Kästle Van Der Meer, Department of Gender Studies March 6, 2019
This research was supervised by Dr. Laura Parisi and supported by the Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Award, University of Victoria
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My work is based on an analysis of survivor testimony sourced from the University of Southern California’s
Shoah Foundation Institute Visual History Archive. Much
of my research builds on the work of feminist researchers specializing in the field of sexualized violence during the Holocaust, as well as the work of leading historians studying concentration camp brothels.
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Between 1942 and 1945, the Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS) established 10 brothels,
intended for prisoner use only, within select concentration camps.
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My work explores the Nazis’ reasons for establishing camp brothels and determines whether the brothels succeeded in serving Nazi interests. In my analysis, I investigate the tactics used by the SS to recruit women for the brothels as well as the reactions of male prisoners to the establishment of the brothels.
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A portion of my paper focuses on how and why camp brothels have been
excluded from Holocaust historiography and the effect this has had on survivors. In my analysis, I investigate how this neglect reflects a larger pattern in which stories of sexualized violence against both men and women, particularly in contexts of war, have been largely excluded from the historical record.
“IT SOUNDS LIKE TOTAL FICTION:” AN INVESTIGATION INTO HOW AND WHY THE NAZI
REGIME USED BROTHELS TO CONTROL INMATES WITHIN ITS CONCENTRATION CAMPS
6. WERE THE BROTHELS EFFECTIVE?
7. REFERENCES
5.
HOW
?
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
CONTACT
3. WHY IS THIS TOPIC RELEVANT?
2. METHODOLOGY
1. INTRODUCTION
4. WHY BROTHELS?
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Brothels were established in select camps in order to provide an incentive for male prisoners to work harder and reach work quotas during a period when prisoner productivity was extremely low due to meagre food rations and intense physical labour within concentration camps.
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SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler believed that providing male prisoners with work incentives in the form of brothel visits would increase productivity among prisoners.
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Himmler also hoped the brothels would serve as a conversion tool for homosexual
prisoners. Himmler encouraged the SS to choose lesbian inmates to serve in the
brothels so they would become sexually interested in men. The SS also forced homosexual men to visit the brothels in hopes that they would realize the “pleasures” of heterosexual sex.
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Research on the camp brothels is very undeveloped. For decades, both academics
and the general public placed little value on the experiences of those forced to work in the brothels. As a result, aside from Nazi records, there is little information concerning the brothels.
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Due to widespread stigma regarding sexualized violence and sex work, many survivors felt they could not speak about their experiences in the camp brothels. They were also not given a space in which to do so until decades after the war.
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Sexualized violence against women has been regarded as an unfortunate but unavoidable part of war for centuries. Studying the ways in which women
experience sexualized violence in contexts of war and genocide can help us recognize situations in which these crimes are likely to occur and thus assist in the prevention of future atrocities.
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Prisoners were given Prämienschein (bonus vouchers) in exchange for hard work. These vouchers acted as camp money and could be exchanged for cigarettes, extra food rations, or a visit to the brothel, among other privileges.
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However, only certain men were permitted access to the brothels. Aryan prisoners were allowed visits, but Jews and Soviet prisoners of war were forbidden.
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The brothels were staffed with women from either Auschwitz-Birkenau or the female concentration camp of Ravensbrück. These women were coerced into working the
brothels; in addition to the false promise of release from the camp after six months,
they were guaranteed a reprieve from intense physical labour, as well as sanitary living conditions and better food, in exchange for working in the brothels. For most women, choosing the brothel over work in the fields or construction commandos meant choosing life over death.
‣ Ultimately, no. As the war carried on, food
rations diminished, camp conditions became increasingly unsanitary, and violence against inmates increased, causing prisoner
productivity to decline even further. Had the SS been logical in its attempts to increase productivity, it would have improved camp working and living conditions for all inmates instead of providing a few prisoners with superficial incentives to work harder.
‣ Additionally, only a select number of
privileged prisoners were permitted access to the brothels; not nearly enough to significantly affect camp productivity rates.
‣ Unsurprisingly, Himmler’s attempts to convert
homosexual prisoners by use of the brothel system failed. Homosexual survivors have
stated that rather than “curing” gay inmates as Himmler had hoped, forced brothel visits reinforced gay men’s homosexuality.
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Reidar Dittmann, interview by Mary Koppel. 3 October 1999, interview 50467, segment 127. Visual History Archive,USC Shoah Foundation. Accessed 9 February 2019. http://vhaonline.usc.edu/viewingPage?testimonyID=53311&returnIndex=0.
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Sommer, Robert. Das KZ-Bordell: Sexuelle Zwangsarbeit in nationalsozialistischen
Konzentrationslagern. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2009.
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Sommer, Robert. “Camp Brothels: Forced Sex Labour in Nazi Concentration Camps.” In Brutality and Desire: War and Sexuality in Europe’s Twentieth Century, edited by Dagmar Herzog, 168-96. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. https:// link-springer-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/chapter/10.1057/9780230234291_7
(accessed 24 February 2019).
I would like to sincerely thank Dr. Laura Parisi, Chair of the Department of Gender Studies, for her support in supervising this research project. This project was created with respect to the Lkwungen-speaking peoples on whose territory UVic exists, as well as the Songhees, Esquimalt, and WSÁNEĆ peoples who continue to maintain historical relationships with the land.
This research was conducted and written by Kästle Van Der Meer. Available for contact through email at kastle.v@gmail.com.
A Prämienschein (bonus voucher) from Auschwitz-I (pictured below). Photo courtesy of Archive of the State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau, sourced from Robert Sommer’s “Camp Brothels: Forced Sex Labour in Nazi Concentration Camps” in Brutality and Desire: War and Sexuality in Europe’s Twentieth Century, edited by Dagmar Herzog, 171.
Block 24a in Auschwitz-I, in which the camp brothel was housed from 1943 to 1945. Photos courtesy of Robert Sommer sourced from “Camp Brothels: Forced Sex Labour in Nazi Concentration Camps” in Brutality and Desire: War and Sexuality in Europe’s Twentieth Century, edited by Dagmar Herzog, 177.
An information slip dated March 15, 1944 containing information for cervical smear samples taken from women of the Auschwitz-Monowitz camp brothel (pictured above right). Photo courtesy of Archive of the State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau, sourced from Robert Sommer’s “Camp Brothels: Forced Sex Labour in Nazi Concentration Camps” in Brutality and Desire: War and Sexuality in Europe’s Twentieth Century, edited by Dagmar Herzog, 179.
German historian Robert Sommer’s publication Das KZ-Bordell. Sommer is a leading historian in the study of camp brothels. Photo courtesy of Robert Sommer, Das KZ-Bordell: Sexuelle Zwangsarb eit in nationalsoz ialistischen Konzentrati onslagern, (Paderborn : Ferdinand Schöningh, 2009).
