German military brothels in World War II

Brothels for members of the Wehrmacht and the SS

German soldiers entering a Soldatenbordell in Brest, France (1940). The building is a former synagogue.

Military brothels (German: Militärbordelle) were set up by Nazi Germany during World War II throughout much of occupied Europe for the use of Wehrmacht and SS soldiers.[1] These brothels were generally new creations, but in the west, they were sometimes expansions of pre-existing brothels and other buildings. Until 1942, there were around 500 military brothels of this kind in German-occupied Europe,[2] serving travelling soldiers and those withdrawn from the front.[3][4] According to records, a minimum of 34,140 European women were forced to serve as prostitutes during the German occupation of their own countries along with female prisoners of concentration camp brothels.[1] In many cases in Eastern Europe, teenage girls and women were kidnapped on the streets of occupied cities during German military and police round ups called łapanka in Polish or rafle in French.[3][4][5]

## Eastern Europe

[edit]

Further information: Nazi birthing centres for foreign workers

The Foreign Ministry of the Polish government-in-exile issued a document on May 3, 1941, describing the mass kidnapping raids conducted in Polish cities with the aim of capturing young women, as young as 15,[5] for sexual slavery at brothels run by the German military.[5] On top of that, Polish girls as young as 15 – classified as suitable for slave labor and shipped to Germany – were sexually exploited by German men.[5] In Brandenburg, two Polish Ostarbeiter teens who returned home to Kraków in advanced stage of pregnancy, reported to have been raped by German soldiers with such frequency that they were unable to perform any of the worker's designated labour.[5]

Łapanka, 1941 kidnapping raid in Warsaw's Żoliborz district. Selected young women were later forced into military brothels.

The Swiss Red Cross mission driver Franz Mawick wrote in 1942 from Warsaw about what he saw: "Uniformed Germans ... gaze fixedly at women and girls between the ages of 15 and 25. One of the soldiers pulls out a pocket flashlight and shines it on one of the women, straight into her eyes. The two women turn their pale faces to us, expressing weariness and resignation. The first one is about 30 years old. 'What is this old whore looking for around here?' – one of the three soldiers laughs. 'Bread, sir' – asks the woman. ... 'A kick in the ass you get, not bread' – answers the soldier. Owner of the flashlight directs the light again on the faces and bodies of girls. ... The youngest is maybe 15 years old ... They open her coat and start groping her with their lustfull paws. 'This one is ideal for bed' – he says."[5]

Conditions in brothels were brutal. The women were often raped by up to 32 men per day; the visiting soldiers were allocated 15 minutes each at a nominal cost of 3 Reichsmarks per "session" between the hours of 2 p.m. and 8.30 p.m.[5] Approximately 35,000 Jewish women and girls were forced to work in brothels, with each woman being made to service seven or more men per day.[6] Those who were visibly pregnant were sometimes released, but would not go back to their families, so as not to shame them.[5]

In the Soviet Union, women were kidnapped by German forces for prostitution as well; one report by International Military Tribunal writes: "in the city of Smolensk the German Command opened a brothel for officers in one of the hotels into which hundreds of women and girls were driven; they were mercilessly dragged down the street by their arms and hair."[7]

Yugoslavian women were reportedly placed into brothels, and a 1941 document from the Osijek archives discussing plans for multiple brothels in Osijek, as well as the required sanitation procedures, has also been found.[8]

### Causes

[edit]

Although it contradicted the ideals of Aryan "moral strength and purity", the brothels were justified as acceptable sexual outlets for Nazi soldiers. Nazi beliefs incorporated a strict racial hierarchy with a deep fear of racial mixing, which played a major role in shaping prostitution politics. These were influenced by not only their racial views but also through political, social, and military objectives.[9] That being said, The Nazis believed that military brothels were a better alternative than having sexual relations with local foreign women and forced laborers. They also believed that interacting with prostitutes was no different than interacting with naked female prisoners in Nazi camps.[10]

### Escape attempts

[edit]

According to an exposé by the Polish Wprost magazine,[5] the women forced into sexual slavery by the Nazi German authorities sometimes tried to escape. In one such instance, a group of Polish and Soviet women imprisoned at a German military brothel located in Norway escaped in 1941. They found refuge in the local Lutheran Church which offered them asylum.[5]

## Occupied France

[edit]

