Jewish women used in Wehrmacht brothels?

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michael mills
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Re: Jewish women used in Wehrmacht brothels?

#61

Post by michael mills » 28 Sep 2010, 02:27

The excerpt posted by Mick contains a core of historical truth, in that it identifies the origin of the concentration camp brothels in an initiative by Himmler to provide incentives for prisoners to work harder.

However, access was limited to the privileged prisoners, those who had the better jobs, and were not designated for "destruction through labour".

The excerpt is marred by the inclusion of some sensationalist items that are not based on hard evidence. The statement that officers and soldiers of the Wehrmacht and SS visited the camp brothels is almost certaionly untrue; entry to concentration camps was highly restricted, and German personnel could not simply walk into them to visit the brothels there. Furthermore, German personnel actually assigned to duty in the concentration camps were forbidden any sexual contact with prisoners, whether Jewish or non-Jewish, and were therefore not allowed to visit the brothels (although it is possible that on occasion German camp staff disobeyed the regulations).

Another major failing of the excerpt is its failure to investigate the selection of the women who staffed the camp brothels. It is correct when it states that the women came from the Ravenbrueck and Auschwitz-Birkenau camps, but it fails to mention that the women had been sent to those camps as "anti-socials", and that the "crime" for which they had been designated "anti-social" was illegal sex-work in Germany or in German-occupied territories. It is likely that the majority of the recruits for the camp brothels came from Ravensbrueck rather than from the women's camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau, since the inmates of the latter were nearly all Jewish women.

The excerpt also contains unsupported speculation, eg
prisoners went to work in camp brothels.........and conceivably further east as well-to brothels in the cities, field brothels, and perhaps other camp brothels.
It is extremely unlikely that female inmates recruited for sex-work in camp brothels were sent to places other than the concentration camp where they were employed. Concentration-camp prisoners did not leave the camps except to go to work in factories, quarries, mines etc. The camp brothels served the privileged prisoners, the ones who held positions in the camp administration, and therefore remained in the camp and did not perform hard physical labour.

Another unsupported anecdote:
Primo Levi writes that in Auschwitz an economic boom period occurred with the arrival of a fresh contingent of robust polish girls in place of the old inmates we can probably guess that the Germans murdered them.
The use of the word "guess" is entirely apt. Being a Jew, Primo Levi did not have access to the camp brothel at Auschwitz, which was reserved for privileged non-Jewish prisoners, and would not have had first-hand experience of how they were run. Most probably he was just repeating camp scuttlebutt, or even exercising his own imagination.

The problem with this sort of topic is that, like anything involving sexuality, it is subject to male fantasy, to the extent where the truth is difficult to extract from a mass of pornographic imagination. Another problem is that attempts at rational analysis may be distorted by a feminist ideological agenda.

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Re: Jewish women used in Wehrmacht brothels?

#62

Post by murx » 28 Sep 2010, 03:03

From the SS Judge Konrad Morgen investigating fraud in Ausschwitz: "I wanted to meet the SS people and went to the SS guardroom in Birkenau. There I got my first real shock. While guardrooms were generally of Spartan simplicity, here SS men lay on couches and dozed, staring ahead glassy-eyed. Instead of a desk there was a hotel kitchen stove in the room and four or five young Jewesses of Oriental beauty were making potato pancakes and feeding the SS men, who had themselves waited on like pashas. The SS men and the female prisoners used the familiar form, “Du” with one another. At my horrified questioning look, my escort simply shrugged his shoulders and said that the men had a hard night behind them.."


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Re: Jewish women used in Wehrmacht brothels?

#63

Post by michael mills » 28 Sep 2010, 03:49

An excerpt from the PhD thesis of Gertjejanssen:

http://www.victimsheroessurvivors.info/ ... vivors.pdf

Page 207f
Cost and Money Earned

The evidence for the prices of brothel visits is scattered and minimal. Local
commandants and the chief sanitary officers usually decided on the price for the men, and
perhaps this is the reason for the variance. In the west, the first brothels were free,208 and
thereafter, the price was between two and three Reichsmarks. In really “nice” brothels the
commandant could set the price up to five Reichsmarks.209 Where the brothels were too
expensive, however, underground prostitution spread because it was cheaper. The chief
sanitation officer in Rumania complained in February 1941 that venereal disease had spread
because of the traffic with secret prostitutes. The Wehrmacht brothel in Constanza was hardly
visited because the price was too high. A consequence of the small number of visitors was that
the twenty women in the brothel did not want to work for the Germans anymore since they were
earning so little. To help solve the problem, the local doctor (Standortarzt) in Constanza pushed
through a plan in March to give the women a flat rate of 1500 Lei, which was the same as serving
fifteen visitors each day.210 This example is interesting because it not only hints that the women
successfully pressured the Germans for more payment, but it also indicates that prior to the
arrangement of March 1941, the women earned something for every rape they endured. There are
not many references to women bargaining for payment or to women receiving a flat rate, so it is
difficult to determine how widespread such arrangements were.

