RISASODI
359
mler himself decided at a certain point (I think in '42) that each
Lager should have a brothel. He had two reasons: first of all, he was
a moralist, he knew there was homosexuality in the camps, and so he
said, "Let's provide them with women so that the men will go with
women instead of with other men." In any case, he didn't have the
Jews in mind (who had no need of women anyway) . No, he was
thinking of the political prisoners and the German criminals. He
held it was , well, logical, that they have this brutish outlet. I learned
much later that there was even a brothel in my camp, but it was
"staffed" with non-Jewish women .
Now, the heap of lies that has been built up around this absurd
topic is overwhelming. First of all , the prostitutes were well off and,
second of all , they were professionals . They were mostly professional
prostitutes who were arrested as such and plied their trade in the
camps ... and they were envied by all. I know of a Jewish girl who
was able to pass as Aryan in order to work as a prostitute. That way,
she ate a little more (they were paid in kind), and the clients who , as
I said, were well-fed - being political prisoners and common
criminals-paid her with butter, oil , bread, sweets and even stock–
ings. There was another reason to encourage prostitution: obviously
in those circumstances, the prostitutes and their clients formed
deeply emotional bonds, and the clients in particular felt strong ties
to these women. They confided their secrets to them-and many of
the prostitutes were Gestapo agents.
So the motives involved in camp prostitution were very com–
plex. The cliche of the innocent woman forced to be a "Soldatenhure"
(a "soldiers' whore"), condemned to prostitute herself against her
will, is absolutely false. It was a different thing altogether. I
remember clearly, even after all this time , seeing the SS promenade
through the paths of the camp, arm in arm with the prostitutes on
Sunday afternoons. The prostitutes were not only their friends, they
were often their colleagues .
RS:
Your comments remind me of the passage by Italo Svevo that
you quote in this book, "When you are near death , death is the last
thing on your mind. Your entire being is dedicated to just
breathing.
"4
4. "Quando si muore si ha ben altro da fare che pensare alIa morte . Tutto il suo
organismo era dedicato alIa respirazione." halo Svevo,
La coscienza di Zeno
(Einaudi:
Turin , 1965) .
