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Sign up now by visiting history hit.com forward slash subscribe. Hello, my lovely betwixters. It's me, Kate Lister, you are listening to Betwicks the sheets, and I have to tell you. This is an adult podcast spoken by adults to other adults about adulty things in an adulty way covering all subjects, and you should be an adult too. And I know I mess around with the fair do's warning quite a lot, but I do have to give you quite a series heads up

about today's episode. We are talking about brothels within concentration camps in Nazi Germany.

So there is no way that this subject is going to be anything but a tough listen. We are going to be

covering themes of rape, violence, genocide,

sexual abuse, Holocaust, and for many reasons, you just might not want to listen today,

in which case this is your chance to get out now and we'll catch you later for a different

episode. For today's episode, we are journeying to one of the darkest points of our shared history,

the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.

In particular, we will be looking at the concentration camp system.

And one of the littlest known parts of that history, the fact that there was a system of forced prostitution and brothels

within the concentration camps. Even within the horrors of the Holocaust, this particular

history has remained taboo for a very, very long time. It can complicate our understanding

of the atrocities committed there.

Misplaced notions of shame haunted survivors. It complicates our understanding of power relations within the camp system, but it is still an

essential history and the story needs to be told.

In Auschwitz 1, the brothel was in block number 24. Outside it looks just like a

barrack and inside it had lino flooring, cream walls and white painted wooden doors.

They used this building today as part of the museum. In the doors though, there's a clue for

what this particular building was originally used for from 1943 until the end of the war.

There are peep holes. These would have been used by concentration camp guards to supervise the prisoners in each room, usually two prisoners.

But what do we know about the prisoners who worked there? What do we know about the prisoners who visited there?

...