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A book reveals the horror of the brothels in Nazi concentration camps

horror stories of the Nazi concentration camps seem endless. A new book, which will be presented next Wednesday in the German Parliament, reveals how, from 1942, authorities began to establish brothels in the countryside, where some prisoners were forced to maintain relations with other prisoners. The Nazis thought jailers that captives who were forced to do hard labor would yield more if they promised to have sex.

"In the collective memory and written history of World War II and brothels of the camps were a taboo for a long time," says Robert Sommer, author of the book, Das KZ Bordell ( The brothel concentration camp). "The former prisoners would not talk about it. It is a difficult issue to manage. Did not quite fit the image of the concentration camps as monuments to the suffering, "says Sommer.

The SS (Nazi military police) have established brothels in 1942 in the Mauthausen camp, and came to open ten, the highest in Auschwitz, where about twenty women worked. The last was open until early 1945, the end of the war. Not working in brothels Jewish women or Jewish prisoners had access. Moreover, the Nazis imposed a rigid division of "race", so the Germans could only go with German women and the Slavs only Slavic. "The Nazis thought to increase the productivity of prisoners by offering an incentive," says the author of the book, "but did not work much, because there were few who were able physical to go. "

estimated worked in brothels around 200 women. "They promised that, if met, the would be released after six months. But the promise was never realized, "says Sommer, who stresses that" the brothels reveal another dimension of the Nazi horror, where the same victims of the Nazis became exploiters of these women. "

After the war, many of these women had to live with the weight of social stigma which remained over them despite having been victims of brutal violence of the Nazi system. "We do not know anyone who has received compensation so suffered, "says Sommer," it is important that these women were returned dignity. "

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