How Hitler set up brothels for soldiers: Women became “rewards” for good behavior

At first everything seemed normal Drive into town. A young girl named Anna was sitting in the back of one truck and clutched her thin one jacket. It was damp and smelled of iron and fear. Located on the loading area there are seven other women. Some were silent, others whispered with each other, as if they hoped, in this Exchange guesses and answers find.

Nobody knew exactly where to take them brought. Anna remembered like a week ago a German with a translator in her village had come. He called it Labor mobilization. Apparently young women would be in one Factory used. Decent job, warm accommodation, decent food. Back then, Anna was slim and round face and a braid. Your mother cried but didn’t protest.

On the There was hardly any food left in the country and the Germans took everyone. The ones for them Coal, the others for the fields. Anna had no choice. At 18 years old knew they don’t really know what war means. Everything still seemed like one temporary disorder. They drove burnt out villages passed for a long time, Columns of soldiers, screams and Shots in the distance.

Sometimes it held Trucks stopped and a guard was smoking a cigarette without giving to the women allow to get out. On the morning of the third day they were unloaded near barbed wire. At first Anna thought it was a Labor camp. There was a sign above the gate German inscription. Later she found out that this was Ravensbrück. They were led through the camp into one barracks, ordered them to change, cut off their hair.

Anna didn’t try the women around her to look at, but it was impossible Not noticing looks. Tired, glasses, silent. Someone already knew what to do brought her here. Closest One day a woman came in wearing SSU form. In She held a list in her hand and spoke German, but one Nurse translator explained short. They are for a special service needed.

With good behavior is Freedom possible after three months. The Women exchanged glances. More special service. What did that mean? Anna understood it doesn’t. Only later did she realize when she saw one of the girls Irena was led into a separate room. After 15 minutes they brought her away empty eyes and blood on the skirt back and she didn’t speak another word.

“This is a brothel. whispered the bedmate, an older one Woman from Lviv. “You are one now thing. You are now a body. You are now a piece for the soldier.” At first Anna didn’t believe it. She asked pleaded, screamed. They beat her. Once they locked her naked for a whole time Night in the basement.

Then she stopped to scream. Then came the silence. In the special barracks everything was minutes precisely timed. The girls were in arranged in a row. Soldiers came with vouchers. 15 minutes per visit. Sometimes one, sometimes two. All sober. Everything according to protocol. Previously a medical examination, cold Speculum, gloves, a quick hello from the doctor. Nobody asked for the name.

Anna remembered the first one. He came from Dresden, smiled as if he were from for a date. Then came the second, then Dozens, sometimes 20 a day, sometimes more. They called her the Polish one, though she was from Volhynia. That didn’t matter role. Only one thing mattered, her ability to be silent and obey.

Those who resisted disappeared. In the evening they lay in the Kohen with rags between his legs. Some cried, some bit their teeth the fingers, some like Irena, stared just look at the ceiling and whisper Prayers. Three weeks passed. The time ceased to exist. The barracks had no windows, just a narrow one Crack in the wall.

Sometimes Anna heard outside songs, German, happy ones, almost festive. In the camp there was an orchestra for upliftment of morals. Once she was asked if she… don’t want a reward. Cigarettes, chocolate. All you need is the commander smile at. She refused. Closest That day she was locked up again Basement. Then she agreed.

Once had she had dreams, teacher, love, Children. Now all that was left was skin, in who quietly died a soul. But yourself then Anna still knew in the darkness not. That was just the beginning. This System that Anna had fallen into was no coincidence. It emerged of a single inhuman or the A soldier’s whim.

Everything up to the smallest detail was planned, documented, calculated. It was a machine, merciless as a German diesel. Military brothels in Third Reich was called Wehrmachtsbord. They weren’t for fun created, but for order. Generals and ideologues of the Third Reich believed that controlled Relieving the risks of looting, Desertion and attacks in the field reduce.

Violence within the system wasn’t considered bad. She became the instrument, to the lever. Adolf Hitler personally approved the facility of brothels in concentration camps, but the initiative came from Himmler. He called it incentive reward. In Buchenwald. Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Auschwitz. There were the same ones everywhere Barracks, the same Kohen, the same Rules.

women under strict supervision, Men by lists. For male For prisoners it was a reward. One You were given a pass to the brothel only for exemplary behavior, Loyalty, work to the point of exhaustion, all in the form of vouchers. Cash was not accepted. This one Vouchers were given by supervisors issued. Basically the SS used Women like candy for good behavior.

