| I got acquainted with the subgenre of nazisploitation during the early 1980s when, as a 13 year old boy, when I was scouring one of the many local video stores in our town for groovy genre movies, preferably those containing some nudity, and ended up renting the marvellous Video For Pleasure tape, Special SS Women, in other words, Rino Di Silvestro’s 1976 Le deportate della sezione speciale SS. Well, it was quite an introduction and it certainly delivered. The box contained the following blurb, "Een groep meisjes van diverse nationaliteiten is gevangen genomen door de Nazi's, niet alleen door overwegingen van ras, maar ook met politieke en gewone misdadige motieven. Ze worden naar een oud kasteel overgebracht dat is ingericht als concentratiekamp. Dit kamp staat onder de leiding van de beruchte Kolonel Haas, een afschuwelijke sadomasochist..." |
| Now, the exploitation cinema of Di Silvestro, though not extensive with only 8 directorial credits, has always seemed to me to be more stylish, more poetic even, than many of his exploitative contemporaries, this, of course, without sacrificing the brutal, sleazy and often offensive material. Le deportate della sezione speciale SS is no exception. Grim, rough and often depressing, Di Silvestro still manages to turn a lurid nazisploitation tale into a gripping and evocative movie, this while delivering plentiful sleazy goods. There is abundant nudity with the voyeuristic camera leering at the naked or scantily clad prisoners - during the credits, a woman pisses in a crowded cattle car - there are two group shower scenes, a catfight, the torture of a naked girl, lesbianism, sexual degradation and, after the prisoners have arrived at the prison camp, to rob them of their humanity, there are extended and humiliating scenes where they are first forced to strip, proceed to be deloused while their fellow inmates are waiting in line naked, then submitted to gynaecological examinations, before having their heads and vaginas shaved in an unflinching and grimly realistic manner, resulting in some exposed female genitalia, though later, during the steamy lesbian encounter between Sara Sperati and Ofelia Meyer, there are a couple of far more explicit shots of labia on display. |
| From the get go, the movie bathes in an atmosphere of despair. There seems to be no hope for these poor women, their futures unrelentingly bleak as they are about to be sent off to other camps, either to work, to be prostituted, or to die. That is, if they even survive the clutches of Herr Erner, the sadistic commander of the camp, or those of his treacherous Kapo spies, the 'prominenten.' This stark and gritty tone is enhanced by the moody production values provided by the old, humid and crumbling castle, and Sergio D’Offizi’s slick cinematography, which often creates a wonderfully Gothic mood, the deep blues draped in even deeper and frighteningly sinister shadows while the camera roams and tracks through the castle's dank and decaying interiors, grimy dungeons and torture chambers. Add to this some evocative and stylish framing, good use of depth and light, and some effective hand-held shot which put us right in the middle of the action. The incessant sense of despair is further enhanced by Stelvio Cipriani's melancholic score, while a fabulous cast of exploitation regulars playing out the story of power, lust, madness and betrayal. |
| This a special camp, ladies. You will remain here until the camp commander has decided what other destinations - definite ones - to send you to. Some of you will have the opportunity of working for the Third Reich. But this privilege will be given only to those of you who pass the selection. For no reason are you to leave the block you have been assigned to. Any kind of relationship with the guards will be severely punished. Anyone who tries to escape from the Lager or organizes escape will be immediately shot. The reports of the ‘Prominenten’ on your behaviour will be most important. — Fraulein Helga addressing the new arrivals. |
| Set in the dying days of the Third Reich, the film begins with the transportation of a mixed group of female prisoners in a shadowy and filthy cattle car. One of the prisoners, Trude (Paola D’Egidio) is lecherously fondling a petrified young girl, slipping her hand underneath her skirt and kissing her face. “A girl with a body like yours, if she has a head on her shoulders too, can get whatever she wants in the camp. The other prisoners will line up, just to kiss your hand... all you have to know is whose bed to get into. Don’t worry, I’ll watch over you." As she tells the woman to leave the girl alone, Tania Nobel (Lina Polito), an aristocrat of German extraction who has renounced the Reich in favour of her Polish resistance lover, immediately earns the enmity of Trude, who is determined to become a Kapo once they arrive at their destination. “Just who the fuck do you think you are? Your aristocratic background doesn’t mean a thing here, you’re up to your neck in shit like the rest of us! But when we get to the camp, it’ll be a different story, I’ll be a Kapo then and you’ll do what I tell you to, so you better get down off your throne, ‘cause you’re gonna be marked down as a camp whore!” |
