When you think of conflict, you might picture guns, trenches, and daring spies, but there’s another, shadowy thread that has woven through battles for centuries: prostitution. The intersection of war, intelligence work, and the lives of women forced or choosing to sell their bodies has produced some of the most astonishing—and heartbreaking—episodes in history. In this roundup of 10 tales prostitutes endured amid combat and covert operations, we’ll travel from Civil‑War America to post‑war Japan, from Colombian drug‑laden streets to the grim corridors of Nazi concentration camps.
10 A Civil War General Popularized The Term ‘Hookers’
Joseph “Fighting Joe” Hooker, a Union commander famed for his boldness and his popularity among soldiers, found himself thrust into a rather unexpected role in 1863. After the Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run, Hooker was tasked with securing Washington, D.C., and he ordered the roundup of every prostitute in the capital. He corralled them into a single, sanctioned red‑light district that the army marked off‑limits and dubbed “Hooker’s Division.”
Hooker’s headquarters soon turned into a raucous mix of barroom and brothel, frequented by “fallen doves”—the slang term of the day for the women who worked there. Legend has it that President Lincoln once dropped by, prompting a frantic scramble as the doves fled the entrance. The troops that followed the army came to be known as “Hooker’s Legions.” These three intertwined labels helped cement the word “hooker” in American slang, even though it existed beforehand.
9 The Secret Service And DEA In Colombia
In April 2012, a sizeable contingent of Secret Service agents descended on Cartagena, Colombia, to protect President Obama during the Sixth Summit of the Americas. After a night of heavy drinking, several agents bragged about their elite status and hired a group of escorts, among them Dania Suarez. The following morning, Suarez was short‑changed, sparking a heated dispute that drew in a local police officer. The hotel where the debacle unfolded—littered with shattered glass, dog waste from K‑9 units, and a ruined pool—sent a formal complaint, leading to multiple dismissals and even an apparent suicide.
Although no classified information leaked and rumors that the women were Russian spies lack substance, the scandal shone a harsh light on a pattern of misconduct among Secret Service operatives. Reports show they have previously “cavorted” with prostitutes in El Salvador, Panama, Romania, and China. A Homeland Security investigator was also forced to resign after being caught with a prostitute.
The Colombian prostitution scene is tightly entwined with drug cartels, whose hostile stance toward the United States fuels the War on Drugs. An internal probe revealed that DEA agents had been regularly attending sex parties paid for by cartel‑sponsored escorts, accepting pricey gifts and even weapons. The investigation uncovered a decade‑long practice that culminated in the resignation of DEA chief Michele Leonhart.
8 Gerda Munsinger
Gerda Heseler, a German prostitute active in the late 1940s, crossed the volatile border between East and West Germany with regularity. In 1949, border police arrested her for espionage on behalf of the Soviets, accusing her of stealing transit passes, embezzling funds, and cohabiting with a Russian intelligence colonel.
She later secured a secretarial role at a hotel, learned English, and attempted to immigrate to Canada in 1952, only to be denied. After marrying demobilized U.S. serviceman Mike Munsinger in 1953, she finally entered Canada under her married name. In Montreal, she juggled a variety of jobs—prostitution among them—and waited tables at the Chez Paree nightclub, where she began an affair with Pierre Sevigny, a minister in John Diefenbaker’s Progressive Conservative government.
Sevigny and fellow minister George Hees sponsored her Canadian citizenship, but a routine police check raised concerns about a sex worker’s proximity to high‑ranking officials. The Prime Minister was alerted, and Sevigny was ordered to end the liaison. Munsinger returned to Germany, living in obscurity for five years. In 1966, a parliamentary debate resurrected her name, prompting a media frenzy. She was dubbed the “Mata Hari of the Cold War,” compared to Christine Keeler of the Profumo affair, and disparaged as a cheap barmaid unfit for espionage. Despite wild rumors of NATO ties, a Royal Commission concluded there was no security breach. Munsinger later appeared in a film, gave interviews, and died quietly in 1998.