A woman in the brothel was part of the Warehousing, but Anna knew everything not these words. She simply lived according to the schedule. At 6 a.m get up, medical at 7am Examination, shave at 8 a.m., Body cleansing, smell of chlorine. Then came they are not just soldiers, officers, Cooks, drivers, sometimes prisoners.

If there was a voucher, there was access. One voucher 15 minutes. If someone too came late, he waited. There was even Waiting lists. One of the overseers, Paul, tall, with clean fingernails, said once to Anna: “You’re doing well.” He stroked her cheek as if she were a puppy. He didn’t hit, he smiled. That was worse.

The nurse called Helga, the only one who knows Anna sometimes brought bandages or water, said to her in a whisper, “Hold on, in They let you for half a year maybe free.” But Anna believed not anymore. Once you brought a new group into the barracks. Among them was Zoja, 18 years old from Lviv. She cried the whole time.

After three Her voice was gone for days. Just the look remained. Doctors examined them women every day. A gynecologist with Glasses in rubber gloves spoke dry: “No sexually transmitted diseases. Workable. diseases, inflammations, No one cared about tears. The main thing is that the material was okay. If a woman fell ill, she became transported away.

They said go to the hospital reality to the gas chamber or to medical experiments. Some came back in sacks. Once Anna tried not to get up, said: “She’s bleeding, it hurts.” Man hit her in the face, then on that hair and into the room. They said, you you will stand. The soldier didn’t care. Rumors began to spread among the women circulate.

There would be a brothel somewhere, where there would be more food, where you could could earn freedom. Anna listened, but didn’t believe it. She already knew there is no freedom here. Here is all lies. Sometimes they broke at night drunk SS men without vouchers, entered the barracks without rules, shouted, laughed, tore clothes. Sometimes They organized games to see who was more in one night.

Sometimes they hit simply because she looked wrong. The system allowed everything because it was for that was built, not for pleasure, for Control. A woman like a piece of bread, to whom it was given, he ate. And when Anna was still trying at the beginning to remember her life, her name, her home, her mother, remained like that now just one more. Waiting, day after day.

On one of these days she saw the face of a new officer. It was different. It remained in memory. She knew then not that exactly he passed them on to them would send to the Eastern Front and was there a hell even this barracks couldn’t prepare them. At the Everything was different on the Eastern Front. harder, more primitive, without walls, without schedules, without vouchers.

Where Germany ended and blood began, transformed Brothels became military camps Satisfying the needs of the army. They were called fieldboard, mobile, dirty, right in the middle of ruins camps built in forests and forests, cheap ones Tents, Ken made of boards, smell of Diesel, men’s sweat and old blood. Anna was born in December There together on a truck with nine other women.

She was chosen because of their quietness and lack of Complaints. On paper laying in a sanitary area. In reality, moving into a zone where humanity finally surrendered without a fight. The first thing she saw were soldiers with frozen fingers and burned out ones Eyes, emaciated, angry, without Sleep.

They didn’t look at her as people, just as a possibility, how a piece of bread after being hungry had. Animalistic. The tent was on Edge of a destroyed village in the Ukraine. Two soldiers as guards, one with dog. inside an oven, a bucket Water, a blanket, three women, each with a different accent. A German, arrested for contact with Poland.

One another, a Romani, before the service selected. The third, a very young one Girl, 18 years old, from the area of Polter was without a name. Everyone was silent, everyone was waiting. The work went round and round the clock. Soldiers didn’t come hours, but when there is a break between the fights. drunk, hungry, angry.

Sometimes they fell just next to it and slept. Sometimes beat them for no reason. Sometimes They asked for new ones, took them Girls with them, didn’t bring them back. Anna tried not to think, not to remember. She didn’t count the days more. She didn’t even have one Mirror. She didn’t know how to do it face looked like.

But she felt it was become different. There was none in there Village girls more. Heard one night Anna screamed. The girl out Polter ran out of the tent Underwear. Behind her is a soldier. He shouted that she had his face scratched. They were found in the morning Forest under a spruce all in ripe. Official cause: attempted escape, but everyone knew she just held on no longer through.

