French Women Speak Out About Rapes by US Soldiers During WW II
Aimee Dupre, now 99, has finally broken her silence about the brutal rape of her mother by two American soldiers after the Normandy landings in June 1944. The assault, which took place 80 years ago, left a lasting impact on her family.
Nearly a million US, British, Canadian, and French soldiers landed on the Normandy coast in the weeks following D-Day, marking the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany’s grip on Europe. However, for many French women like Aimee’s mother, the arrival of the “liberators” brought only pain and suffering.
In a letter written by Aimee’s mother, she described how the soldiers arrived at their farm, drunk and demanding a woman. To protect her daughter, she agreed to leave the house with the soldiers, who then took turns raping her multiple times in a field.
The events of that night were not isolated incidents. In October 1944, after the battle for Normandy was won, 152 US soldiers were put on trial for raping French women. However, many cases went unreported, with historian Mary Louise Roberts estimating that hundreds or even thousands of rapes occurred between 1944 and 1946.
Roberts attributes the prevalence of rape to the army leadership’s promise of easy access to women as a motivation for soldiers to fight. The US Army newspaper Stars and Stripes even published articles promoting the idea that French women were “easy to get” as a reward for American soldiers.
Despite the taboo surrounding the topic, French women like Aimee Dupre are now speaking out about the atrocities they endured during World War II. The legacy of these crimes continues to haunt survivors and their families, shedding light on a dark chapter in history that has long been overlooked.