In the east, even if women “volunteered” because they were starving, there is little
evidence that they were paid. If they were paid with food or money, it probably was a very
minimal amount.211 Especially where the women were forced, it would make no sense for the
Germans to pay someone they were only planning to use until they murdered them. The other
example that indicates the women and girls at least received enough payment to keep them from
seeking additional work elsewhere is that of the brothel in Lublin. Here the officials wanted to
prevent the women and girls from working elsewhere if they became infected with a venereal
disease and temporarily were unable to work in the state-run military brothels. Therefore they
made an arrangement with the economic department (Wirtschaftsamt) for the granting of special
allotments in such cases.212 Still, these examples are the only documentation I found on this
aspect of the military brothels.

There also is not much evidence on pricing or earnings from Latvia. There exist two
documents that each state a price of fifteen Reichsmarks.213 Both documents are from 1943 and
concern a Wehrmacht brothel in Riga. But another document states that a private or “black”
brothel in Riga allegedly charged only two to three Reichsmarks.214 Unregulated prostitution was
cheaper than the military brothels. That was allegedly part of the attraction. Still, this is a large
price difference – between the state-run and the underground prostitution, but fifteen
Reichsmarks is also higher than what seems to have been the price in the military brothels in the
west. Finally, in the report documenting the independent brothel in Liepaja run by Ms. Mockus it
states that the women earned half of the price charged to the men.215 However, it is critical to
note that nothing is stated about the women earning any money at all in the official brothels.
Especially if the females were kidnaped and forced to work as prostitutes as apparently so many
were in the east, it is unlikely the Germans paid them any kind of salary. It is more likely that if
they complained they would be “removed” or murdered, as was the fate of so many women who
worked in camp brothels. It is clear that more research needs to be done to determine the
monetary aspects of the brothels throughout the east.

The tragic and violent fate of so many human beings has been swept aside in the annals
of history. An example of poor analysis of a document on the topic of prostitution is from
historian Hans Bleuel. In his book on sex and society in Nazi Germany, Bleuel recites from a
security police report (SD Meldung) almost entirely without questioning its veracity. The report
states, and Bleuel repeats, that the women who staffed the brothels were free to return home at
any time. Bleuel does not point to any supporting evidence. Also, according to this report from
late 1943, the women paid a daily fee for housing and linens, but they generally made a
tremendous amount of money. Apparently a French woman in a brothel in Bitterfeld declared
that she sometimes made up to two hundred Reichsmarks a day. She allegedly owned property in
Paris and was planning on purchasing more when she returned home after her contract time ran
out at the brothel. Bleuel does concede that the “SD report undoubtedly erred on the bright side
and glossed over the cruel fate of many brothel inmates.” Still, he then continues to write that
“there is no doubt that a shrewd professional could earn enough to retire on” and mentions that
from Frankfurt it was reported that the Poles did not earn much, but the French women could
send home one thousand Reichsmarks each month. The prices for a visit ranged from three
Reichsmarks to five Reichsmarks. None of the “whores,” (Dirnen), as this scholar calls the
women, earnings were taxed.216

It is not clear what Bleuel’s interpretation is, but his treatment of the topic is superficial
and degrading to the women and girls who worked as prostitutes. Somehow highlighting a few
cases where a woman or girl allegedly earned a lot of money is easier or more attractive for
Bleuel than delving deeper into the topic. Once again, we simply do not know enough. It is very
possible women in the west earned something, but it seems less likely that this was the case for
those in the east, especially those who had been forced at gunpoint into this kind of slavery. It is
unclear what circumstances determined who would get paid what. Still, Germanis writes in his
historical novel that women were lined up in hopes of getting a job in the Wehrmacht brothel in
Riga, Latvia. Because of their economic desperation, they must have had hopes of receiving
some kind of remuneration, whether it was in cash or in kind.217 But was this the case for non-
Latvians in Latvia as well? Or for Jews in Ukraine? Or Russians in Russia? We need to have
more examples to understand the complexity of the German system of state-run military brothels.
It would appear that the women recruited as sex workers in Wehrmacht brothels were paid for their services, ie it was a commercial arrangement. To the extent that they were paid less than the free-market rate, they could be said to be exploited.