In the morning they relocated Anna to another location to the south. There was a large, permanent garrison there Supplies and money. Soldiers paid now with real marks. They were given receipts, recorded last names, every visit to the journal. But this did not protect women. On the contrary, it made everything even more cold-blooded than it would be about accounting and not about Violence.

In this brothel I met Anna another familiar face. Officer Paul, the very same one who saw her in the camp had praised. He was now Carer, smiled, asked: “How are you holding up you through?” Then he took her chin, looked into the eyes and said: “You have told me you are reliable, don’t disappoint.” And again: days, Nights, faces.

Some were soldiers politely, sat down, talked about it Woman in Hamburg, from son, then stood them open, unbuckled the belt. Sometimes they cried, sometimes they hit, then they went and Anna stayed. Sometimes She wanted to die, sometimes live, but more often she didn’t want anything. There was only teaching. Once she found a letter.

He fell out of a soldier’s pocket. In Letter a photo of two boys, one woman in the dress. Signature: “I’m waiting you with the victory. Grab that Not to locals. Remember, you you are a German. Anna kept this one Letter under her blanket. Not because she believed, but because they remember wanted there to be a world somewhere, where women are not with ten men per Night sleep where girls don’t go Leg thickness can be selected where Soldiers are fathers and not customers.

In the spring of 1944 Partisans burned the field brothel down. That night Anna felt the Real fear for the first time in a long time. The tent was on fire, shots rang out, some women died. Anna survived fled into the forest. She was wrong for several days alone, but the Germans found they, bringing them back, said: “Escape, now punishment!” And she came back to the camp, but in another, no more special service, but as disbanded.

She was deprived of food for three days, then they brought them back to the barracks, but now no one touched her anymore. She was broken. And then May came 1945. Liberation, but not salvation. May 1945 gave Anna no light. He brought Sun, but no warmth. Freedom, but no relief. As Soviet Troops marched into the camp, the prisoners lined up along the Barbed wire, they couldn’t believe their eyes not.

Someone cried, someone fell floor. Anna just stood. She understood not what she should feel. She knew no longer who she was. medical professionals examined the freed people. The ones immediately to the hospital, the others to Evacuation. A young boy came to Anna doctor. He was Russian, looked, laid her hand on the shoulder, asked: “Are you you alone?” She nodded.

“Do you want to come? Home?” She didn’t answer. She knew not where home was now. After two They were put in a Vieaggon for weeks. Women were sent to the USSR brought back. The journey took a long time. Anna was sitting on the wall next to her older woman from Minsk. This one prayed all the time. Anna was silent.

When you see them on train station in their home region, the village was already different. Half ruined, burned, without people. This The house where she had lived was standing empty. A neighbor came out She didn’t recognize immediately, then gasped her. Is that you, Anna? And silence where were you? Anna lowered her eyes camp, but people didn’t ask how you were fine.

They asked, “What do you have? made there? How many Germans are “Gone through you?” She heard whispering behind her back, spit on her floor. You rent them. Some called her German bedding. Her mother was 1943 died of hunger. Shot the father Man, the brothers were brought to the front and no one returned. She remained alone, alive and unused.

She tried to work at a school find. They didn’t take it, tried it the colonist didn’t hold out. The people kept their distance, women whispered, Men laughed. Sometimes came Drunks to her. Show me how you do it Germans pleased. She hit, shouted. Once she was stabbed with one Knife closed, then she drove away.

In the In the city she worked as a laundress, washing other people’s laundry, rubbed out stains, ironed Uniforms, didn’t talk to anyone about it nothing. Every day like the previous one. Just in rare minutes when she is alone was, caught up with her from the bedside table old thing, the letter with the photo of the woman and the boy.

Don’t L him again, because she believed, but because she without the whole was lost. Years passed. The man married her. A front-line fighter, invalid, silent, good-natured. He knew what was wrong with her but didn’t ask. Respected her Silence. They lived modestly. Without Children, she couldn’t. The doctor said: “Consequences of trauma.

” Once in 1948 There was a letter from Germany in it a brochure. A short text about Brothels in concentration camps. No name, not hers. But the essence, her life. Anna read and cried for the first time in 20 years, because someone had written, someone had confirmed. That was that is not Invention, there’s no shame in that is a crime.

