Aimee Dupre had always kept silent about the rape of her mother by two American soldiers after the Normandy landings in June 1944. But 80 years after the brutal assault, she finally felt it was time to speak out.

艾米·杜普雷一直对1944年6月诺曼底登陆后她母亲被两名美国士兵强奸一事保持沉默。但在那场残酷的袭击发生80年后，她终于觉得是时候说出来了。

Nearly a million US, British, Canadian and French soldiers landed on the Normandy coast in the weeks after D-Day in an operation that was to herald the end of Nazi Germany's grip on Europe.

在诺曼底登陆日之后的几周内，近100万美国、英国、加拿大和法国士兵登陆诺曼底海岸，这次行动预示着纳粹德国对欧洲控制的终结。

Aimee was 19, living in Montours, a village in Brittany, and delighted to see the "liberators" arrive, as was everybody around her.

艾梅当时19岁，住在布列塔尼的蒙图尔村，她很高兴看到“解放者”的到来，就像她周围的人一样。

But then her joy evaporated. On the evening of August 10, two US soldiers -- often called GIs -- arrived at the family's farm.

但随后她的喜悦消失了。8月10日晚上，两名美国大兵(通常被称为GI)来到了这家人的农场。

"They were drunk and they wanted a woman," Aimee, now 99, told AFP, producing a letter that her mother, also called Aimee, wrote "so nothing is forgotten".

“他们喝醉了，他们想要女人，”现年99岁的艾梅告诉法新社，并出示了她的母亲(也叫艾梅)写的一封信，“所以什么都没有忘记”。

In her neat handwriting, Aimee Helaudais Honore described the events of that night. How the soldiers fired their guns in the direction of her husband, ripping holes in his cap, and how they menacingly approached her daughter Aimee.

Aimee Helaudais Honore用她整洁的笔迹描述了那天晚上发生的事情。士兵们如何朝她丈夫的方向开枪，把他的帽子射穿了几个洞，以及他们如何威胁性的走近她的女儿艾米。

To protect her daughter, she agreed to leave the house with the GIs, she wrote. "They took me to a field and took turns raping me, four times each."

她写道，为了保护女儿，她同意和美国大兵一起离开家。“他们把我带到一块地里，轮流强奸我，每人强奸了我四次。”

Aimee's voice broke as she read from the letter. "Oh mother, how you suffered, and me too, I think about this every day," she said.

艾米读信的时候声音哽咽了。“哦，妈妈，你多么痛苦，我也是，我每天都在想这件事，”她说。

"My mother sacrificed herself to protect me," she said. "While they raped her in the night, we waited, not knowing whether she would come back alive or whether they would shoot her dead."

“我母亲牺牲了自己来保护我，”她说。“当他们在夜里强奸她的时候，我们等待着，不知道她是会活着回来，还是会被他们开枪打死。”

The events of that night were not isolated. In October 1944, after the battle for Normandy was won, US military authorities put 152 soldiers on trial for raping French women.

那天晚上发生的事件并不是孤立的。1944年10月，诺曼底战役胜利后，美国军事当局以强奸法国妇女的罪名审判了152名士兵。
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In truth, hundreds or even thousands of rapes between 1944 and the departure of the GIs in 1946 went unreported, said American historian Mary Louise Roberts, one of only a handful to research what she called "a taboo" of World War II.

美国历史学家玛丽·路易斯·罗伯茨说，事实上，在1944年至1946年美国大兵撤离期间，有数百甚至数千起强奸案没有被报道。罗伯茨是为数不多的研究二战“禁忌”的人之一。

"Many women decided to remain silent," she said. "There was the shame, as often with rape."

“许多女性决定保持沉默，”她说。“这是一种耻辱，在强奸案中很常见。”

She said the stark contrast of their experience with the joy felt everywhere over the American victory made it especially hard to speak up.

她说，他们的经历与各地对美国战胜的喜悦形成鲜明对比，这让他们尤其难以开口。

'Easy to get'

“唾手可得”
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Roberts also blames the army leadership who, she said, promised soldiers a country with women that were "easy to get" to add to their motivation to

罗伯茨还指责美军领导层，她说，他们向士兵们承诺一个女性“唾手可得”的国家，以增加他们的战斗积极性。

The US Army newspaper Stars and Stripes was full of pictures showing French women kissing victorious Americans.

美国陆军报纸《星条旗报》刊登了很多法国女人亲吻胜利的美国人的照片。

"Here's What We're Fighting For," read a headline on September 9, 1944, alongside a picture of cheering French women and the caption: "The French are nuts about the Yanks."

1944年9月9日，一则新闻标题写道:“这就是我们为之战斗的东西”，旁边是一张欢呼的法国妇女的照片，标题是:“法国人对美国佬很着迷。”

The incentive of sex "was to motivate American soldiers", Roberts said.

罗伯茨说，这种性刺激“是为了激励美国士兵”。

"Sex, and I mean prostitution and rape, was a way for Americans to show domination over France, dominating French men, as they had been unable to protect their country and their women from the Germans," she added.