The author's feminist ideological bias is obvious from statements such as this:
....the women earned something for every rape they endured.
The description of a commercial exchange in which a woman provides a sexual service in return for payment as "rape" is common in feminist ideology, and indicates a biassed outlook that prevents an objective analysis of the issue being studied.

In addition, the author's cavalier dismissal of a sober study by the historian Bleuel is an indication of her bias. The criticisms she makes of Bleuel's study could just as well be made of hers, albeit her bias is in the opposite direction.

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Re: Jewish women used in Wehrmacht brothels?

#64

Post by michael mills » 28 Sep 2010, 04:09

The previous excerpt posted by me concerned the earnings of sex-workers employed in Wehrmacht brothels.

The following excerpt deals with the earnings of sex-workers in concentration-camp brothels:

http://www.victimsheroessurvivors.info/ ... vivors.pdf

Page 241ff:
Cost and Money Earned

It seems fairly universal that a visit to a camp brothel cost two Reichsmark when they
first opened. Later the camp leadership lowered the price to one Reichsmark to encourage more
visitors. Several people have stated or found this for the brothel in Buchenwald. In Buchenwald
men paid two Reichsmark until February 1944 when the SS reduced the price to one Reichsmark.
Podszun also found the same.73 Apparently the drop in the entrance fee in Buchenwald and
Flossenbürg was to gain more visitors to the brothels.74

There is some discrepancy about whether or not the women were able to keep some of
the money paid, and if so, then how much. Hans Marsalek testified in 1946 that the women
received fifty pfennige of the two Reichsmark admission for the brothel at Sachsenhausen, but
again, this does not confirm whether the women received the money.75 According to immediate
post-war investigations, Oswald Pohl issued an order dated April 13, 1943, that “provided that
visitors to the brothels would be charged two Reichsmark, and that from this amount, the woman
would receive forty-five pfennige and the matron five pfennige.” The remaining 1.50
Reichsmark, or seventy-five percent of the proceeds, went to the Office of Economic Policy
(Wirtschaftsverwaltungshauptamt, WVHA).76 Frau W. reported that in Buchenwald the prisoner
prostitute earned one mark of the two that were paid, and that it was put in a bank account in the
camp.77 Historian Christa Schulz found testimony from Ravensbrück inmates that the ten
prisoners who returned from working as prostitutes had earned between seventy-five Reichsmark
and five hundred Reichsmark.78 Those who were sent to Mauthausen or elsewhere and returned
to the camp in which Herbermann was, received money which allegedly might have been
released to them by the camp administration (Lagerverwaltung). The male prisoners had to pay
five marks, the “whores” (Dirnen) received fifty pfennig, and the state took the remaining four
marks and fifty pfennige.79 The approximately same story comes from a confession of a
commander in Mauthausen. In his post-war testimony he said that "In Mauthausen existed a
brothel, every man had to pay 2 mks [Reichsmarks], the woman got 50 pfgs [pfennige (cents)]
and the Hg. of the concentration camps in Oranienbeurg-Berlin got 1.50 – [which meant] Pohl
got the money."80 According to Beulig, who worked in the Buchenwald concentration camp and
testified after the war, the women received ten percent of their earnings, and there were women
who were paid fifteen hundred to two thousand Reichsmark when they were let go. In what
seems to be a discussion of German women, Himmler wrote that the money they earned in the
camp brothel would “be an old-age security for them.”81 But again, this does not mean the
German women actually received the money, and it does not say anything about non-Germans.

This conflicts with what Podszun found in her research, which was that one mark and
fifty pfennige (1 ½ Reichsmark) of the two Reichsmark was set aside for the women to pick up
six months later, but that it was not known if the women actually ever got the money.82 In her
research, Christa Paul has not seen evidence showing that the women actually had spending
money from their work. None of the women she interviewed said they had received any money.
Instead they were told to get what they needed as presents from the men who visited them. Paul
also never found that women had spending money for the camp canteen as did some of the male
prisoners, although she found a statement from one prisoner woman in Ravensbrück who claimed
there were women (whores) who returned with money from working as prostitutes.83 In summary,
it seems that the price in a camp brothel was two Reichsmark, and that it later dropped to one
Reichsmark. It is unclear how much the woman earned, if they earned anything at all. Since
many women did not live to see freedom, this is a moot point. Finally, none of these questions
have been answered regarding German camps in Soviet territory.
The above passage contains both hard evidence and the author's speculations. The hard evidence suggests that the female inmates recruited to work in the camp brothels did receive some pay for their services, although only a fraction of the price the male users of the brothel paid. The author clearly does not like that hard evidence, so she continually speculates as to whether the sex workers actually did receive any money.

