Editing Operation Barbarossa (section)

====Sexual violence====
{{see also|Wartime sexual violence#World War II|War crimes of the Wehrmacht}}
Rape was a widespread phenomenon in the East as German soldiers regularly committed violent sexual acts against Soviet women.{{sfn|Mühlhäuser|2010|p=74}} Whole units were occasionally involved in the crime with upwards of one-third of the instances being [[gang rape]].{{sfn|Shepherd|2016|p=285}} Historian [[Hannes Heer]] relates that in the world of the eastern front, where the German army equated Russia with Communism, everything was "fair game"; thus, rape went unreported unless entire units were involved.{{sfn|Heer|2000|p=110}} Such instances of sexual violence proved part of a wider pattern of racial and gendered terror. Jewish women and girls, in particular, were subject to rape and other abuses by Wehrmacht, SS, police units, and occupation authorities. These crimes were rarely punished, creating a permissive environment where sexual violence became a normalized element of genocidal operations. Historian Regina Mühlhäuser's findings underscore the systematic nature of these crimes and the complicity of regular soldiers.{{sfn|Mühlhäuser|2014|pp=133–137}}

Frequently in the case of Jewish women, they were murdered immediately after acts of sexual violence.{{sfn|Mühlhäuser|2010|p=134}} Historian Birgit Beck emphasizes that military decrees, which served to authorise wholesale brutality on many levels, essentially destroyed the basis for any prosecution of sexual offenses committed by German soldiers in the East.{{sfn|Beck|2004|p=327}} She also contends that detection of such instances was limited by the fact that sexual violence was often inflicted in the context of [[billet]]s in civilian housing.{{sfn|Beck|2004|p=328}}