MarketGerman camp brothels in World War II
Company Profile

German camp brothels in World War II

In World War II, Nazi Germany established brothels in the concentration camps to increase productivity among inmates. Their use was restricted to the more privileged Aryan prisoners, primarily the kapos, or "prisoner functionaries", and the criminal element. Jewish inmates were prohibited from using the brothels according to rules against racial mixing. In the end, the camp brothels did not produce any noticeable increase in the prisoners' productivity levels but, instead, created a market for coupons among the more privileged camp prisoners.

History and operation
The first camp brothel was established in Mauthausen/Gusen in 1942. After 30 June 1943, a camp brothel existed in Auschwitz in "Block 24", and from 15 July 1943, in Buchenwald. The one in Neuengamme was established in early 1944, Dachau's in May 1944, Mittelbau-Dora's in late summer, and Sachsenhausen's on 8 August 1944. There are conflicting dates for the camp brothel in Flossenbürg: one source claims summer 1943; another states it was not opened until 25 March 1944. that in some of the brothels, women might have had tattoos inscribed on their chests saying Feld-Hure ("field whore"). Some of them underwent forced sterilizations as well as forced abortions, often resulting in death. and members "of the Wehrmacht and SS were not allowed to visit" Sometimes the SS enticed women into serving in the brothels by promising them more humane treatment or reductions of their indefinite sentence. This caused anger or envy among other female inmates. Nina Michailovna, a Russian camp prisoner, reported: "When we found out that a girl in our block was chosen, we caught her and threw a blanket on her and beat her up so badly that she could hardly move. It wasn't clear if she would recover. They just wanted to have a better life and we punished them this way." == Homosexual prisoners and camp brothels ==
Homosexual prisoners and camp brothels
Heinrich Himmler also attempted to use these brothels to teach pink triangle prisoners "the joys of the opposite sex", i.e., as "therapy" for their homosexuality. Heger claims that Himmler directed that all gay prisoners were to make compulsory visits to the camp brothel once per week as a means of "curing" them of homosexuality. == Cultural references ==
Cultural references
The French documentary Night and Fog mentioned the existence of concentration camp brothels as early as 1955. This film, by director Alain Resnais, included extensive original footage of the camps and was based on interviews with survivors. German concentration camp brothels were also re-enacted in fictional Nazi exploitation films made in the 1970s such as Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS, Last Orgy of the Third Reich, Love Camp 7, SS Experiment Camp and Nazi Love Camp 27. Examples of Israeli literature on the subject include writer's Yehiel De-Nur's novel The House of Dolls (published using his concentration camp number Ka-Tsetnik 135633 as a pseudonym) and the Stalag fiction genre. The English rock band Joy Division was named after the camp brothels at Auschwitz as described in the 1953 novel House of Dolls. ==See also==
tickerdossier.comtickerdossier.substack.com