What do you see?

[Egorka]

@Rising_Sun

There’s a famous photo of a striking woman walking down a street in Italy in the ?1950s and getting various lascivious responses from the men, including from memory one bloke gripping his wedding tackle through his pants. It confirms prejudices about dagoes being sex mad chauvinists. The only problem is that in recent years it has been alleged, or maybe confirmed, that it was a set up and everyone was acting a part.

I actually somehow was always under impression that that impressive photo was indeed staged.

[imi]

berlin 1945
a soviet soldier testing the wheels hardness the bicycle of a german woman

[jungleguerilla]

Yes it’s berlin in 1945. But it’s a soviet soldier ‘asking’ a German woman out. As part of the Russian Rape of German Women.

[Ivan_K]

“Lady, a bike is the least of your problems now.”

[royal744]

@flamethrowerguy

That’s one way to see it. But -in contrary to modern days- people back then had something like moral courage, meaning they would have helped the woman if there’s no danger around. Who knows how many armed russian soldiers were standing behind the photograph.

If I remember the story correctly, my Mother was stopped along with many others at a German checkpoint in Holland. She had gone to “the country” hoping to barter for food. Bicycles were heaped in a huge pile and the Germans were going to put them in trucks and take them. There was a distraction and many rushed to grab the first bicycle in the pile they could get their hands on. My Mother said that she grabbed one that had a package in the basket, and rode off. The package turned out to contain a ham! The point of her story was the ham, not the bicycle. The last 6 months of war in Holland was hell. People were starving.

[flamethrowerguy]

@royal744

If I remember the story correctly, my Mother was stopped along with many others at a German checkpoint in Holland. She had gone to “the country” hoping to barter for food. Bicycles were heaped in a huge pile and the Germans were going to put them in trucks and take them.

It’s still something we’re hearing quite often when we are in the Netherlands (and we’re going there frequently): “Ik wil mijn fiets terug!” (I want my bycicle back)

[royal744]

@flamethrowerguy

It’s still something we’re hearing quite often when we are in the Netherlands (and we’re going there frequently): “Ik wil mijn fiets terug!” (I want my bycicle back)

Maar jij kan het nit hebben. om dat het is van mij, je rotte moff…

[royal744]

@flamethrowerguy

It’s still something we’re hearing quite often when we are in the Netherlands (and we’re going there frequently): “Ik wil mijn fiets terug!” (I want my bycicle back)

Maar jij kan het niet hebben, om dat het is van mij, je rotte moff…

[Wittmann]

A Russian Soldier trying to steal a bicycle , Berlin 1945. The picture was featured in LIFE Magazine, not sure which edition.

http://avanthard.wordpress.com/category/quotes/

http://www.anselm.edu/academic/history/hdubrulle/europe1945/2009/grading/food/fdwk02a.htm

http://www.navalofficer.com.au/berlin/

The Russian versions of the photo ensure that it was misunderstanding.

Russian Soldier Tries to Buy Bicycle from Woman in Berlin, 1945.

http://enews.md/blogs/view/3019/

From the site:
A misunderstanding ensues after a Russian soldier tries to buy a bucycle from a German woman in Berlin. After giving her money for the bike, the soldier assumes the deal has been struck. However the woman doesn’t seem convinced.

Life Magazine Picture:
http://forum.meta.ua/topic/p/7299584.html

Rape Links:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1080493/Stalins-army-rapists-The-brutal-war-crime-Russia-Germany-tried-ignore.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_during_the_occupation_of_Germany

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/may/01/news.features11

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html

http://www.salon.com/2005/08/18/berlin_5/

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768

Just a few from the hundreds on the internet, took me 3 minutes to find those on dialup.

[flamethrowerguy]

@royal744

Maar jij kan het niet hebben, om dat het is van mij, je rotte moff…

Moff, Pruus, Adi…you name it. I used to live in the Netherlands for about a decade, my first wife was Dutch, I heard it all from her family…not that I ever bothered too much, resp. “het kan mij niet schelen!”

[royal744]

Ik ook niet, flame…

[Chunky]

halfords trying to get more customers, by getting them to have their tyres checked:)

[DAMoeller60]

@Egorka

I do not think it is a movie. It is a real photo.
To my veig knowledge it is a RKKA soldier in Germany/Berlin???

I agree and I believe I’ve seen this photo bfore in one of my books concerning the fall / occupation of Berlin. I will check this weekend. More to follow.