Well did they? or did they not make Jew fragrant soap?
If to sum it up ...According to some evidence given in a trial held regarding this issue (and there were a few trials on this issue), which occurred back in 1968, an assistant to Dr. Spanner testified that in his records it stated that it takes 75 Kg of fat, to produce approx 25 Kg of soap.
Now if there is anything I can remember from all the numerous Holocaust images of camp prisoners is how starved they were - just flesh and bones.
(Why was I allowed to see such images as a child??)
but common logic gets a slap on the face with Dr. Spanners assistant testimony.
Since No matter how sadistic some of the people were (and there were! Elsa Cogh, for example) it would take a ton of slim-starved Jews to reach the needed amount of fat. It was just too difficult to do. Maybe, a sick person such as Elsa was willing to settle for a freshly caught British/American pilot, who together with a couple of friends would meet the "fat quota" needed for this pervert hobby?
Personally, I am quite sure that a sick in the head person like Elsa would love to show off such. soap.
She was known for her passion to collect skins with tattoos, or just shrink heads.
So it's really down her ally, really.
So there might have been some sick boutique soap bars, but nothing industrial, and therefore- nothing to send out to the soldiers in the front line, as some rumours had it.
This was even backed to some extent by Yad Vashem institute.
...But there was room for confusion.
Looking further back to the sources of this myth, leads to World War 1.
One of the strange things I found, across my readings was that the English said the same thing to German POW during the great War.
So maybe they carried this trauma with them until they decided to echo this to the Jews? possible? Of course.
Another room for confusion was the letters engraved on the soap bar RIF (Reichsstelle für Industrielle Fettversorgung), however choosing a slim font, could appear as RJF (could be misinterpreted as Rein Judisches Fett- Pure Jewish Fat)...that tiny serif sure caused some havoc.
How much havoc? People who came across such soaps regarded them as Jewish remains, and organised proper Jewish funerals and burials for them.
In fact there are 5 locations in Israel with Jewish soap memorial tomb stone. It saddens me to realise how sadly deranged common sense may drift for a grief stricken mind. it can definitely aid in understanding the scale of suffering and post trauma. people took time off, and went to these funerals, as this document from our little town archive shows:
Council out for 1 hour recess to participate in a soap funeral
Anyway... I had to play around with the soap concept, and I came up with two shots, the one, best conclude my thoughts of the matter regarding this myth
The Soap Myth
A very thorough movie about this topic was made, named "Soaps" or "סבונים"
by Eyal Ballas, and is open for view for free on Vimeo:
This pretty much concludes this topic for me, now let me go wash my hands.
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