were mostly not pursued too much, and many took off their ** and went back to living an ordinary life.
However, it is difficult for them to get rid of the colored glasses that people have about them, habitually associating them with specific wartime environments, and even suspecting that they have an ulterior relationship with male soldiers.
As a result, the lives of these female soldiers after their retirement became silent and lonely, with no gatherings and no corresponding organization. This also makes these "female assistants of the Wehrmacht" rarely mentioned in many historical books and literary works related to World War II.
Despite this, the Soviet Union also recruited 800,000 female soldiers in World War II, not only for communications and medical work, but also for many to fight on the front lines. For example, Pavlyuchenko, the prototype of the female sniper in the movie "The Death Company", is the legendary heroine who killed 309 German soldiers in World War II.
The argument that Germany is more human rights-oriented than the Soviet Union is clearly wrong because German women did not fight on the front lines in World War II, and that Soviet women needed to go to the front in the same way as male soldiers.
In the context of the war, both men and women could be drawn into the war. The heroic killing of Soviet female soldiers is in itself something to be commended. And Nazi Germany's attempt to dominate the world and encourage domestic women to join the army should be spurned.