Through his rigorous examination of over 70 archives and poignant interviews with more than 30 survivors, including former visitors of camp brothels, Sommer paints a vivid and harrowing picture of the atrocities committed. This book is the first to offer a comprehensive exploration of the establishment, operation, and profound impact of brothels in Nazi concentration camps.
Sommer's research meticulously details the brothels' integration into the concentration camp system, their role in the Nazi exploitation of bodies for control and profit, and the complex reactions of the prisoner society to these establishments. He explores the desperate survival strategies employed by the women forced into sexual labor, and the chilling motivations of their exploiters.
The book also places the tragedy of camp brothels in the broader context of sexual violence under Nazi rule, making a critical connection between these acts of exploitation and the overall history of the Holocaust. This updated English edition incorporates new findings and perspectives since the original German publication in 2009, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the subject. The foreword by Annette F. Timm adds further context and contemporary analysis, enhancing the book's relevance and depth.
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A confronting lost and ignored piece of Holocaust history. A forgotten voice given a hearing; its victims left physically and emotionally scarred, viewed as collaborators despite their own incarceration; so despised by their own that many refused to openly acknowledge this part of their lives.
Using memoirs of those who would talk and other historical documents, this is a meticulous account of the brothels that were set up and operated, albeit for a short period of time, in Nazi concentration camps. These brothels were for the use of prisoners, not the guards or officers; mainly Ayran women were "employed" - women who had already been incarcerated for what was termed "anti-social behaviours"; the brothels were used as an "incentive" to increase the productivity of the imprisoned, forced labourers.
The stats at the end of the book are eye-opening - the youngest woman was seventeen, the oldest thirty-five.
It should be remembered that since the recognition of sex slavery in International Law (c. 2002), these victims are still ignored, uncompensated (as this was considered "voluntary"), outcast.
This is a well researched and confronting piece of history that - like its victims - deserves more recognition.
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