More about soap made from Jews….it wouldn’t suds and it wouldn’t foam

Bar of soap made from Jewish fat

Eyal Ballas at grave of soap in Hod Hasharon

The photo above shows Eyal Ballas, the director of the film Soaps, at a grave in Israel.  The words on the tombstone, where soap made from Jews was buried, read “Soap from martyrs.”

This morning, I searched for more news about the soap made from Jewish fat and found this quote here:

Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt told The Jewish Week that “there is no proof that the Nazis made Jews into soap in a mass fashion … There were attempts, but it was never practical.”

I interpreted this as an attempt by Ms. Lipstadt to save the myth of the Jewish soap, just as the myth of the gas chamber at Dachau has been saved by claims that there was no mass gassing at Dachau, but a few people were gassed for the purpose of testing and for the training of the SS men in how to gas prisoners.

The “attempts” at making soap from Jews was mentioned in the testimony at the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal on February 19, 1946.

This quote is from the Nuremberg testimony:

In the Danzig Anatomic Institute semi-industrial experiments in the production of soap from human bodies and the tanning of human skin for industrial purposes were carried out. I, submit to the Tribunal, as Exhibit Number USSR-197 (Document Number USSR-197), the testimony of one of the direct participants in the production of soap from human fat. It is the testimony of Sigmund Mazur, who was a laboratory assistant at the Danzig Anatomic Institute.
[…]
“Q: ‘Tell us how the soap was made out of human fat at the Danzig Anatomic Institute.’

“A: ‘In the courtyard of the Anatomic Institute a one-story stone building of three rooms was built during the summer of 1943. This building was erected for the- utilization of human bodies and for the boiling of bones. This was officially announced by Professor Spanner. This laboratory was called a laboratory for the fabrication of skeletons, the burning of meat and unnecessary bones. But already during the winter of 1943-44 Professor Spanner ordered us to collect human fat, and not to throw it away. This order was given to Reichert and Borkmann.

” ‘In February 1944 Professor Spanner gave me the recipe for the preparation of soap from human fat. According to this recipe 5 kilos of human fat are mixed with 10 liters of water and 500 or 1,000 grams of caustic soda. All this is boiled 2 or 3 hours and then cooled. The soap floats to the surface while the water and other sediment remain at the bottom. A bit of salt and soda is added to this mixture. Then fresh water is added, and the mixture again boiled 2 or 3 hours. After having cooled the soap is poured into molds.’ “
[…]

“The fat of the human bodies was collected by Borkmann and Reichert. I boiled the soap out of the bodies of women and men. The process of boiling alone took several days- from 3 to 7. During two manufacturing processes, in which I directly participated, more than 25 kilograms of soap were produced. The amount of human fat necessary for these two processes was 70 to 80 kilograms collected from some 40 bodies. The finished soap then went to Professor Spanner, who kept it personally.

[…]
“I used this human soap for my personal needs, for toilet and for laundering. For myself I took 4 kilograms of this soap.” I omit one paragraph and continue the quotation.

“Reichert, Borkmann, Von Bargen, and our chief professor, Spanner, also personally used this soap.”