It's not that the idea of rape as a weapon of war is implausible.
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian, Polish and most of all German
women were raped by Red Army soldiers as they advanced through eastern
Europe in 1944/45. The Japanese army raped its way across Korea. The
Americans, in their turn, raped a multitude of women after taking
Japan.
Does it mean, Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian, Polish and [majority of all] German women were raped by Red Army soldiers…
Or, Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian, Polish and [especially] German women were raped by Red Army soldiers…
And, will adding a comma after "most of all" change its meaning in the above context?
Best Answer
Your second option is the correct one: most of all means ‘especially’ in that sentence. You can place a comma after it only if you place one before too:
The basic sentence is:
You cannot split and German with a single comma; but you can insert a parenthetical comment between commas:
The pair of commas does not change the meaning, but it may improve readability, helping the parenthetical comment to stand out. In speech you do that with slight pauses before and after most of all.
If the author meant to say the Red Army raped most German women, most German, not most of all German would be the more natural wording. But putting that aside I think the sentence should then be:
It’s not very elegant, but the last item of a list is usually preceded by and, not a comma. So if hundreds of thousands only refers to Ukrainian and Polish women, it should hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian and Polish, not hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian, Polish.