Filmmaker Ari Libsker drew from his own exposure to these works for a new documentary film that examines this "distinctly Israeli genre" of porn: "I realized that the first Holocaust pictures I saw, as one who grew up here, were of naked women ... We were in elementary school. I remember how embarrassed we were." While they were ostensibly based on actual first-person accounts by survivors of concentration camps, Libsker contends that the stalags were a "popular extension" of works by the writer who gave the first account of the Holocaust in Hebrew—and who allegedly embellished the historical record with tales of sexual slavery and prosititution in the Nazi's notorious Pleasure Block in Auschwitz. Whatever their provenance, stalags faded from the Israeli publishing scene only a few years after they first appeared, although their legacy lives on in any number of BDSM and sexploitation works produced since then. Midnight movie classic "Ilsa: She-Wolf Of The SS" didn't exactly come from nowhere, you know.

· "Israel's Unexpected Spinoff From a Holocaust Trial" (NY Times)
· "Fictitious memory" (haaretz.com)
· Above: Ari Libsker's "Stalags - Sex & Holocaust - opening sequence" (YouTube; see more excerpts here)
· Ari Libsker (Wikipedia)
· See also: "Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS" (Don Edmonds 1975) (film stills @ livejournal.com, via bedazzled.blogs.com)

More controversy today from that hotbed of sexual scandal—the Israeli consulate in New York. It seems the ambassadors from the Holy Land are quite proud of the spread in the new issue of Maxim starring the Women of the Israeli Defense Forces. So proud, in fact, that they're throwing a party tonight at the consulate to celebrate, hosted by one of the stars of the bikini laden pictorial, Miss Israel 2004 Gal Gadot. Believe it or not, there's a few people back in Israel that aren't thrilled about it.

Never mind the fact that this isn't the first time Israeli has gone for the, uh ... gut to promote it's sandy shores. Never mind that Maxim is about a year late to the "army women are hot" meme. (By the way, since military service is compulsory over there aren't all Israeli women "Women of the IDF"?) This is the same consulate that as little as two months ago had a gay pornstar on the payroll, so it's obvious these guys know how to have fun. Yet, some spoilsports in the Knesset feel this isn't an appropriate use of the government's time or money, or the best way to sell their nation to the rest of the world. We disagree completely. Beautiful women are the greatest advertisement there is, and a little swimsuit salesmanship never hurt anyone. No, what bother us is that our Gawker brothers and sisters asked readers to submit the best pun-filled headline to attach to this story and not one contributor thought to add a variation on "Assraelis." And they're supposed to be the literary ones?

· Women of the Israeli Defense Forces (maximonline.com)
· BABES IN OY LAND SCUFFLE (nypost.com)
· Rewriting The Post: Hatikva Hotties (Gawker)
· "I'd like to invade her Gaza Strip" (radosh.net)

Previously: Breaking (No, Really): Roman Ragazzi Resigns, DVD Review: "Assraelis", Flesh Flicks: Invasion of Privacy, Wet Spots: Israeli Tourism Video, Israeli Army Girls, Isragirls: Israeli Escort Agency, Israeli Thong Hotness

· Who knew that Tee Corrine's classic 1973 Cunt Coloring Book was available on Amazon? We're so excited about ordering copies for everyone we know that we're going to have even more trouble staying inside the lines! (random-good-stuff.com)

· Parents, please remember "the birds and the bees" is supposed to be a lecture to your kids, not a live presentation in front of them. The goal is teach them about sex, not scare them away from it forever.

· A day after teasing everyone with a glimpse of sideboob, Lindsay Lohan continues to work her way back into the spotlight by serving up a pantyhose-sheathed upskirt shot. One day at a time, Lindsay, one day at a time! (drunkenstepfather.com)

· Orbitz' advertising is not very subtle. They are talking about cocks, right? (copyranter.blogspot.com)

· A Montreal YMCA tries to figure out how to keep wandering eyes from ogling spandex-clad exercisers, but isn't that the whole point of working out? (canada.com)

· Hooters are on their way to Israel—the restaurant, we mean, not the other kind. They've had those forever. (reuters.com)

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Previously: Morning Wood Archives/Wet Spots Archives

· The young ones have finally learned that maybe posting your naughty spring break pictures on the interwebs isn't such a hot idea. We know you swore all your MySpace friends to secrecy, but that's not quite how it works. (abcnews.go.com)

· Snobby Westchester, NY residents are peeved at their neighbor who turned a $3 million mansion into a BDSM dungeon; for that cost it must be the nicest dungeon anyone has ever been whipped in, so they're probably just jealous. (nypost.com)

· Britain is in crisis mode over the shortage of its most precious natural resource: sperm. They're still making it; it just turns out that most guys would rather keep it to themselves. (scotsman.com)

· Local librarians in Illinois find two amorous teens "researching" each other in the stacks. What's the Dewey Decimal Number for "getting freaky"? (cbs2chicago.com)

· The life of a recovering porn addict is a rough one. Delivering all those "scared straight" lectures takes a lot out of you. (royalpurplenews.com)

· Israel's Knesset tries to clamp down on internet porn. Isn't the Middle East chaotic enough? (xbiz.com)

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Previously: Morning Wood Archives/Wet Spots Archives