Numbers

Most figures in this case come from reportage, not from case files. Each is given with its range and its source. Where there is only one source, we say so.

How many women

03001,500

"There is already evidence that by 1980 about 300 supposed ballerinas were sent to Italy, and it is suspected the number may be five times higher," wrote Jan Śpiewak in Antena; Wikipedia attributes the figure to the investigation.^[1]^[2] Dobrowolska and My Company Polska give 1,500.^[3]^[5] One dancer estimated Gaviraghi's venues alone at 700 Polish women.^[2] How many never returned is unknown; Dobrowolska writes "a majority".^[5]

The same in dots: 1,500 places, 300 filled. For comparison, KCIK assisted 289 people in the whole of 2024.^[11]

Who got what, per day, per woman

Club paid ZPR$220

Stayed with ZPR$187

Dancer received$33

Recruiter, per day$3

Rates from the 1981 press, after Kowalik and Dzierżanowski; the latter qualifies the 220-dollar figure with "reportedly".^[2]^[3] 33 dollars is 15 percent of the fee. For scale: 33 dollars was then roughly a month's wages in Poland.^[3]

Other sums

What	How much	Source
Recruiter's fee per woman recruited	$500	^[2]^[3]
ZPR employee from a club owner when a client took a monthly flat rate	$500	^[2]^[8]
ZPR employee from a woman, per night with a client, "on the side"	$20	^[2]^[8]
A booth, per night (refused by Mariola)	15,000 lire	^[2]
A night with a client, price to the owner	200,000 to 300,000 lire	^[2]
The woman's share of that price	5%	^[2]
Commission for getting a client to order	100 lire	^[2]
Total profit of the Polish recruiters per the militia, at least	$1,000,000	^[1]^[2]
Bail forfeited by Cassaglia and Massieri, each	$100,000	^[2]

Investigation and trial

What	How many	Source
Dancers questioned immediately on return	40	^[2]^[3]
Women questioned over the whole investigation	over 300	^[1]
Italians arrested in Poland	2	^[1]
Length of investigation	3 years	^[2]
Heaviest sentence	2 years, suspended	^[1]^[2]
Convictions for trafficking	0	^[1]^[2]

Context: prostitution in communist Poland

What	How many	Source
Prostitutes registered by the militia, 1954	1,700	^[19]
Registered, 1969	nearly 10,000	^[19]
Hotel Europejski staff trial, 1973: accused / women testifying	9 / 17	^[17]
Women recruited through ZPR, per UPI, 7 May 1981	at least 300	^[15]

The hotel where the ZPR "auditions" were held seven years later had already been through a trial for profiting from prostitution, reported at the time by TIME as the case of the "hard-currency girls".^[17]

For scale: Poland today

2024	How many	Source
Potential trafficking victims assisted by the national centre KCIK	289	^[11]
of which sexual exploitation	21	^[11]
of which forced labour	191	^[11]
Convicted under art. 189a of the Penal Code (trafficking)	20	^[11]

Forty years after Dziwex the proportions have reversed: most identified victims today are victims of forced labour, and Poland is more often a destination than a source country.^[11]^[12] The mechanism, though, is the same.