Military
brothels were set up by Nazi Germany during World War II throughout much of
occupied Europe for the use of Wehrmacht and SS soldiers. These brothels were
generally new creations, but in the west, they were sometimes expansions of
pre-existing brothels and other buildings.
The German generals realized they would never
prevent their soldiers from having sex. Instead of trying to stop sexual
activities, they decided to control them. So, the German army established a
vast network of military brothels throughout the occupied territories. Until
1942, there were around 500 military brothels of this kind in German-occupied
Europe, serving travelling soldiers and those withdrawn from the front.
According to
records, between 34,000 and 50,000 young girls and women were forced into
prostitution during the German occupation of their own countries along with
female prisoners of concentration camp brothels. In many cases in Eastern
Europe, teenage girls and women were kidnapped on the streets of occupied
cities during German military.
In March,
1942, the commander-in-chief, Jerez, gave the order to create brothels in the
occupied territories of the USSR. The Nazis were afraid of partisans and
sexually transmitted diseases. The girls were strictly selected. Particularly
welcome Latvians, Lithuanians and rooted Germans. These girls selected for the
brothels were injected with calcium, forced to wash in disinfection baths,
irradiated with ultraviolet lamps and fed better than other prisoners.
The camp
brothels were usually built as barracks surrounded by a barbed-wire fence, with
small individual rooms for up to 20 female prisoners, controlled by a female
overseer. The women were replaced frequently due to exhaustion and illness, and
were usually sent away to their deaths later. The brothels were open only in
the evenings.
Read more: The worst mass rape in European history