But it appears that some of the female prisoners employed as sex-workers in the camps did end up with a quite tidy sum, as do many sex workers in our own time. Indeed, the primary reason why women engage in commercial sex work is that the income they can earn is a lot higher than what they could earn in any alternative employment for which they are qualified.

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Re: Jewish women used in Wehrmacht brothels?

#65

Post by David Thompson » 28 Sep 2010, 05:00

Michael -- You wrote:
But it appears that some of the female prisoners employed as sex-workers in the camps did end up with a quite tidy sum, as do many sex workers in our own time.
What is the evidence for this claim? It's not in the passage you quoted.

For those interested in calculating prices, the prewar Reichsmark (RM) was pegged at 4.30 RM to $1 (US) -- in other words, the Reichsmark was worth less than 25 cents US even before the war. See http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 720#570720
In 1939 2000 RM -- the maximum figure mentioned in the quote as collected by some of the women -- would have been worth less than $470 (US), and the value of the Reichsmark fell heavily during the war. And this assumes that the payments were in real Reichsmarks at par for international exchange rates, rather than concentration camp script.

Assuming that some of the women were actually paid, even at the rate of a nickel or a dime per customer (25% of the price, rather than 10%), they would have to "entertain" between 4,700 and 9,200 "clients" to collect the $470. Modern sex workers in our own time would laugh out loud at your claim of "quite a tidy sum." Reckoned in 2004 dollars (US), the camp prostitutes were making between $3 and $6 a trick.

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Re: Jewish women used in Wehrmacht brothels?

#66

Post by michael mills » 28 Sep 2010, 07:43

A truer comparison would be with what other categories of prisoner at the time could earn while doing paid work in prison.

In our own day prisoners can earn an income while in prison by doing various sorts of work, but what they earn is basically pocket money, nowhere near the going rate for the same work performed by non-prisoner labour. Sex workers in concentration camps were prisoners, so could not expect to earn what a free sex worker would, as for example the French women working in Frankfurt who sent home 1000 Reichsmarks per month.

Furthermore, the inmate sex workers need to be compared with the average concentration-camp prisoner, who did heavy work breaking rocks or carrying sacks of cement, received no pay whatever, and barely enough food to stay alive.

Compared with most concentration-camp prisoners, the female prisoners who did sex-work had a relatively comfortable existence. On page 234, Bertjejanssen writes:
Brothel living conditions varied from camp to camp, but in general, except for their sex
work
[my emphasis], the living conditions were better than they were for other prisoners.
Her ideological bias is blatantly obvious in the above passage; she regards "sex work" in itself as a bad condition of life.

But to any impartial observer, there are far worse sorts of work than than sex work, eg digging a drainage ditch in cold weather, or carrying slabs of rock up a stairway out of a quarry.

If a prisoner digging a ditch lay down on the job, he might well be beaten to death. If a prisoner doing sex work lay down on the job, she would get her normal payment for it, small though it might be. Furthermore, according to Bertjejanssen the inmate sex workers only worked about three or four hours a day, and had a lot of leisure time.

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Re: Jewish women used in Wehrmacht brothels?

#67

Post by Penn44 » 28 Sep 2010, 12:32

David Thompson wrote:Michael -- You wrote:
But it appears that some of the female prisoners employed as sex-workers in the camps did end up with a quite tidy sum, as do many sex workers in our own time.
What is the evidence for this claim? It's not in the passage you quoted.
You have to remember also that many of these women were Lesbians according to forum Lesbian expert, Michael Mills. That despite making a nickel or dime per customer, the experience must have been exceedingly abhorrent on account of their sexual orientation.

However, again according our Lesbian (and Lesbian prostitute) expert, Michael Mills, these women were rather "masculine," therefore we can assume that they could tough it out better than if they were a more feminine Lesbian type.