The Wehrmacht was able to establish a thoroughly bureaucratic system of around 100 new brothels already before 1942, based on an existing system of government-controlled ones – wrote Inse Meinen.[11] The soldiers were given official visitation cards issued by Oberkommando des Heeres and were prohibited from engaging in sexual contact with other French women. In September 1941, Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch suggested that weekly visits for all younger soldiers be considered mandatory to prevent "sexual excesses" among them. The prostitutes had a scheduled medical check-up to slow the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.[12]

## Forced prostitution

[edit]

The Germans had to enforce stricter regulations to make sure soldiers had access to a sex life.[6] A 1977 German report by a neoconservative revisionist historian from Baden-Württemberg,[13] Franz W. Seidler, contended that the foreign women who were made to register for the German military brothels had been prostitutes already before the war.[14][15] Ruth Seifert, professor of sociology at the University of Applied Sciences in Regensburg, on the other hand, maintained that women were forced to work in these brothels by their German captors, as shown during the Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg in 1946, further confirmed by the 1961 book published by Raul Hilberg.[16]

There were some prostitutes primarily in Western Europe who elected to work in the brothels, rather than to be sent to a concentration camp.[17][18]

## See also

[edit]

* Sexual slavery
* Wartime sexual violence
* Forced prostitution
* Roundup (history) (Łapanka)
* Comfort women (Japan) and Wianbu (South Korea)
* German war crimes
* House of Dolls novella about the Joy Division (WWII)
* Nazi war crimes in occupied Poland during World War II
* German mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war
* Recreation and Amusement Association (Japan)
* Sexual slavery by Germany during World War II
* War rape by German forces during World War II
* Rape during the occupation of Germany
* Allied war crimes

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ a b Nanda Herbermann; Hester Baer; Elizabeth Roberts Baer (2000). The Blessed Abyss: Inmate #6582 in Ravensbruck Concentration Camp for Women. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. pp. 33–34\. ISBN 978-0-8143-2920-7. Retrieved January 12, 2011 - via Google Books. (in English)
2. ^ Helge Sander, Barbara Johr (eds.), Befreier und Befreite - Krieg - Vergewaltigung - Kinder, Frankfurt am Main 2005
3. ^ a b Leon Yudkin (1993). "Narrative Perspectives on Holocaust Literature". In Leon Yudkin (ed.). Hebrew Literature in the Wake of the Holocaust. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. pp. 13–32. ISBN 978-0-8386-3499-8.
4. ^ a b Lenten, Ronit (2000). Israel and the Daughters of the Shoah: Reoccupying the Territories of Silence. Berghahn Books. pp. 33–34\. ISBN 978-1-57181-775-4.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cezary Gmyz, Wprost magazine (Number 17/18/2007), "Seksualne Niewolnice III Rzeszy". 2007-04-22. Archived from the original on May 13, 2008. Retrieved 2016-02-14. (Sex slaves of the Third Reich), pp. 1–3 via Internet Archive (in Polish). Retrieved 30 October 2015.
6. ^ a b Burds, Jeffrey (2009). "Sexual Violence in Europe in World War II, 1939—1945". Politics & Society. 37 (1): 35–73\. doi:10.1177/1059601108329751. ISSN 0032-3292.
7. ^ War crimes against women: prosecution in international war crimes tribunals by Kelly Dawn Askin, page 72. ISBN 9041104860.
8. ^ "Zaboravljena povijest seksualnih zločina u Drugom svjetskom ratu". October 24, 2019.
9. ^ Röger, Maren; Debruyne, Emmanuel (2016). "From Control to Terror: German Prostitution Policies in Eastern and Western European Territories during both World Wars". Gender & History. 28 (3): 687–708\. doi:10.1111/1468-0424.12245. ISSN 1468-0424.
10. ^ Chalmers, Beverley (2015). "Jewish women's sexual behaviour and sexualized abuse during the Nazi era". The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality. 24 (2): 184–196\. doi:10.3138/cjhs.242-A10 - via University of Toronto Press.
11. ^ Inse Meinen, Wehrmacht und Prostitution in besetzten Frankreich. (in German)
12. ^ Joanna Ostrowska, Marcin Zaremba, "Do burdelu, marsz!" (Marching on to the brothel). Archived 2019-05-18 at the Wayback Machine Polityka magazine, No 22 (2707), May 30, 2009; pp. 70-72. (in Polish)
13. ^ Richard A. Etlin (2002-10-15). Art, Culture, and Media Under the Third Reich. University of Chicago Press. p. 254\. ISBN 978-0226220871.
14. ^ Christl Wickert: Tabu Lagerbordell (Camp Bordello Taboo), in: Eschebach/Jacobeit/Wenk: Gedächtnis und Geschlecht (Memory and Gender), 2002, p. 54
15. ^ Franz W. Seidler, "Prostitution, Homosexualität, Selbstverstümmelung - Probleme der deutschen Sanitätsführung 1939-1945 (Prostitution, Homosexuality, Masturbation - Problems of the German Medical Service, 1939-1945); 1977, p. 154
16. ^ Ruth Seifert. "War and Rape. Analytical Approaches1". Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Archived from the original on 2008-05-29. Retrieved January 13, 2011 - via Internet Archive. "International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg 1946; Trial of the Major War Criminals, testimony of Jan. 31, 1946, Vol. 6:404ff; Vol. 7:456f; see also Hilberg 1961:126ff; Brownmiller 1978:55ff."
17. ^ Milano, Vincent. "Wehrmacht Brothels / der Erste Zug". www.dererstezug.com. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
18. ^ Röger, Maren (2014). "The Sexual Policies and Sexual Realities of the German Occupiers in Poland in the Second World War". Contemporary European History. 23 (1): 1–21\. doi:10.1017/S0960777313000490. ISSN 0960-7773.