“性，我指的是卖淫和强奸，是美国人对法国、对法国男人展示统治的一种方式，因为后者无法保护自己的国家和女人不受德国人的侵害，”她补充说。

In Plabennec, near Brest on the westernmost tip of Britanny, Jeanne Pengam, nee Tournellec, remembers "as if it was yesterday" how her sister Catherine was raped and their father murdered by a GI.

在布列塔尼最西端布雷斯特附近的普拉本内克，珍妮·彭甘(姓Tournellec)还记得她的妹妹凯瑟琳(被大兵强奸、父亲被杀害的经历，“仿佛就发生在昨天”。

"The black American wanted to rape my older sister. My father stood in his way and he shot him dead. The guy managed to break down the door and enter the house," 89-year-old Jeanne told AFP.

“那个美国黑人想强奸我姐姐。我父亲挡了他的路，他开枪打死了他。这家伙最终破门而入，”89岁的珍妮告诉法新社。

Nine at the time, she ran to a nearby US garrison to alx them.

当时9岁，她跑到附近的美国驻军那里提醒他们。
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"I told them he was German, but I was wrong. When they examined the bullets the next day, they immediately understood that he was American," she said.

“我告诉他们他是德国人，但我错了。第二天检查子弹时，他们立刻明白他是美国人。”
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Her sister Catherine kept the terrible secret "that poisoned her whole life" until shortly before her death, said one of her daughters, Jeannine Plassard.

她的一个女儿珍妮·普拉萨德说，她的妹妹凯瑟琳一直保守着这个“毒害她一生”的可怕秘密，直到她去世前不久。
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"Lying on her hospital bed she told me, 'I was raped during the war, during the Liberation,'" Plassard told AFP.

“她躺在病床上告诉我，‘我在战争期间被强奸了，在解放期间，’”普拉萨德告诉法新社。

Asked whether she ever told anybody, her mother replied: "Tell anybody? It was the Liberation, everybody was happy, I was not going to talk about something like this, that would have been cruel," she said.

当被问及她是否告诉过别人时，她的母亲回答说:“告诉任何人?那是解放日，每个人都很高兴，我不想谈论这样的事情，那太残忍了。”

French writer Louis Guilloux worked as a translator for US troops after the landings, an experience he described in his 1976 novel "OK Joe!", including the trials of GIs for rape in military courts.

法国作家路易斯·吉尤在登陆后担任美国军队的翻译，他在1976年的小说《好吧，乔!》中描述了这段经历，包括在军事法庭上对美国大兵的强奸审判。

"Those sentenced to death were almost all black," said Philippe Baron, who made a documentary about the book.

“被判处死刑的几乎都是黑人，”菲利普·巴伦说，他为这本书制作了一部纪录片。

'Shameful secret'

“不可告人的秘密”

Those found guilty, including the rapists of Aimee Helaudais Honore and Catherine Tournellec, were hanged publicly in French villages.

那些被判有罪的人，包括强奸Aimee Helaudais Honore和Catherine Tournellec的强奸犯，在法国的村庄被公开绞死。

"Behind the taboo surrounding rapes by the liberators, there was the shameful secret of a segregationist American army," said Baron.

巴伦说:“在围绕解放者强奸的禁忌背后，有一支奉行种族隔离主义的美国军队的可耻秘密。”

"Once a black soldier was brought to trial, he had practically no chance of acquittal," he said.

“一旦黑人士兵被送上法庭，他几乎没有机会被无罪释放，”他说。

This, said Roberts, allowed the military hierarchy to protect the reputation of white Americans by "scapegoating many African-American soldiers".

罗伯茨说，这使得军方等级通过“让许多非裔美国士兵充当替罪羊”来保护美国白人的声誉。

Of the 29 soldiers sentenced to death for rape in 1944 and 1945, 25 were black GIs, she said.

她说，在1944年和1945年因强奸被判处死刑的29名士兵中，有25名是黑人大兵。

Racial stereotypes on sexuality facilitated the condemnation of blacks for rape. White soldiers, meanwhile, often belonged to mobile units, making them harder to track down than their black comrades who were mostly stationary.

对性的种族刻板印象助长了对黑人强奸的谴责。与此同时，白人士兵通常属于机动部队，这使得他们比大多处于驻扎状态的黑人战友更难被追踪。

"If a French woman accused a white American soldier of rape, he could easily get away with it because he never stayed near the rape scene. The next morning, he was gone," Roberts said.

“如果一名法国妇女指控一名美国白人士兵强奸，他可以很容易地逃脱惩罚，因为他从来不会待在强奸现场附近。第二天早上，他就不见了。”罗伯茨说。

After her book "What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France" appeared in 2013, Roberts said the reaction in the US was so hostile that the police would have to regularly check on her.

在她的书《士兵做什么:二战法国的性与美国大兵》于2013年出版后，罗伯茨说，美国人对她的反应非常敌对，以至于警察不得不定期看望她。

"People were angry at my book because they didn't want to lose this ideal of the good war, of the good GI," she said. "Even if it means we have to keep on lying."

“人们对我的书很生气，因为他们不想失去这场美好的战争、美好的美国大兵的理想看法，”她说。“即使这意味着我们必须继续撒谎。”

AFP was unable to obtain any official comment from the US Department of Defense on the subject.

法新社无法从美国国防部获得有关该问题的任何官方评论。

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