Of course where Michael Mills gets his information and conclusions we have no idea. Perhaps from the bowels of his imagination.

Penn44

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Re: Jewish women used in Wehrmacht brothels?

#68

Post by mick » 28 Sep 2010, 13:26

[
evidence suggests that, as is common among commercial sex workers today, a large proportion of them were lesbians, many being rather masculine in appearance, and not all that young, since in many cases they had been practising their trade for quite some time.
Yes Mr Mills a source for your claim?

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Re: Jewish women used in Wehrmacht brothels?

#69

Post by David Thompson » 29 Sep 2010, 03:57

Michael -- You wrote:
A truer comparison would be with what other categories of prisoner at the time could earn while doing paid work in prison.
and you went on to say:
If a prisoner digging a ditch lay down on the job, he might well be beaten to death.

If you wanted to compare the lot (and earnings) of camp prostitutes to that of inmates who were worked to death, your original comparison with modern sex workers is a little misleading, isn't it? Let's take a look:
But it appears that some of the female prisoners employed as sex-workers in the camps did end up with a quite tidy sum, as do many sex workers in our own time.
Who would have thought, from this phrasing, that your standard was relative rather than objective, and drawing on the examples you subsequently gave, actually referred to the dead rather than the quick?

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Re: Jewish women used in Wehrmacht brothels?

#70

Post by Skyderick » 27 May 2014, 02:51

I just came upon an article published in Hebrew newspaper HaMashkif on April 21st 1943. The title is "Hitler's dark secret" [1], and it appears to contain a longer translation of the letter mentioned here http://www.lfpress.com/comment/2012/07/27/20036456.html , which was apparently sent in May 1941.
My free translation:

"Beloved mother,
This is the last letter you will receive from me, [as] I write to bid farewell.
When the Germans came we couldn't get away. The soldiers acted vulgarly. Hanna and I were transferred to a camp, and were held there for many weeks. From there we were taken alongside 50 other girls to Warsaw. German physicians inspected us, and those of us who were of Jewish origin - I was one of them - were told we would be used as "mattresses" for German soldiers. I did not understand what they meant, and the Germans scoffed me.
They said Hanna was a pure Pole, and I do not know what became of her. We were held at the prison. Elder German women came to see us. I was in a cell with 6 others, two of whom were 15. We were told to remove our cloths. After being inspected by the women and two German physicians we dressed again and were lead onto trucks with German soldiers. We were taken to a big house in ... [blank] street that wasn't damaged during the bombings, and were told we must serve every need of the German soldiers. I would have taken my life if I could, but we were well guarded. The Germans are damned monsters. I dare not write to you what happened. It is too terrible. Day through day I had to serve as a mattress to six German soldiers.
A few weeks later many of the girls fell ill. They were taken out and shot like cattle, and others were brought to fill their place.
Now I too am sick. I can barely walk. If only I may die soon!
Soon this will be fate, for at the last inspection the physician proclaimed "she can no longer be used". He laughed and left. The elderly woman who manages the place spat on me and said "you'll soon be gone". There is no mercy or hope for someone like me. I cannot write anymore. Pray for me as I pray for you.
Tomorrow I will be shot. Thank the Holy Virgin for my liberation"

I wonder if someone could find the original text? I am very skeptical of the credibility of this letter, but it is nonetheless interesting.

[1]
http://jpress.org.il/Olive/APA/NLI_heb/ ... 3&rtl=true

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Re: Jewish women used in Wehrmacht brothels?

#71

Post by uberjude » 27 May 2014, 16:48

thanks for the translation, and your Hebrew is most definitely better than mine, Skyderick, but I think that, just from looking at the test, you may have mistaken the word "yechidi" (single) for "yehudi" (Jewish," in which case, it means "they separated the single girls--of which I was one" as opposed to "they separated the girls of Jewish origin--of which i was one." I'll admit it's tough, since that one letter seems to be weirdly smudged, and not quite clearly a "chet" or a "hey."

To me--aside from the fact that it looks more like "yechidi" than "yehudi," it would make more sense in the context, since the section is titled "the last letter from a Polish girl" and she ends with the invocation to the Holy Virgin. Also, if you look at the next paragraph, there's a reference made to this being just one example of the letters where one can read about the fate of girls of "pure Polish blood."

So I think this is about a Pole, not a Jew.

Also, if I understand correctly, "Hitler's Dark Secret" is actually the previous article, which seems to involve something about Hitler's family (there's a discussion about Hitler's half-brother in London), and isn't about the brothels, which is a separate piece entitled "A Polish Girl's Last Letter."

