joy division

English

Etymology

Calque of German Freudenabteilung.

Noun

joy division (plural joy divisions)

1. (historical, World War II) A Nazi concentration camp brothel and its battalion of conscripted sex slaves of young Jewish women.
   • 1955, Ka-tzetnik 135633, 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.

   (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)

Derived terms

• Joy plot

Translations

Translations

• German: Freudenabteilung