| In a flashback, we see Tania getting arrested as she is caught kissing her lover, a young insurgent who is executed on the spot by the Nazis. Then, as the train pulls into the station, Tania and another prisoner make a bid for freedom but Trude notices and alerts the guards. Tania is recaptured while the other woman is mercilessly gunned down. From the station, the prisoners are transferred in trucks to the camp, located in an imposing, decaying old castle. For the rest of the night, the women are ordered to bed down on the straw of a dank and filthy cellar, marked Strafeblock. Later, the resigned silence which has settled over the prisoners is suddenly shattered by unsettling and horrible screams. Moments later, we see the lifeless and bloodied body of a naked woman carried across the courtyard, watched, from their prison cell window, by some of the other camp prisoners: |
| “Another victim of Herr Erner’s...” “Who is it?” “It’s Rada... will it never stop?” “Did you see the new ones who came in tonight?” “Ah, all meat for the butcher...” “More playmates for the prominenten...” |
| The next morning, the prisoners are rudely awakened by the black clad Kapos, or prominenten: the icy Kapo Greta (Solvi Stubing), gorgeous Kapo Inge (Ofelia Meyer), and the already instated Kapo Trude, while stern Fraulein Helga (Erna Schurer) coldly explains to them the rules and workings of the prison camp. Then the women are ordered to undress under the watchful eye of lecherous Kapo Trude, who pulls down a woman’s panties with her baton, and the longing glances of Kapo Inge, before all standing in line, naked, waiting to be deloused. After the group shower, some of the prisoners have their heads and pubic region shaven before all are, ultimately, being sorted into various groups: most will be transported to labor camps, ten women are kept for experimentation, some saved for the Joy Division - the prostitution wing of the camp, catering to the camp commander’s prominent guests - while others will go to Block 6, destined to become ‘field whores.’ The ones that remain in the camp are then processed by Kapo Greta, before getting a gynaecological exam by the kind Dr. Schubert (Rik Battaglia). Among them are pretty Angela Modena (Stefania D’Amario), sweet French girl Monique Dupré (the equally pretty Sara Sperati), and Tania. |
| Later, Fraulein Helga then makes out her report to Herr Erner (John Steiner), the sadistic commander of the camp, who notices the name of Tania Nobel on the list of the girls destined to the recruiting center of the field whores. But since she has attempted to escape, Helga argues that Tania must be sent to both the hygiene and research divisions, to which Erner agrees. Later that night, the prisoners are gathered around a very sick inmate, but most are reluctant to provide help out of fear, one explicitly warning Tania not to interfere: “They do what they want to you in this camp... the war is lost for the Germans but in this hellhole nothing ever changes, they become more beastly, they don’t feed us, they screw us... and kill us.” As Erner inspects Block 6, another flashback reveals that, before the war, Tania (Deportee KZ13615) was an object of lust for a young Erner, although she had always refused his attentions. Now, as punishment for her attempted escape, Erner has her sent to solitary confinement for seven days. |
| During a thunderstorm, Kapo Inge makes her rounds at night and it becomes obvious that she has set her sights on the lovely Monique, whose wan smile suggests that she knows what that sort of attention will entail, and perhaps even realizes how she may use it to her advantage. Kapo Trude is quick to exploit her position and has a clandestine bout of lesbian sex with one of the prisoners in a storage barn, rudely shoving the woman’s face between her legs, “Eat me... ah, eat me, it’s so good!” before simply discarding her after her passion is spent. But vindictive Kapo Greta has been spying on the secret encounter and is spiteful. “You stinking bitch! She is my property! Their argument quickly boils over into a vicious catfight, the two Kapos slapping, kicking and biting. The next day, at mealtime, Angela is approached by Milena (Maria Renata Franco) about an escape plan. She tells Angela that she has used sheets to make a rope and that they could make it over the wall together. The young woman remains reluctant and frightened. |