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Re: Jewish women used in Wehrmacht brothels?

#72

Post by uberjude » 27 May 2014, 17:05

I've got it--Hitler's Darkest Secret--What Hitler Has in Store For Britain, by Richard Baxter (which is the name on the Hebrew article).

This seems to be a summary of Baxter's work, which foretells what the British have to look forward to if Hitler wins. So the idea seems to be that if Hitler conquers England, English girls will be forced to become prostitutes.

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Re: Jewish women used in Wehrmacht brothels?

#73

Post by Skyderick » 27 May 2014, 22:57

Thank you for your help, Uberjude. I did get the translation right, and that is precisely the bit I found interesting. That the girl's alleged Jewish descent was an excuse to send her to the brothel.
Here is the extracted text from Google Books:
Hitler's darkest secret: what he has in store for Britain by Richard Baxter, pg.47-48
" When the Germans came, we were unable to escape. The soldiers ,were brutal. Anna (the writer's university girl friend with whom she was, staying) and I were forced to go to a camp where we remained for weeks, so long that I lost count of the days. Then we were taken with fifty other girls, some only fifteen years old, to Warsaw. German doctors examined us, and those of us who were said to have Jewish blood — I was one of those — were told that we were to be used as mattresses for the German soldiers. I did not understand what this meant, and the Germans laughed at me. Those girls who were said to have no Jewish blood were taken away. Where they went I do not know. We were kept in prison. I was told that Anna is, pure Polish, and since she was taken away I have no knowledge of her fate. Old German women came to see us in prison. I was in a cell with six other girls, two of them being only fifteen years old. The six of us were ordered to undress, and, after being examined by the women and two German doctors, we were made to dress and get into a motor-van in which German soldiers were. We were driven to a large house in [blank] Street, which had not been damaged by the air-raids, and told that we were to be used by the German soldiers. I would have killed myself had that been possible, but all the time I was watched. The Germans are inhuman monsters. What has happened, I dare not tell you. It is too horrible. I had to be a mattress for six German soldiers every day. After a few weeks many of the girls became diseased. They were taken out and shot like animals, and others came to the house to fill their places. Now I, too, am diseased. I can scarcely walk. I long to die. Soon that will be my fate, for when the doctor saw me last he said, ' She is useless now.' He laughed and went away. The old Frau, who lived in Danzig before she came to Warsaw to conduct this house of ill- fame, spat on me and said, ' You will soon be gone.' There is no pity, no hope for such as I. I pray the Blessed Virgin to take me and keep you safe. I can write no more. Pray for my soul, dear mother, as I pray for yours. Tomorrow I am to be shot. I thank the Blessed Virgin for this release."

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Re: Jewish women used in Wehrmacht brothels?

#74

Post by Webdragon2013 » 28 May 2014, 21:42

In the case of war rape, which was condemned by the Wehrmacht severely, I can imagine it happening, regardless of religion.

But in brothels It's hard to believe as it goes against German law to have such sexual relations.

I remember reading that the brothels for enlisted troops were local brothels (French, Russian, etc), but for the SS which was all about racial purity, GERMAN GIRLS were brought to the Eastern Front to service them. And not just prostitutes, "Women of high racial stock" if I remember correctly.

So it seems unlikely Jewish women were brought in the brothels. But I can imagine it happened if the Jewess lied about her heritage, though I cant imagine why she would

I'd have to find the exact quote.

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Re: Jewish women used in Wehrmacht brothels?

#75

Post by uberjude » 31 May 2014, 01:35

Webdragon, there are more things on heaven and earth... it would certainly not be the first circumstance in which Nazi practice and Nazi policy do not march in lock-step. Presumably, based on the reference to the Holy Virgin, this was someone who was a catholic, and perhaps only of some Jewish ancestry, and the Nazis' policies regarding converts and mischlinge were hardly consistent.

Skyderick, thanks for the clarification. I actually find this to add a certain verisimilitude. The source was Baxter's book for a British audience, so it seems reasonable to conclude that there would be no incentive for either the author or a source to falsify a document and put in this Jewish angle for a document that was designed to appeal to a broader audience. In fact, just the opposite--if Baxter is trying to provide a warning to Brits as to what awaits them under German rule, adding the Jewish angle would seem counterproductive, as Brits might just shrug and say "well, of course they treat Jews that way."

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