6 - Behind Bars

Summary

The sentencing of women was a profoundly humiliating public procedure, but their incarceration often showed how indispensable they were for their families or as workers. Prosecutor's offices received clemency pleas from the women themselves, their families, their employers, or their attorneys. In accordance with Hitler's directive, forgiving husbands (the majority) could accomplish early releases for the women. Conditions in the penitentiaries were harsh, as also in the military prisons to which most of the sentenced prisoners were sent. The French government achieved an improvement to the prison routine by pointing out that 95% of the inmates were sentenced for a forbidden love relation, not constituting a crime under normal circumstances.