7 The Recreation And Amusement Association
When World War II drew to a close, Japan feared a wave of mass rapes by the occupying American forces, a dread amplified by wartime propaganda portraying U.S. soldiers as savage predators. The anxiety manifested starkly during the Battle of Okinawa, where many Japanese women chose suicide over the prospect of sexual violence. Some local associations even distributed cyanide capsules so women could avoid “dishonor.”
In response, the Japanese government launched the Recreation and Amusement Association (RAA) in late August 1945, a veneer for a network of government‑sanctioned brothels. The RAA’s stated mission was to preserve the “purity” of Japanese blood—especially against African‑American troops—and to safeguard women’s chastity by providing a “sexual dike.” Initially staffed by voluntary prostitutes, the operation soon swelled to include war widows and women driven to the trade by dire economic need, eventually employing up to 70,000 women.
Recruitment tactics ranged from patriotic appeals to outright deception, promising office jobs to desperate candidates. One tragic example is teenager Takita Natsue, who, after losing her family, took a job and soon after leapt in front of a train. There are also accounts of outright coercion, forced enlistment, and even the importation of foreign women. The practice persisted for months until rising venereal disease rates and moral objections from chaplains prompted General Douglas MacArthur to order the closure of the RAA in March 1946.
6 US Military Base Prostitution In Korea
During the 1960s, South Korea’s government sought to keep U.S. forces on the peninsula by encouraging women to serve as “patriots” or “civilian diplomats” at American bases. These women received etiquette lessons and were praised for bolstering the struggling Korean economy, but the reality was far harsher.
Prostitutes were subjected to invasive medical examinations; any sign of disease could result in virtual imprisonment. Some women broke their legs trying to escape locked upper‑story rooms. Clubs were occasionally raided by American provosts and Korean police, with detainees identified by numbered tags they were forced to wear. Many women, even those who initially “volunteered,” quickly found themselves trapped in debt cycles—pimps rented makeup and clothing, while offering loans for medical care. The men they served often abused them, and some U.S. soldiers facilitated trafficking, marrying women to bring them to the United States and then depositing them into massage‑parlor networks.
Stigmatized and left in poverty, these women fought for recognition. In 2014, a group of 120 former “camptown” women sued the South Korean government, seeking a formal apology and modest compensation of $10,000 each.
5 Salon Kitty
Kitty Schmidt, a savvy madam, ran a high‑end Berlin brothel before the Nazis seized it. When she tried to flee across the Dutch‑German border, Gestapo agents captured her and took her to Walter Schellenberg, a deputy to SS intelligence chief Reinhard Heydrich. Schellenberg blackmailed Schmidt with evidence of smuggled funds and forged documents, forcing her to transform Salon Kitty into a surveillance‑laden den, staffed exclusively with women vetted by the regime.
The brothel became a favored haunt for senior Nazis and foreign diplomats, who indulged their fetishes while unaware that their escapades were being recorded for potential blackmail. Notable guests included Mussolini’s son‑in‑law, Count Galeazzo Ciano, caught ridiculing Hitler on tape, and even Heydrich himself, who inspected the premises but ensured the listening devices remained off.
The most consequential intelligence came from the Allies. A British operative infiltrated Salon Kitty, tapping the wires and overhearing a conversation between Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and his Spanish counterpart about a prospective invasion of Gibraltar. The British bolstered Gibraltar’s defenses, effectively thwarting the German plan. The brothel later suffered damage in an Allied air raid, ending its espionage role.
4 Rosa Henson
Maria Rosa Luna Henson entered the world in 1927 in the Philippines, a child of a mother repeatedly raped by a landlord. Growing up in poverty, she joined the Hukbalahap resistance after the Japanese invaded in 1942, having already suffered multiple rapes at the hands of a Japanese officer.
In 1943, while transporting supplies, Henson was stopped at a Japanese checkpoint; unlike her two male companions, she was taken to a makeshift “comfort station” hospital. There, she endured daily rape by up to thirty soldiers for eight hours a day, with no respite because she had not yet begun menstruating. The women were granted a few days off each month, but Henson received none. Soldiers sometimes suffered impotence, leading them to beat her mercilessly. She also faced meager rations, a miscarriage, and two bouts of malaria. During one illness, a Japanese officer named Tanaka—who had previously raped her—nursed her, creating a bewildering mix of anger, gratitude, and pity.