## References

[edit]

* Czarnorwski, Gabriele (1985). "Frauen – Staat – Medizin. Aspekte der Körperpolitik im Nationalsozialismus". In Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung und Praxis für Frauen e.V (ed.). Frauen zwischen Auslese und Ausmerze (in German). Eigenverlag des Vereins Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung und Praxis für Frauen.
* Gertjejanssen, Wendy Jo (2004). Victims, heroes, survivors : sexual violence on the Eastern Front during World War II (PhD). University of Minnesota.
* Heim, Susanne (30 April 2002). "Sexualität und Denunziation". Die Tageszeitung: taz (in German). p. 14.
* Meinen, Insa (2001). Wehrmacht und Prostitution während des zweiten Weltkriegs im besetzten Frankreich (in German). Edition Temmen. ISBN 978-3861087892.
* Paul, Christa (1994). Zwangsprostitution: staatlich errichtete Bordelle im Nationalsozialismus (in German). Edition Hentrich. ISBN 9783894681418.
* Plassmann, Max (1 June 2003). "Wehrmachtbordelle. Anmerkungen zu einem Quellenfund im Universitätsarchiv Düsseldorf". Militärgeschichtliche Zeitschrift (in German). 62 (1): 157–174\. doi:10.1524/mgzs.2003.62.1.157. S2CID 185332681.
* Seidler, Franz Wilhelm (1977). Prostitution, Homosexualität, Selbstverstümmelung : Probleme der deutschen Sanitätsführung 1939-1945 (in German). Vowinckel. ISBN 9783878791225.

* v
* t
* e

World War II

* Outline
* Battles
* Operations
* Leaders
* Allied
* Axis
* Commanders
* Casualties
* Conferences

General|

| Topics|

* Air warfare of World War II
* In Europe
* Blitzkrieg
* Comparative military ranks
* Cryptography
* Declarations of war
* Diplomacy
* Governments in exile
* Home front
* Australian
* United Kingdom
* United States
* Lend-Lease
* Manhattan Project
* British contribution
* Military awards
* Military equipment
* Military production
* Naval history
* Nazi plunder
* Opposition
* Technology
* Allied cooperation
* Mulberry harbour
* Total war
* Strategic bombing
* Puppet states
* Women
* Art and World War II
* Music in World War II
* Weather events during World War II

|

Theaters|

* Asia and Pacific
* China
* South-East Asia
* Pacific
* North and Central Pacific
* South-West Pacific
* Indian Ocean
* Europe
* Western Front
* Eastern Front
* Mediterranean and Middle East
* North Africa
* East Africa
* Italy
* West Africa
* Atlantic
* timeline
* Americas

Aftermath|

* Chinese Civil War
* Cold War
* Decolonization
* Division of Korea
* First Indochina War
* Expulsion of Germans
* Greek Civil War
* Indonesian National Revolution
* Keelhaul
* Marshall Plan
* Occupation of Germany
* Occupation of Japan
* Osoaviakhim
* Paperclip
* Soviet occupations
* Baltic
* Hungary
* Poland
* Romania
* Territorial changes of Germany
* Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany
* United Nations

