joy division

English

Etymology

Calque of German Freudenabteilung. Popularized in the novella House of Dolls (1955), now considered largely fictional by many historians,^[1] although brothels did exist in some Nazi concentrations camps.

Pronunciation

Audio (US): (file)

Noun

joy division (plural joy divisions)

(historical, World War II) A Nazi concentration camp brothel and its battalion of conscripted sex slaves.
- 1955, Ka-tzetnik 135633 [pseudonym; Yehiel De-Nur], translated by Moshe M. Kohn, House of Dolls, New York: Simon & Schuster, →OCLC, page 174:
  Here they kept close watch over the girls' bodies to keep them whole, undamaged. Here, when a girl was flogged she was not permitted to return to the Joy Division. She was immediately tossed on the van and—Off to the crematorium!
- 2013, Jacqui A. Miller, “The Pawnbroker”, in Carlos E. Cortés, editor, Multicultural America, SAGE Publications, →ISBN, page 1686:
  As the girl, in the present moment, beseeches him to “look,” in a flashback Sol is forced by the commandant to look as various members of the “joy division,” and then specifically his wife, service SS guards.

Derived terms

Joy plot

Translations

German: Freudenabteilung

References

^ Isabel Kershner (6 September 2007), “Israel’s Unexpected Spinoff From a Holocaust Trial”, in The New York Times‎^[1]: “Though a Holocaust classic, many scholars now describe it as pornographic and likely made up.”

[1] Isabel Kershner (6 September 2007), “Israel’s Unexpected Spinoff From a Holocaust Trial”, in The New York Times‎^[1]: “Though a Holocaust classic, many scholars now describe it as pornographic and likely made up.”

[1]