Brothels in the Third Reich

Salon Kitty

Kitty Schmidt was born in the year 1882 and was initially a music teacher. She founded in the late 1920's or early 1930's a brothel called "Pension Schmidt". It was located on the third floor of the building in Giesebrechtstrasse 11 in Berlin-Charlottenburg. The clientele were mainly from the high-class such as celebrities, foreign diplomats and high-ranking politicians.

Kitty Schmidt was opposed to the National Socialist regime and decided to flee from Germany on the 28th June 1939. She was however stopped at the Holland border and arrested by the Gestapo.

Under the threat of having to go to a concentration camp, she had to comply in making her brothel a spying operation for the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Headquarters). Reinhard Heydrich delegated the planning of this operation to Walter Schellenberg.

The brothel was closed for renovation repairs in which every room would be outfitted with listening devices and in the basement of the building a listening post was set up. The Berlin police was ordered to give files on known prostitutes that were intelligent, multi-lingual and were friendly to the nationalistic cause. Twenty ladies were selected to undergo a spy training and in the Spring of 1940 the establishment reopened its doors to clients.

The ladies were instructed to loosen the tongues of their clients with alcohol and try to get them to talk about information that could be important to the Reich Security Services.

The success of this operation was not great however because it was known amongst the clients that conversations were being recorded.

A few noteworthy clients included the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Mussolini's son-in-law Galeazo Ciano, the SS-Oberstgruppenführer Josef "Sepp" Dietrich and a British agent called Roger Wilson.

British agent Roger Wilson, under his cover identity as Romanian press secretary "Ljubo Kolchev", noticed the microphone wires while there. He became a frequent customer of the salon with a regular girl, and later arranged a wiretap to three cables. After that, British intelligence heard some of the same conversations as the SD.

In 1942 the building was hit by an aerial bomb and as a consequence the brothel was moved to the ground floor. Soon after, the Security Service ended the spying operation.

Kitty Schmidt was ordered to keep quiet about this operation and never uttered a word about it until her death in 1954.

After the war "Salon Kitty" opened its doors again and quickly regained its reputation as an establishment for the higher class.

After Kitty Schmidt died in 1954, her daughter and son-in-law changed the establishment to a boarding house named "Pension Florian" which was also kept open by her grandchildren.

In the early 1990's the business wasn't running much profit anymore and so the grandchild of Kitty Schmidt changed it to a boarding house for asylum-seekers. She had to close down soon after because of protests from her neighbours.

Wehrmachtsbordelle - Military brothels

The military brothels were for the soldiers of the Wehrmacht and SS-members. They were introduced by the High Command of the Wehrmacht and there were about 500 of these throughout the occupied territories. The only occupied territory that did not have these establishments was Denmark.

On the 9th September 1939, the Reichsminister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick released a decree that the Wehrmacht had to control and oversee prostitution in operational territories. This was mainly to combat health and hygiene risks for the German soldier.

Professional prostitutes were recruited from all over Germany and the occupied countries. Some women convicted of crimes, civil or political, that opted for this rather than serving in a work camp.

In the second half of Juli 1940 the High Command of the Wehrmacht gave out two decrees for the establishment of brothels for soldiers and the persecution of random prostitution in occupied France. The decree ordered to confiscate fitting brothels for the military. Other establishments such as hotels were also confiscated and repurposed as brothels. These establishments would be outfitted with guards and the prostitutes had medical check-ups regularly to make sure sexually transfered diseases were kept away from soldiers.

If prostitutes had infections, they would be sent to a hospital by the Wehrmacht doctors.

The brothels in France were also established to undermine any fraternization between soldiers and the female population of France. The Wehrmacht thought that it would be detrimental for the discipline and authority of the soldiers.

When the Eastern campaign began, the Wehrmacht had difficulties to set up similar conditions in these countries because official prostitution was forbidden. After random prostitution did occur, the Wehrmacht decided to also introduce brothels in the Eastern territories. The same hygiene and health check ups were obligatory for the women in these establishments.

Officers had separate "facilities", especially in garrison situations. In both the field and garrison brothels the procedure was much the same. First the soldier went to the Sanitätssoldat (medical soldier) to be certified clean and healthy. He was given a pass which stated this and which was stamped and dated. On the pass was the name and number of the brothel it was good for and a line for the woman to sign and place her number. The soldier was issued his condom and a small grey or green spray can of disinfectant.

A translated example of such a pass:

A. Authorization to enter Army Brothel

Date..............................................................................................

Control-book number................................................................

Intercourse only with condom!

Prophylactic treatment immediately after!

Have dogtag ready!

B. At Brothel

Name of partner..........................................................................

C. Certificate of subsequent prophylactic treatment

Number and unit on dogtag.....................................................

Field-post number of recipient.................................................

The above received prophylactic treatment at......... hours under a control number of prophylactic station no. ............ and is thus certified by:

                       Rank, name

This document is to be kept for 3 months and is to be presented in the event of sickness.

Lagerbordelle - Prisoner's brothels

The idea of brothels for prisoners came from the Reichsführer-SS during a visit to the Mauthausen concentration camp in 1942. He envisioned that prisoners would work harder if a reward system would be introduced.

On his orders the first out of ten brothels was built in Mauthausen in June 1942.

The women prisoners that were used for these establishments were mainly those that were in the "anti-social" category of prisoners. These were women who opposed the National Socialist state or refused service in one of the National Socialist women groups. Most of these women came out of the Ravensbrück concentration camp. If women would get infected with a disease, then they would get medical care. If they would get pregnant, they would be forced to have an abortion.

The brothel in Auschwitz I was ordered by the Reichsführer-SS in June 1943 in the block 24a, which is in present day the museum archive. The brothel opened its doors in October 1943 and would serve for privileged prisoners as a reward.

The visiting of these brothels was forbidden for SS-guards, for them there was a brothel in the city of Auschwitz.

More than 60 women were selected by the SS in the women's camp of Auschwitz II - Birkenau for work in the brothels of Auschwitz I and Auschwitz III - Monowitz. These brothels operated until a few days before the evacuation of Auschwitz.

In 1943 there was also a brothel established in the camp of Buchenwald. In July 1943, 16 female prisoners were transferred from Ravensbrück to work as prostitutes inside the brothel.

In May 1944 another one was opened in Dachau, 6 women were transferred also from Ravensbrück to work there. By the end of the year they closed it back down.

Jewish prisoners and Soviet prisoners of war were not allowed to visit these establishments.

In total according to documents about 180 women would be used as prostitutes in these prison brothels throughout the Second World War. These women were mostly German "anti-social" women, but there were also women from Poland, Ukraine, Romania and Belarus used in these brothels. Jewish women were never allowed to work inside these establishments.

An overview of all prison camp brothels with their date of opening:

- Mauthausen: 11 June 1942

- Gusen: Fall 1942

- Flossenbürg: July 1943

- Buchenwald: 16 July 1943

- Auschwitz I: October 1943

- Auschwitz III - Monowitz: Fall 1943

- Dachau: 11 May 1944

- Neuengamme: 28 May 1944

- Sachsenhausen: August 1944

- Mittelbau-Dora: Late Summer 1944