War crimes|

* Allied war crimes
* Soviet war crimes
* Atrocities against prisoners of war
* British war crimes
* United States war crimes
* German war crimes
* forced labour
* Wehrmacht war crimes
* The Holocaust
* Aftermath
* Response
* Nuremberg trials
* Italian war crimes
* Japanese war crimes
* Nanjing Massacre
* Unit 731
* Prosecution
* Croatian war crimes
* Genocide of Serbs
* Persecution of Jews
* Romanian war crimes
* Sexual violence
* German military brothels
* Camp brothels
* Rape during the occupation of Germany / Japan / Poland / Manchuria
* Rape during the liberation of France / Serbia
* Sook Ching
* Comfort women
* Rape of Manila
* Marocchinate

Participants|

| Allies|

* Algeria
* Australia
* Belgium
* Brazil
* Bulgaria (from September 1944)
* Canada
* China
* Cuba
* Czechoslovakia
* Denmark
* Ethiopia
* Eswatini (formerly Swaziland)
* Finland (from September 1944)
* France
* Free France
* Greece
* India
* Italy (from September 1943)
* Liberia
* Luxembourg
* Mexico
* Netherlands
* Newfoundland
* New Zealand
* Norway
* Philippines
* Poland
* Romania (from August 1944)
* Sierra Leone
* South Africa
* Southern Rhodesia
* Soviet Union
* Tuva
* United Kingdom
* British Empire
* United States
* Puerto Rico
* Yugoslavia

|

Axis|

* Albania protectorate
* Bulgaria (until September 1944)
* State of Burma
* Republic of China (Wang Jingwei)
* Independent State of Croatia
* Finland (until September 1944)
* German Reich
* Hungary
* Azad Hind
* Iraq
* Italy (until September 1943)
* Italian Social Republic
* Empire of Japan
* Manchukuo
* Mengjiang
* Philippines
* Romania (until August 1944)
* Slovak Republic
* Thailand
* Vichy France
* Guangzhouwan
* French Indochina
* French Madagascar
* Syria–Lebanon
* French North Africa
* French West Africa
* Collaboration

Neutral|

* Afghanistan
* Andorra
* Bhutan
* Ireland
* Liechtenstein
* Monaco
* Portugal
* San Marino
* Saudi Arabia
* Spain
* Sweden
* Switzerland
* Tibet
* Turkey
* Vatican City
* Yemen

Resistance|

* Albania
* Austria
* Belgium
* Bulgaria
* Czech lands
* Denmark
* Dutch East Indies
* Estonia
* Ethiopia
* France
* Germany
* Greece
* Hong Kong
* Italy
* Japan
* Jews
* Korea
* Korean Liberation Army
* Korean Volunteer Army
* Latvia
* Lithuania
* Luxembourg
* Malaya
* Netherlands
* Northeast China
* Norway
* Philippines
* Poland
* Romania
* Thailand
* Soviet Union
* Slovakia
* Western Ukraine
* Vietnam
* Quốc dân Đảng
* Viet Minh
* Yugoslavia

POWs|

* Finnish prisoners in the Soviet Union
* German prisoners
* Soviet Union
* Azerbaijan
* United States
* United Kingdom
* Italian prisoners in the Soviet Union
* Japanese prisoners
* Soviet Union
* German atrocities against Polish POWs
* Soviet prisoners
* Finland
* atrocities by Germans
* Polish prisoners in the Soviet Union
* Romanian prisoners in the Soviet Union

Timeline|

| Prelude|

* Africa
* Second Italo-Ethiopian War
* Asia
* Second Sino-Japanese War
* Battles of Khalkhin Gol
* Europe
* Remilitarisation of the Rhineland
* Anschluss
* Munich Agreement
* Occupation of Czechoslovakia
* Operation Himmler
* Italian invasion of Albania

|

1939|

* Invasion of Poland
* Battle of the Atlantic
* Phoney War
* First Battle of Changsha
* Battle of South Guangxi
* Winter War
* 1939–1940 Winter Offensive

1940|

* Norwegian campaign
* German invasion of Denmark
* Battle of Zaoyang–Yichang
* German invasion of Luxembourg
* German invasion of the Netherlands
* German invasion of Belgium
* Battle of France
* Dunkirk evacuation
* Battle of Britain
* Battle of the Mediterranean
* North Africa
* West Africa
* British Somaliland
* Hundred Regiments Offensive
* Baltic states
* Eastern Romania
* Japanese invasion of French Indochina
* Italian invasion of Greece
* Compass