| That night, a young German soldier, Frederick, secretly meets with his lover Carol, a young timid prisoner, in the Commandant’s private store room, the girl wistfully musing about life after the war. But the young man knows the prisoners will all end as subjects of Erner’s vile experiments and offers his lover a cyanide capsule to use when her time comes. “Erner is a monster! If you have to, Carol, use it, so that you don’t have to suffer.” As they make love, it is revealed that Fraulein Helga has been spying on them from an upper window. The next morning, the prisoners are gathered in the courtyard, lorded over by the vulture-like Erner, smugly stroking his leather whip while gloating over the two captured lovers, now standing naked and exposed in the center, before ordering them to make love in front of their fellow inmates. “Come on, Frederick, show everyone what a real Arian is capable of... a young German soldier of the Third Reich!” Then, as the solemn prisoners utter words of encouragement, the young lovers kiss, gently cradling one another on the dusty floor... dead. Carol has used the cyanide capsule, putting a stop to Erner’s childish and sadistic display of power. Frustrated and petulant, he stalks off, barely able to suppress his anger and disappointment in getting his pleasures denied. |
| He then visits Tania in solitary confinement, reminiscing about ‘the
good old days’ at Castle Nobel, before Tania’s mother betrayed him and
the Fatherland. “Five years have passed since that day... five infernal
years!” “And now you own me. You pick me if you want... torture me,
service me... like what you did to Rada, like what you did to the other
feldhuren.” Later that morning, some of the women are emptying the toilet buckets under the watchful eye of Kapo Inge, who watches Monique pee, telling her that she will expect her tonight. That night, while Monique has a steamy lesbian encounter with Kapo Inge, Milena and Angela try to escape but their bid for freedom is thwarted when injures herself on a rusty spike. |
| Meanwhile, although icily rebuffed earlier, Erner keeps up his attempts to win Tania over with displays of opulence and demonstrations of the control he wields over the untouchable Kapos, two of which, Kapo Trude and Kapo Greta, are now lounging naked on a chaise longue in the cavernous but opulent castle room. “Once you were the victims, then you were promoted to the position of assassins - that’s what the prisoners call you, assassins - you... having been given the power to command, to punish, to terrify... are in this moment nothing more than prostitutes, like all the other prostitutes in this camp! And we, my guest and I... ask of you a show, a performance worthy of the Third Reich.” Erner orders the Kapos to fondle and kiss each other, before forcing them to fellate him. “All for you Tania, look, the great prominenten on their knees... this is for you, Tania, look at them, like dogs lapping at what their master feeds them. Look Tania, your Kapos... those who spread terror through the camp... with a word they can kill... I said look, this show is for you... look at me! I said Look! You HAVE to look!” Needless to say, Erner’s shocking displays of power don’t have the desired effect, Tania’s stoic refusal to watch his ‘spectacle’ infuriating him into another petulant screaming frenzy, before having Dobermann, his loyal servant, take Tania back to solitary confinement. |
| Fueling Erner’s rage, Tania, about to be locked in her cell, puts on a
little show of her own, begging a hapless Dobermann to ‘take’ her,
knowing the camp commander is listening at the top of the dungeon
stairs. “Take me! Take me, soldier of the Third Reich, take me! I need
to make love with a real Arian soldier... before I die, I want you
inside of me, a memory to take to my grave... hold me darling...” Erner
drags his servant away from Tania, pretending it wasn’t her doing, “I
will shoot him personally, I swear it. Take courage my little edelweiss,
come with me...” Smiling, Tania appears to do so but then drives the
knife in deeper by kneeling before the befuddled Dobermann, taking off his
pants, sliding her tongue across his legs and fellating him as Erner
silently droops off. Later that night, Erner is massaged by an obviously
distraught Dobermann - “For some time now your touch is different,
Dober. You don’t massage me so deeply like before... I want to feel your
fingers more strong, penetrating. Your hands for me are like a language
through which you speak to me, Dober, like a dog who wags his tail at
his master.” Erner tell his servant not to be afraid, before raging once
more at Tania, “She’s a prostitute, that’s all, Dober! And you were
nothing but an instrument in her hands. It was me she tried to damage
and she used you, my poor doggy.” After promising to punish Tania, he
sodomizes Dobermann like a dog. |
| With this battle of wills occupying Erner, the other inmates struggle to
survive amidst the capricious kapos, all under the strict command of
Fraulein Helga, as they ferret out escape plots and punishable
fraternizations through spying and torture. In Block 4, the prisoners
are rudely awakened and lined up for inspection by Kapo Greta. Fraulein
Helga singles out Angela, cruelly poking the wound she sustained trying
to escape, with her baton. “Fraulein Greta, this girl needs to be
treated in a 'special' way.” Angela is taken to the torture dungeons where
Fraulein Helga, to the tunes of German marches, sadistically interrogates
the hapless girl in order to find out the name of her accomplice. Tied
to an ancient torture chair, naked, her hands crushed, Angela refuses to
squeal. Helga, infuriated, bashes the top of the girl's head to a bloody pulp.
