QUORA: Did the German army have comfort women as the Japanese Army did in WWII? answered by Manuel Schiffler, Lives in Germany, Updated 1 year ago
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Great question. The short answer is “Yes”.
But you may be interested in the long answer. Let me start with a quote from a veteran answering a question by a younger German man about Wehrmacht brothels 40 years after the war:

"The first time I went I was a lad of 17-½ and still somewhat of a virgin, I never had intercourse but had done other things with the local girls. With my pockets filled with the 'regulation equipment', I went to the brothel in St. Laurent. I was very
nervous and did not know what to expect. When my turn came I went into a room with a very good-looking girl about my age from Slovakia. She had dark hair and big breasts. Sex with her was great, even though I didn't know what she was saying. We weren't
supposed to pay them in the Army brothels, but I gave her some money anyway. The worst part was when she spread her legs and I had to spray her with the can of disinfectant. Only then would she sign my card. You had to bring back the empty can with the
pass. If you didn't spray or bring it back you got two weeks extra labor and guard for punishment.”

The main reason why Wehrmacht brothels were established was to stop the spread of venereal diseases among its soldiers. It was said that the Wehrmacht lost more soldiers to sickness from venereal diseases in the first months of the occupation of France
than during the fighting in May and June 1940. Therefore, street prostitution was banned, condoms and disinfectants were issued to soldiers, and prostitutes had to confirm their correct use in writing, as described above.

But who were the women in the brothels? And how did they get there? In the case of France, some had worked in brothels before the war. Some had been street prostitutes. The Nazis and the French police sent street prostitutes to prison or internment camps,
along with female resistance fighters and some female criminals. They could get out of the camps if they “volunteered” to work in brothels, which many did.

However, things were different and far worse in Poland or the Soviet Union. Young women were brutally rounded up on the streets and forced into brothels. Some women were as young as 15. According to medical examinations, in a group of young women rounded
up in the Ukraine, 85 % were virgins.

Under these circumstances, the term “prostitute” does not fit, since it may imply that they may have chosen their profession freely. Needless to say, the male-perspective term “comfort women” used in the question trivializes the suffering of the
women. In most cases, women in Wehrmacht brothels were forced to work there, either violently or by the abject poverty in which they lived. They were not allowed to leave the brothels and were threatened to be sent to concentration camps if they
disobeyed the rules or tried to escape. Therefore, the term “sex slaves” best fits the situtation of the majority of women in Wehrmacht brothels.

Sex slaves were found in all countries occupied by Germany, except for one: Denmark. The reason is not entirely clear, but it probably was King Christian X, who defied Nazi authority along with his fellow subjects on countless occasions and who used the
authority he retained under occupation to prevent sexual slavery from being establihsed in Denmark. Norway, which had a collaborationist government under Quisling, was different. A large contingent of soldiers from the Army and the Kriegsmarine was
stationed there. Norway had Wehrmacht brothels with sex slaves from France and Eastern Europe. However, no “Aryan” Norvegian women were forced into the brothels.

In France, there were hundreds of Wehrmacht brothels. Some were set up in former synagogues, such as the brothel in Brest shown below in 1940.

[PHOTO] Source: Bundesarchiv / Wikipedia.

The Wehrmacht believed that affairs between its soldiers and local women, which often occurred, “undermined discipline” and could lead to secrets being passed on to the resistance. An emotional relationship with a sweetheart was considered far more
dangerous than the regular, highly controlled intercourse with alternating sex slaves, each for a maximum duration of 15 minutes.

Wehrmacht brothels existed in France, Norway, Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece, Poland, in the former Soviet Union and probably also in other occupied countries such as Albania, Belgium, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and Hungary towards the end of the
war. One source estimates that there were at least 500 brothels. Most likely there were many more.

After the war, the plight of sex slaves was universally ignored by the victors and the vanquished. In France, sex slaves – often coming from lower classes - had their hair shaved and were publicly humiliated as collaborators along with other women,
while the true collaborators went free. Here is a picture of French women being publicly humiliated in the summer of 1944 in Paris.

[PHOTO] Source: Bundesarchiv / Wikipedia

The powerful stigma against prostitutes was amplified by the accusation of collaboration. Families had disowned their daughters, sisters and cousins who had been abused as sex slaves. Deeply ashamed, most sex slaves never spoke about their ordeal and
tried to bury their past as much as they could. Trauma treatment was, of course, unavailable. Their plight was not even recognized when sex slavery in Asia under Japanese occupation started to become a more public issue in the 1990s. Most women who had
been forced to be sex slaves, sadly, had to repress their memories for the rest of their lives.

EDIT: Wow. 14k views, 713 upvotes, 7 shares and 30 comments in 20 hours! I have never seen such an interest in my history posts. Please allow me to elaborate on a few comments.

1.Is “sex slave” an accurate term in this context? I actually hesitated when I chose that term. Some women had been prostitutes before the war. Food in the brothels was probably more plentiful and perhaps better than what a starving population had to
deal with. But the women were not allowed to leave and subject to harsh punishment if they did not follow rules. I am not attached to the use of the term “sex slaves”. Use your own judgement. If you prefer the term “prostitutes”, I don’t mind.

2. Were sex slaves/prostitutes victims of the “Tontes”, the public shaving and display of women during the liberation of France? Yes, they were, along with many other women, including those who cleaned the laundry and the houses of German soldiers,
who worked as administrative clerks for them and who had affairs with them. It is not known how many prostitutes/sex slaves were among the victims of the “tontes”. It is known that in one of about a 100 French Départements the Departmental
Resistance Committee decided not to include prostitutes in the “tontes”. They may also have been other cases where they were excluded.

3. Did the venerated heroes of the French resistance, who had endured so much hardship, particpate in the “Tontes”? Yes, they did. The “Tontes” were held all over France. Some female resistance fighters refused to participate. Perhaps some male
resistance fighters also decided not to participate. But large crowds turned out to see the public shaming. The humiliated women were the scapegoats for a nation that had included many collaborators who styled themselves as resistance fighters on the day
of liberation.

4. Who was considered “Non-Aryan” by the Nazis? The Nazi and SS propaganda portrayed the people of the Soviet Union (Russians, Ukrainians, Central Asians etc.) as “Untermenschen” (Sub-Humans) and thus not Aryans. But some German Army officers
objected against this slander. Other European people, including Slavic people allied with the Germans such as Croats, Slovaks and Bulgarians, were not considered Untermenschen by the Nazis. I thus stand corrected and I have taken out the passage on the
contradiction between Nazi racist ideology and the establishment of Wehrmacht brothels from the post.

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