Forced Prostitution

The Women's Perspective

Women who were forced to work as prostitutes at concentration camps have found it almost impossible to talk about their experiences after the war out of fear of being stigmatized. Since their liberation, they have experienced constant shame, often even guilt, and the fear of voyeurism. Many male survivors also do not talk about the subject, because they often worry that a false image of their situation at the camp might arise. The treatment of this subject as a taboo has made it impossible for society to see the camp brothels for what they were. They were places where people were doubly subjected to violence: as concentration camp prisoners and as women.

The Strategy of the SS

In 1944, the SS deported twelve women to Neuengamme main camp and forced them to work as prostitutes for privileged prisoners. Permission to visit the brothel was regarded as a status symbol and was intended to be a motivational incentive. The women, most of them German, were either forcibly sent to the Neuengamme brothel from Ravensbrück concentration camp, or they were lured into prostitution by the promise of being released after six months – which never happened. They were housed in a fenced-in hut behind the sick-bays, and they were never allowed to leave the enclosure. The SS despised these women, and male prisoners often perceived them as privileged because they received better food and housing.

Further reading at the Learning Center Forced Prostitution – The Women’s Perspective
Media Library

The complete permanent exhibition "Time Traces" and the other side exhibitions on the grounds of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial are also available digitally in the memorial's media library. Unfortunately, the media library is only available in German.

media library
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E-mail: lernwerkstatt@gedenkstaetten.hamburg.de

Phone: +49 40 428 131 551