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Secrets of Nazi camp brothels emerge decades on

Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:07PM EDT

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By Alexandra Hudson

KAMPEN, Netherlands (Reuters) - For decades no one wanted to remember the
concentration camp "special blocks" where the Nazis forced female inmates to
entertain their male peers.

Nazi commander Heinrich Himmler had ordered the creation of camp brothels in
1941. His logic was chilling -- male prisoners would work harder if offered the
incentive of sex, and if only a few had this privilege it would crush
solidarity.

As the horrors of Hitler's death camps emerged, the brothels swiftly became
taboo. The mainly German women who had staffed them were too scarred by the
experience to speak of it, whereas the male inmates who used them remained
silent in shame.

Now an exhibition in Ravensbrueck women's concentration camp north of Berlin
aims to shed light on the brothels and expose the Nazis' sinister attempt to
manipulate prisoners' sexuality.

One man who tried to break this enduring silence is former Buchenwald
prisoner Albert van Dijk, a Dutchman from the town of Kampen, close to the
German border.

"Often I raised the subject of the 'special block' at meetings of former
inmates of Buchenwald, but nobody ever wanted to discuss it or they said I was
mistaken," said Van Dijk.

The 83-year-old still vividly recalls how at the age of 18, among the despair
and degradation of the camp, he fell for a blonde prostitute called Frieda and
lost his virginity to her in the "special block".

Although prostitution was officially forbidden by the Nazis, the elite SS
guards had set up a network of brothels catering to German soldiers, forced
laborers and prisoners, which they intended in part to stamp out
homosexuality.

From 1942 onwards, 200-300 gentile prisoners from the camp were forced to
work in 10 camp brothels across Germany, Austria and Poland. Almost all had been
imprisoned as "anti-social".  Continued...

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