Adolf Hitler devised a network of brothels to satisfy the sexual needs of the fighters and prevent the spread of STDs.
The history of every war is filled with small stories. Often, these small stories are crushed by the colossal weight of the larger narrative. Writer and journalist Jesús Hernández has just published a book that attempts to collect these small stories from World War II. The title leaves no room for doubt about its content: “Small Great Stories of World War II.” One of these small great stories concerns the prostitution service that, devised by Hitler himself, was intended to satisfy the sexual needs of German soldiers and, at the same time, prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhea.
Although it may not seem like it, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) were one of the leading causes of discharge in the military. Statistics from the U.S. Army made this abundantly clear after the end of World War I: practically 10% of the U.S. military (87 soldiers per thousand) contracted some type of venereal disease during the war. Awareness programs and church sermons had proven ineffective.
The advent of penicillin and the widespread use of condoms led to a decrease in these figures when World War II broke out. Despite this, the percentage of infected American soldiers still exceeded 5%. In the German army, for example, by 1940, STIs had caused more casualties than the French army had during the entire period of occupation.
Given the seriousness of these figures and the risk that an STD pandemic could cause within the army, Adolf Hitler himself planned the creation of a system of prostitutes that could serve to help German combatants release their accumulated sexual tension.
The Germans established two types of brothels during the war: garrison brothels and field brothels . The former were located near cities and catered to soldiers on leave. The latter were situated just behind the front lines and served as a place for soldiers to relieve themselves after days of intense fighting.
The prostitutes who worked in these brothels, and who underwent the necessary medical examinations to guarantee their sexual health, could be professionals or prisoners. The offizierdecke (bed officers) attended only to men who had been medically examined and who came to the establishments not only with their desire for sex. Combatants who frequented the militarized brothels had to bring a medical certificate guaranteeing their health, as well as a bottle of disinfectant and a condom. Both were provided by the military authorities, who sometimes injected preventative medication into the penises of the soldiers who visited these women. Once the sexual encounter between the combatant and the offizierdecke was over, she would sign and add her information to the medical report.
This meticulously structured German system of controlling prostitution , described by Jesús Hernández in his work, undoubtedly served to prevent sexually transmitted diseases from becoming a more dangerous enemy for the German army than the Russian and Allied armies during the war. However, the cold, rational German approach to its organization failed to prevent approximately 250,000 soldiers from contracting some type of STD. After all, controlling sexual relations (forced or otherwise) that took place outside of brothels was beyond the interventionist capacity of the Nazi authorities.