But the state remained silent. The USSR recognized sexual Slavery not. None Compensations, not excuses, just contempt. Anner mind, no one will hear her. Your experience outside of statistics, outside of justice. 1995, already in independent Ukraine, came a young journalist to her. He worked on an article about Camp survivors.

He was polite, listened too, but when she came to the words brothel came, his face changed. He didn’t ask any more questions, went quickly. After that she didn’t speak to anyone anymore about it. She lived a long time, smelled like Soap and dust, read newspapers, saw not far away, walked slowly with a stick. Sometimes she looked out for a long time window as if she was waiting for something.

And only in recent years, when she was almost 90, she began in short sentences to speak, looking at the floor. Man called us by list. I didn’t scream so that they wouldn’t hit. He had warm ones hands. Once. Neighbors now called her strange, some ways. But nobody knew how a lot was broken inside her. And one One autumn day she was found on a bench in the yard with my eyes closed, with a letter in his hand, that one Germans.

It said on the back Written in ballpoint pen: “I wanted just live. I belonged to no one. The autumn is warm, the yard is quiet. Yellow Leaves stuck to the wooden bench where she sat, the old woman, whose name is the Neighbors had long since forgotten. Trees rustled all around. From one The voice came through the window, barely audible of a radio announcer.

Nobody seemed to be there that day notice how Anna left. Nobody except a young girl from the After-hours entrance. She came out to walk the dog and saw her sitting calmly, as if she were fell asleep. There was one next to it worn notebook with the letter in it yellowed edges and a note. Just one line. I just wanted to live.

I belonged to no one. The police came quickly, established the identity. Old woman, 93 years old, lived alone. None relatives left. Old house. Minimum pension did not bother anyone, touched nobody. But found among her things you have a folder with dozens of sheets of paper in it, described with uneven shaky handwriting.

That’s where it was whole story unofficial, alive, without vouchers, without protocols. Just Pain, dirt, survival. Just Truth. That journalist who… had come to her and had been working for a long time while watching television. When he heard about Anna’s death learned, he came. This time he turned not off.

He took these papers, read and couldn’t keep quiet. Half a year later a documentary was shown Television. Without sensations, without wanted Patos. Just a woman’s voice, calm, tired, read the lines. Man called me by number. I was the one Twelfth. Others came after me. We didn’t look each other in the eyes. So it was easier. Saw the film thousands, then hundreds of thousands.

Someone found out for the first time such brothels existed. Someone understood first time, what’s behind the words Can hide war and punishment. Someone cried, someone argued. That’s a lie. Shameful story. They wanted it themselves. And that hurt the most because myself now, decades later, the truth about Nazi sexual slavery compassion but rather doubt.

But Anna’s story didn’t disappear. There was hanging on the building of her townhouse a blackboard. Anna W. lived here. Witness to crimes that the world knows about preferred to remain silent. Stopped in a school one lesson. A teacher read excerpts from hers letters before. Children listened. A boy asked, “Why isn’t she ran away?” And in the classroom There was silence because none of them knew what to answer.

Because it it is impossible to explain how the will dies when every day is this violence. When life means to endure. In Berlin opened two years later in the archive on Friedrichstrasse one small exhibition without loud posters without advertising. Just silence, photographs, letter clippings, a room entirely reminiscent of the Third Party’s brothels dedicated to the empire.

There also Anna, hers Voice, her story. tourists passed by. Some lingered reading, cried. Others went on, turned around off. They were uncomfortable, too inconvenient truth, too inconvenient woman. But Anna still didn’t stay Body, not as a victim, but as Witness, as a reminder. Because as long as we remain silent, it can happen again.

Because as long as sexual violence is an issue remains that people don’t like to talk about, it doesn’t disappear. It just changes the form, changes the language, changes the uniform. Even in the 21st century there is many places. Sudan, Ukraine, Syria, Myanmar. Women still are Trophies, still instruments, always no one wants to hear her cry yet.

But someone listens, sometimes a girl at school in history class, sometimes a boy in the museum, sometimes just you listener. And that’s enough Yes, so that Anna is not forgotten. Sometimes one voice is enough to change the world to change even when she’s old, even when she’s shaking. But she says I belonged to no one.

And that’s it beginning of truth. And that’s that End of silence.