“houses of Tolerance” in the Rostov and Stalino Oblasts During the 1942–1943 German Occupation
Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: The article deals with the organization and functioning of the Nazi brothels in the occupied territory of the Rostov and Stalino (Donetsk) Oblasts during the Great Patriotic War. In the conditions of the “war of annihilation” and the “new order”, Soviet women found themselves in an exceptional situation of double gender discrimination: as “Untermensch” and as “trophies”. One of the forms of sexual collaboration was working in legal “brothel houses”. Formally “girls” were considered one of the most protected groups of the population in the occupation: they received significant income, rations, medical care, and a guarantee from being sent to Germany. In Soviet society, such women became outcasts. The authors analyze the opening of brothels in the Rostov region in and in the city of Stalino, their organizers, main and attendant staff, working conditions and venereal diseases of women. The study is based on the documents from two state archives: the State Archive of the Russian Federation (fund of the Extraordinary State Commission for the Establishment and Investigation of the Atrocities of the German Fascist Invaders and Their Accomplices and the Damage They Caused to Citizens, Collective Farms, Public Organizations, State Enterprises and Institutions of the USSR) and the State Archive of the Rostov Oblast (fund of the Commission for Accounting for Damage and Atrocities inflicted by the German Fascist Occupants on Institutions, Enterprises and Citizens of the City of Rostov-on-Don and the Rostov Oblast). These documents are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The authors relied on the approaches of gender history, military daily life and historical anthropology.
Source: Ural Historical Journal
Authors: Evgeniy F. Krinko, Ksenia V. Sak
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4381665607