1941|

* Battle of South Henan
* Battle of Shanggao
* Invasion of Yugoslavia
* German invasion of Greece
* Battle of Crete
* Anglo-Iraqi War
* Battle of South Shanxi
* Syria–Lebanon campaign
* East African campaign
* Invasion of the Soviet Union
* Summer War
* Finland (Silver Fox)
* Lithuania
* Battle of Kiev
* Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran
* Second Battle of Changsha
* Siege of Leningrad
* Battle of Moscow
* Bombing of Gorky
* Siege of Sevastopol
* Attack on Pearl Harbor
* Japanese invasion of Thailand
* Fall of Hong Kong
* Fall of the Philippines
* Battle of Guam
* Battle of Wake Island
* Malayan campaign
* Battle of Borneo
* Japanese invasion of Burma
* Third Battle of Changsha
* Greek famine of 1941–1944

1942|

* Fall of Singapore
* Battle of the Java Sea
* St Nazaire Raid
* Battle of Christmas Island
* Battle of the Coral Sea
* Battle of Madagascar
* Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign
* Battle of Gazala
* Battle of Dutch Harbor
* Battle of Midway
* Aleutian Islands campaign
* Kiska
* Attu
* Blue
* First Battle of El Alamein
* Battle of Stalingrad
* Kokoda Track campaign
* Rzhev
* Jubilee
* Second Battle of El Alamein
* Guadalcanal campaign
* Torch
* Chinese famine of 1942–1943

1943|

* Black May
* Tunisian campaign
* Battle of West Hubei
* Battle of Attu
* Bombing of Gorky
* Battle of Kursk
* Allied invasion of Sicily
* Smolensk
* Solomon Islands campaign
* Cottage
* Battle of the Dnieper
* Allied invasion of Italy
* Armistice of Cassibile
* Burma
* Northern Burma and Western Yunnan
* Changde
* Second Battle of Kiev
* Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign
* Tarawa
* Makin
* Bengal famine of 1943

1944|

* Tempest
* Monte Cassino / Anzio
* Korsun–Cherkassy
* Narva
* U-Go
* Imphal
* Ichi-Go
* Kohima
* Overlord
* Neptune
* Mariana and Palau
* Bagration
* Western Ukraine
* Second Battle of Guam
* Tannenberg Line
* Warsaw Uprising
* Eastern Romania
* Liberation of Paris
* Dragoon
* Gothic Line
* Belgrade offensive
* Battle of San Marino
* Lapland
* Market Garden
* Estonia
* Crossbow
* Pointblank
* Vietnamese famine of 1944–1945
* Philippines (1944–1945)
* Leyte
* Syrmian Front
* Hungary
* Budapest
* Burma (1944–1945)
* Ardennes
* Bodenplatte
* Dutch famine of 1944–1945

1945|

* Vistula–Oder
* Battle of Manila
* Battle of Iwo Jima
* Indochina
* Vienna offensive
* Project Hula
* Western invasion of Germany
* Bratislava–Brno offensive
* Battle of Okinawa
* Second Guangxi campaign
* West Hunan
* Italy (Spring 1945)
* Battle of Berlin
* Prague offensive
* Surrender of Germany
* document
* Borneo
* Taipei
* Naval bombardment of Japan
* Manchuria
* Atomic bombings
* Debate
* South Sakhalin
* Kuril Islands
* Shumshu
* Surrender of Japan
* Potsdam Declaration
* document
* End of World War II in Asia

* World portal
* Bibliography
* Category

* v
* t
* e

Prostitution in Germany

Brothels|

* Artemis (brothel)
* Bordoll
* Drei-Farben-Haus
* Kettenhofweg 124/124a
* Pascha (brothel)
* Pension Clausewitz
* Salon Kitty

People|

| Activists|

* Ketty Guttmann

|

Brothel owners & madams|

* Hans Helmcke
* Marcus Prinz von Anhalt
* Molly Luft

Courtesans|

* Henriette Mendel

Prostitutes|

* Saint Afra
* Christiane F.
* Els von Eystett
* Elisabeth Gassner
* Hanna Lakomy
* Molly Luft
* Gerda Munsinger
* Domenica Niehoff
* Rosemarie Nitribitt
* Schwesta Ewa

Red-light districts|

* Antoniusstraße
* Bahnhofsviertel
* Bruchstraße
* Die Küste
* Flaßhofstraße
* Große Freiheit
* Helenenstraße
* Herbertstraße
* Im Winkel
* Linienstraße
* Punkendeich
* Rampenloch
* Reeperbahn
* Reitwallstraße
* Stahlstraße
* Vulkanstraße‎

Legislation|

* Prostitutes Protection Act
* Prostitution Act

Other|

* German military brothels in World War II
* Hydra e.V.
* Laufhaus
* Prostitution in East Germany
* Metropolis (painting)
* Sex drive-in
* Window prostitution

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template