I've just finished reading Ken Follett's novel 'Winter of the World'. At the end there's a story arc following the fall of the nazi-empire in which a German woman is raped by several Soviet soldiers which results in a pregnancy.

Soviet forced did rape German woman at a quite large scale but you can't find really much information about this subject. Even today this subject seems -understandingly- controversial. So I have a couple of questions:

• Is there known at which scale those rapes occurred? How many percent (in the Soviet occupied zone) of the women fell victim?
• Until which year was raping prevalent? I can imagine that in the anarchy following the fall of the nazi-regime it's easier to rape, but not in a period when the Allies have consolidated their power.
• Did women who became pregnant often choose for an abortion? Is there an estimate how many 'bastard' children did result from the ratings?
• Were such 'bastard'children treated otherwise than legitimate children? Imagine you're a German soldier. You've fought many years. you've survived long and horrific battles. You've fought the Soviets, but then you come home and your wife gave birth to an illegitimate child.