After nine harrowing months, a Huk raid liberated Henson. She kept silent about her ordeal until 1992, when she bravely published her memoirs and joined lawsuits against the Japanese government. The Asian Women’s Fund, financed by Japan, offered compensation—a controversial move critics argued was a way for Japan to dodge full responsibility. Henson accepted the payout, used it to build a home in Manila, and died in 1997 at the age of 69.
3 The North African Prostitute Nurses Of Dien Bien Phu
In Algeria, young women from the village of Ouled Nail traditionally turned to prostitution to amass a dowry. Meanwhile, the French colonial army operated the Bataillon Medical de Campagne, which eventually evolved into the Bordel Mobile de Campagne (BMC), a traveling field brothel designed to keep soldiers’ morale high and curb sexual violence.
Although controversial, the BMC persisted because it offered a regulated outlet for soldiers, reducing the risk of uncontrolled rapes and allowing authorities to monitor venereal disease. In Vietnam, the French discovered that some local “Trojan whores” used their positions to betray French outposts from within. Yet the BMC also performed admirably for the French war effort; two Algerian women were even recommended for the Croix de Guerre after a grueling two‑day trek to an isolated post, only to have the award rescinded due to American PR concerns.
During the climactic siege of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, two BMC units—comprising eleven Algerian and six Vietnamese women—served alongside combat troops. Beyond providing sexual services, they acted as nurses, comforting the dying and assisting overstretched medical staff. Several lost their lives in the fighting, and the survivors were among the last to surrender after an almost two‑month siege.
2 The Strange Odyssey Of Nashville’s Civil War Prostitutes
During the American Civil War, Union General William Rosecrans grew uneasy about the amount of time his soldiers spent with Nashville’s prostitutes and the resulting spike in venereal disease. In July 1863, he ordered Provost Marshal George Spalding to round up the city’s sex workers. Spalding gathered 111 white women, but had no means to transport them elsewhere.
Rosecrans coerced steamboat owner John Newcomb to ferry the women aboard his brand‑new vessel, the Idahoe. However, no downstream city would accept the cargo. Louisville barred docking, Cincinnati refused entry, and Ohio denied any landing. The Idahoe was forced to dock across the river in Kentucky, where the women, ill‑prepared and lacking fresh clothes, turned to alcohol, some leapt into the river, and rumors of a knife fight circulated.
Eventually, the Idahoe returned to Nashville, only to find black prostitutes had already filled the void. Spalding, now faced with a dilemma, legalized the trade. The women were required to register and received regular medical examinations, with free treatment for those infected. This experiment dramatically improved hygiene and lowered infection rates, but the policy was abandoned once the war ended and civilian government resumed control. Newcomb never recovered his ship’s reputation, forever remembered as the “Floating Whorehouse,” and only after two years did he finally receive promised compensation.
1 Nazi Concentration Camp Sexual Slavery
Among the myriad horrors perpetrated by the Nazis, forced prostitution and sexual slavery remain less widely recognized than other atrocities. Recent research by the Holocaust Memorial Museum identified roughly 500 brothels spread across the Nazis’ 42,500 camps and ghettos throughout Europe.
These establishments, euphemistically labeled “special task forces,” existed in infamous sites such as Ravensbrück, Auschwitz, and Dachau. Many women “volunteered” for these units as a desperate survival strategy, lured by promises of better food, disinfectant baths, medical care, and even sunlamp sessions. Others were deceived into believing they would be released after six months. The veneer of voluntariness has led to lingering stigma, and most survivors did not pursue post‑war compensation, feeling it would be degrading and because sexual crimes received little attention in the immediate aftermath.
The brothels served multiple purposes: they provided recreation for SS officers, acted as incentives for camp laborers, and rewarded foremen and barrack heads. While the SS rigorously monitored STDs, contraception was left to the women, resulting in occasional pregnancies. Those women were removed from the brothels and subjected to forced abortions. Heinrich Himmler, overseeing the system, was also preoccupied with homosexuality, which he believed threatened the German birth rate. He ordered “cures” for gay men, including forced visits to the brothels and placement in labor battalions alongside prostitute‑staffed units, a policy that proved disastrous and often reinforced trauma.