German camp brothels in World War II

German concentration camp brothels

Active camp brothel in Gusen, Austria (c. 1942)

In World War II, Nazi Germany established brothels in the concentration camps (Lagerbordell or Freudenabteilungen "Joy Divisions") to increase productivity among inmates, although these institutions were used mostly by Kapos, "prisoner functionaries" and the criminal element, because regular inmates, penniless and emaciated, were usually too debilitated and wary of exposure to Schutzstaffel (SS) schemes. In the end, the camp brothels did not produce any noticeable increase in the prisoners' productivity levels, but instead, created a market for coupons among the camp VIPs.^[1]

The women forced into these brothels came mainly from the women-only Ravensbrück concentration camp,^[2] except for Auschwitz, which employed its own prisoners.^[3] In combination with the German military brothels in World War II, it is estimated that at least 34,140 female inmates were forced into sexual slavery during the Third Reich.^[3]