Human Fat Soap

Allegations that the Germans use soap from human corpses appeared during the First World War . The April newspaper in The Times of April 1917 stated that the Germans produced soap and other products from the corpses of their soldiers ^[2] . In 1925, the British Prime Minister called this message a lie. ^[3]

Rumors about the production of soap from human corpses in Germany reappeared with the outbreak of World War II . For example , the abbreviation RJF on boxes with soap produced in Germany was deciphered as Reines Jüdisches Fett (“pure Jewish fat”). In fact, it meant Reichsstelle für industrielle Fettversorgung (State Administration for Industrial Fat Supply).

Later, Professor Rudolf Spanner produced up to 100 kg of soap from the bodies of prisoners. The testimonies that appeared on the Nuremberg trials were given by witnesses who worked at the institute. On May 28, 1945, Sigmund Mazur testified at the interrogation that he worked as a drug at the anatomical institute. The bodies were delivered from the prisons of Königsberg and Danzig. According to the recipe, 5 kg of human fat with 10 liters of water and 500-1000 g of caustic soda were boiled for 2-3 hours. After cooling, the soap floated to the surface. Salt, soda, fresh water were added to the mixture and boiled again. The soap had an unpleasant odor, for the destruction of which benzaldehyde was used. Mazur said that for his needs (for toilet and washing), he used this soap, taking himself 4 kg.

According to Mazur, the institute was visited by Minister of Education Bernhard Rust , Minister of Health Leonardo Conti , Gauleiter Danzig Albert Forster . The testimony was also given by two English prisoners of war - John Henry Vuitton and William Anderson Neely, who were engaged in construction at the institute. They confirmed the fact of making soap from corpses.

The Nazi hunter Tuvia Friedman, in an autobiographical book, claimed that while working as an investigator in Danzig , who had just been freed from the Germans, he came across a room where such experiments were carried out ^[4] .

We had the feeling that we were in hell. One room was filled with naked corpses. Another room is lined with planks on which skins taken from many people were stretched. At the other end of the building, we found detailed records and reports, medical and surgical instruments.

We left these rooms, unable to believe what we saw with our own eyes, and decided to put on guard. Putting sentries around this documentary evidence of Nazi barbarism, we found a much smaller structure, locked in a heavy castle. We rushed in there, and almost immediately discovered a furnace in which the Germans experimented in the manufacture of soap, using human fat as raw materials. Several bars of this “soap” lay nearby.

Scientists consider numerous stories about the industrial production of soap from Jews to be folklore of the war years ^[5] . In particular, historians Walter Laker , Gitta Sereni , Deborah Lipstadt ^{[6] [7] [8]} , a professor at the Hebrew University Yehuda Bauer and director of the Yad Vashem Schmul Krakowski archive ^{[9] [10] [11]} adhere to this point of view. This point of view was described in detail by Professor Joachim Neander in the article “The Danzig Soap Case: Facts and Legends around“ Professor Spanner “and the Danzig Anatomic Institute 1944-1945” ^[12] .

In October 2006, the Polish Institute of National Memory completed an official investigation, which confirmed that during the war, German professor Rudolf Spanner at the Anatomical Institute near Gdansk used fat from human corpses to make soap. In a laboratory analysis of the very soap that appeared on the Nuremberg trials, human fats were discovered. Technology allowed to prove this crime only in the XXI century ^{[13] [14] [15] [16] [17]} .

In the movie “ Fight Club ”, the main characters, whose roles are played by Edward Norton and Brad Pitt , steal human fat ( liposuction waste) from the garbage in the cosmetic clinic to make it especially high-quality ( and therefore very expensive ) soap for sale. This moment is reflected on the movie poster.

• Joachim Neander. The Danzig Soap Case: Facts and Legends around "Professor Spanner" and the Danzig Anatomic Institute 1944-1945 // German Studies Review. - The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. - February ( vol. 29 , no. 1 ). - P. 63-86 .
• Walter Laqueur. The Terrible Secret: Suppression of the Truth about Hitler's Final Solution. - reprinted. - Transaction Publishers, 2012 .-- S. 82, 219. - 262 p. - ISBN 9781412849418 .
• Gitta Sereny. Into That Darkness: An Examination of Conscience. - reprinted. - Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2011 .-- S. 82, 219. - 400 p. - ISBN 978-0307761064 .
• A Holocaust Belief Cleared Up (English) // Chicago Tribune. - 1990 .-- 2 April.
• Phillip Knightley. The First Casualty: The War Correspondent as Hero and Myth-Maker from the Crimea to Iraq. - 3rd Edition. - Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004. - S. 105-106. - 608 p. - (Johns Hopkins Paperback). - ISBN 978-0801880308 .
• Arthur Ponsonby. Falsehood In War Time: Containing An Assortment Of Lies Circulated Throughout The Nations During The Great War . - Paperback. - Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2010 .-- S. 102, 111-112. - 190 p. - ISBN 978-1162798653 .

• Witness testimony and soap recipe. Collection of materials from the Nuremberg trials. State Publishing House of Legal Literature, Moscow 1954. Volume One
• Soap from human fat? Discussion by Prof. Harold Marcuse . University of California, Santa Barbara (2006). Date of treatment October 3, 2015.