Nazi exploitation

Nazi exploitation (also Nazisploitation) is a subgenre of exploitation film and sexploitation film that involves Nazis committing sex crimes, often as camp or prison overseers during World War II. Most follow the women-in-prison formula, only relocated to a concentration camp, death camp, or Nazi brothel, and with an added emphasis on sadism, gore, and degradation. The most infamous and influential title (which set the standards of the genre) is a Canadian production, Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS (1974). Its surprise success and sequels led European film-makers, mostly in Italy, to produce dozens of similar films. While the Ilsa series were profitable, the other films were mostly box-office flops, and the genre all but vanished by the mid-1980s.

In Italy, these films are known as part of the "il sadiconazista" cycle, which is inspired by such art-house films as Liliana Cavani's The Night Porter (1974), Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975), and Tinto Brass's Salon Kitty (1976). Prominent directors of the genre include Paolo Solvay (La Bestia in Calore, aka The Beast in Heat, SS Hell Camp), Cesare Canevari (L'ultima orgia del III Reich, aka Last Orgy of the Third Reich, Gestapo's Last Orgy), and Alain Payet (Train spécial pour SS, aka Special Train for Hitler, Helltrain), all from 1977.