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Germany - World War II -
Himmler Ran Camp Brothels to Boost Productivity, Says Historian
Interview by Catherine
Hickley
September 15,
2009 (Bloomberg) -- The brothels that Heinrich Himmler set up in
concentration camps form a bizarre, brutal and little- known chapter in the
history of the Third Reich. Robert Sommer says it’s time to recognize that the women
forced to work in them were victims of Nazi terror.
The exploitation of these
women has been glossed over for many reasons -- some political, some personal,
says Sommer, a bearded, 35-year-old historian who wrote his doctoral thesis on the subject. Now released as a book, “Das KZ-Bordell” (“The Concentration Camp Brothel”)
represents the first complete study of forced sex workers at camps including
Mauthausen, Buchenwald, Auschwitz,
Dachau
and Sachsenhausen, according to his publisher, Ferdinand Schoeningh.
“It’s a scandal that it
has taken such a long time” to gain serious attention, says Sommer, frowning
with concentration during an interview in Bloomberg’s
Himmler, Adolf Hitler’s
second-in-command and the head of the SS, ordered the brothels to be built in
10 concentration camps between 1942 and 1945, according to Sommer’s research.
About 200 women prisoners in all were compelled to work as prostitutes for
privileged prisoners.
Productivity Incentive
Himmler’s twisted goal:
to increase labor productivity in camp factories and quarries by introducing a
reward system that included visits to the camp brothel.
“The SS wanted to make a
lot of profit with the concentration camps, but it wasn’t working,” Sommer
says.
“Productivity was low
because the living conditions were very bad. Himmler looked at different
systems, such as Stalin’s
gulags, and noticed that there was an incentive system. Instead of copying
their system, he thought the best way was to use male sexuality, because he saw
it as a major driving force.”
The brothels were
reserved for a few prisoners, mostly Germans and Austrians. Sommer estimates
that fewer than 1 percent of inmates visited them. Jews were denied entry.
After the war, the abuse
that women endured in the brothels was hushed up, partly because they were
reluctant to speak out for fear of being stigmatized. Nor were they eligible
for postwar compensation, Sommer says. Foreigners among them were afraid of
being labeled collaborators when they returned home.
Political Considerations
The brothels also ran
afoul of the political aims of German authorities in those years, Sommer says.
In the West, schools focused on camp inmates as victims of Nazi murder; the
authorities hesitated to muddy that picture by discussing the access some
prisoners had to forced sex workers, he says. In the East, the camps were
portrayed as centers for anti-fascist resistance; the Communist regime hardly
wanted it known that some resistance fighters used brothels, he says.
The women were recruited
by force from Ravensbrueck
concentration camp. Most were Germans, imprisoned for being “asocial,” a Nazi
term that could mean they were prostitutes, alcoholics, or simply from deprived
family backgrounds, Sommer says. Many had been forcibly sterilized before their
imprisonment. Others were Poles, Russians and Ukrainians. None were Jewish;
some were political prisoners.
When they left for the
brothels, they were told they would only be there for six months. All were
forced to stay longer.
“They tried to make it
look like it was voluntary,” Sommer says. Yet the brothels also offered better
conditions than those prevailing elsewhere in the camps.
Most Survived
“Most of the women
survived,” he says. “The food was much better than for regular prisoners. The
women were not permanently beaten and they could work indoors, which was very
important in winter, when many women prisoners died of exposure. Male prisoners
gave them gifts of food.”
Many of the male visitors
weren’t interested in or capable of having sex, Sommer’s research shows. The
women often took on a consolatory role, talking and listening to fellow
prisoners. In some cases, inmates even fell in love, risking their lives to be
with the forced sex workers at unauthorized times. Jealousies erupted when more
than one prisoner fell for the same woman.
Sommer has also worked on
a traveling exhibition about the brothels. He has combed archives, visited the
camps, read transcripts of previous interviews and spoken to former prisoners.
He was unable to speak to any of the women, and says his research and
recognition of the women’s exploitation has come too late.
“I don’t know of one who
is still alive,” he says.
“Das KZ-Bordell” is
published by Ferdinand Schoeningh (445 pages, 38 euros).
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