In World War II , Nazi Germany established brothels in the concentration camps Lagerbordell to create an incentive for prisoners to collaborate, although these institutions were used mostly by Kapos , "prisoner functionaries" and the criminal element, because regular inmates, penniless and emaciated, were usually too debilitated and wary of exposure to Schutzstaffel SS schemes.
In the end, the camp brothels did not produce any noticeable increase in the prisoners' work productivity levels, but instead, created a market for coupons among the camp VIPs. After 30 June , a camp brothel existed in Auschwitz , and from 15 July , in Buchenwald. The one in Neuengamme was established in early , Dachau 's in May , Dora-Mittelbau 's in late summer, and Sachsenhausen 's on 8 August 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 Aufseherin.
No Jewish male prisoners were allowed as patrons. Those with access to the customer lineup Aryan VIPs only , had to sign up for a specific day and pay two reichsmarks for a minute "service" based on a predetermined schedule. The women were matched with clients by an SS-man. The market for the "prize-coupons" was routinely cornered by the common criminals who wore the green triangles hence the "green men" denomination.
The subject of forced prostitution in the camps was alluded to in survivors' memoirs at least as early as , when the first edition of Heinz Heger 's book [5] was published. However, the subject remained largely taboo in studies of Nazism until the mids, when new publications by female researchers broke the silence.
Sometimes the SS enticed women into serving in the brothels by promising them more humane treatment or reductions of their indefinite sentence. This caused anger or envy among some female inmates. Nina Michailovna, Russian camp prisoner, reported: "When we found out that a girl in our block was chosen, we caught her and threw a blanket on her and beat her up so badly that she could hardly move.