During laundry duty the next day, shifty glances between some of the
inmates indicate something is going down. Or someone... While Monique
threathens Kapo Inge to tell on their illicit meetings should she
intervene, the other women surround the traitor who ratted on Angela,
drowning her in the washing tub. |
| In Erner’s office, Fraulein Helga reports an alarming lack of medicine, also noting that Tania has been refusing food and water and is now in a very weak condition. At present, she is being treated in the infirmary by Dr. Shubert, but Helga surmises that, upon recovery, she could still serve as a field whore. Erner then visits the infirmary, demanding Tania's full recovery. With the allies advancing and taking pity on his pretty patient, the good doctor nurses her back to health, and reveals to her the whereabouts of ana ancient secret passageway in the cellar, leading out of the castle. As the doctor leaves, Tania hides away a razor blade. Days later, with Tania back on her feet, during the group shower, she informs her fellow prisoners of the possibility of escape. Tania realizes that soon she will be taken to Erner, and that will be their window to escape. That night, Tania sticks the broken shards of the razor blade in a cork, which she then carefully shoves inside her vagina. |
| As expected, Tania is summoned to Erner and the others make the final preparations for their breakout, starting with the disposal of the Kapos. Kapo Inge, the only kind one, begs to be taken along. As she can also provide them with medicine and weapons, and perhaps because of the feelings between them, Monique agrees to let her come along. Kapo Trude is lured into the corridor where she is strangled to death, “Die, you shit, die!” while Kapo Greta is smothered in her bed with a pillow. Coming upon one of the dead guards, Fraulein Helga is taken by surprise and stabbed in the back of her neck with a huge bayonet. The women then make their way into the cellars, discovering the trapdoor, left open by Dr. Schubert, leading to the muddy secret passage and to freedom. Stripping himself of his SS accoutrements, a repentant Dr. Shubert takes his own life. Meanwhile, in his bedroom, Erner is ‘wooing’ Tania, now dressed in a beautiful white silk gown. “It’s because I love you so much that I wanted to hurt you, contaminate, profane...” Drooling over her, spouting lyrical dreams of a life together, Erner is unaware of Tania’s knowing smile, her first in a long, long time. He lustfully undresses her, savouring every moment, “Your mouth, your wet lips, I want to drink your saliva... bite your body, suck your blood, breathe you breath...” Then, when he rips open the remains of her gown, Tania gives herself to him, gently opening her legs. But thrusting himself deep inside her, his moans of pleasure give way to a horrible scream as the sharp pieces of razor mutilate his manhood. Stumbling to the floor, clutching the bloodied remains, realization dawning in his feverish eyes, a mockingly smiling Tania looks down on him, taunting him while the Commander’s blood runs down from between her naked legs. |
| Responding to his cries, Dobermann barges into the room with a machine gun. Erner, stumbing for his own gun, orders him to kill Tania, but the loyal ‘dog’ turns on his master instead, gunning down the vile camp commander in a hail of bullets. Yet, before he dies, Erner manages to shoot Dobermann, leaving a naked Tania free to take the machine gun and leave. Gunning down guards on her way to freedom, Tania reaches the door to the cellar, but she is ultimately shot in the back by a soldier, and dies within reach of escaping the hellhole. Yet as she sinks to the cold dank floor of the courtyard, she knows that her fellow prisoners have managed to get away safely from the castle. |
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