Documented historical fact. I suggest you actually do some further reading before casually dismissing facts that you haven’t heard of before.
The soap factory in question was the Danzig Anatomical Institute, and the allegations were in fact thoroughly examined as part of the Nuremberg trials:
But, besides this, there is another characteristic in the many crimes committed by the German fascists which makes them even more detestable. In many cases, the Germans, having killed their victims, did not stop here, but made the corpses objects of jeers and mockery. Mockery of the dead bodies of victims was common practice in all extermination camps. I remind the Tribunal that the bones which had not been calcinated were sold by the German fascists to the firm Strem. The hair of the murdered women was cut off, packed in sacks, pressed and sent to Germany.
Among the same crimes are those on which I shall now submit evidence. On numerous occasions, I have already pointed out that the principal method used to cover up the traces was to burn the corpses, but the same base, rationalized SS technical minds which created gas chambers and murder vans, began devising such methods of complete annihilation of human bodies, which would not only conceal the traces of their crimes, but also serve in the manufacturing of certain products.
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.
I omit two pages of the statement and turn to Page 363. I begin the quotation-it is rather long, but I think I shall have the necessary time for the presentation of the evidence, and I beg to draw the attention of Your Honors to this quotation:
"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
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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.’ "
I will present to the Tribunal these molds into which the soap was poured. Further I shall prove that this half-finished sample of human soap was really found in Danzig.
“The soap had an unpleasant odor. In order to destroy this disagreeable odor, Benzolaldehyd was added.”
I omit the next part of the quotation, which explains from where they received this preparation. This is of no importance at this stage, and I continue the quotation on Page 364, Paragraph 4:
"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.
"The work for the production of soap from human bodies has, as far as I know, also interested Hitler’s Government. The Anatomic Institute was visited by the Minister of Education, Rust; the Reichsgesundheitsfuehrer, Doctor Conti; the Gauleiter of Danzig, Albert Forster; as well as professors from other medical institutes.
“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.”
I omit the following paragraphs and conclude the quotation on Page 365, from where I shall read one paragraph which concerns the industrial utilization of human skin:
"In the same way as for human fat, Professor Spanner ordered us to collect human skin, which after having been cleaned of
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fat was treated by certain chemical products. The work on human skin was carried out under the direction of the chief assistant, Von Bargen and Professor Spanner himself. The ‘finished’ skin was packed in boxes and used for special purposes which I don’t know."
I now submit to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-196 (Document Number USSR-196), the copy of the recipe for soap produced from the corpses of the executed. I will not dwell on this recipe which is identical to that which has already been described in Mazur’s testimony. But the proof of the fact that this recipe is correct, Your Honors, can be found in Mazur’s record, which has already been submitted to the Tribunal under Document Number USSR-197. I will not quote this record. In order to prove that the record of Mazur’s interrogation corresponds to reality, I shall now submit to the Tribunal two documents which have been kindly put at our disposal They are records of sworn statements by two British prisoners of war; in particular that of John Henry Witton, a soldier of the Royal Sussex Regiment. The document is submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-264 (Document Number USSR-264). The members of the Tribunal will find this quotation in Paragraph 5, Page 495, of the document book. I quote a very short excerpt from this record, if the necessary time is granted to me. This is Page 367. I quote:
“The corpses arrived at an average of seven to eight per day. All of them had been beheaded and were naked. They arrived sometimes in a Red Cross wagon containing five to six corpses in a wooden case and sometimes in a small truck which contained three to four corpses.”
I omit the next sentence.
“The corpses were unloaded as quickly as possible and taken down into the cellar, which was entered from a side door in the main entrance hall of the Institute.”
I omit the next sentence.
“They were then put into large metal containers where they were then left for approximately 4 months.”
I omit the next three sentences and continue the quotation:
“Owing to the preservative mixture in which they were stored, this tissue came away from the bones very easily. The tissue was then put into a boiler about the size of a small kitchen table… After boiling the liquid it was put into white trays about twice the size of a sheet of foolscap and about 3 centimeters deep.”-These were the basins which I have already shown the Tribunal-“Approximately 3 to 4 trayfuls per day were obtained from the machine.”
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This witness himself did not witness the application of the soap. but I am submitting to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-272 (Document Number USSR-272), the written testimony of a British citizen, William Anderson Neely, a corporal of the Royal Signals. The members of the Tribunal will find this excerpt on Page 498 of the document book, Volume 2. I begin the quotation:
“The corpses arrived at an average rate of 2 to 3 per day. All of them were naked and most of them had been beheaded.” I interrupt the quotation-I omit two paragraphs and continue the quotation:
"A machine for the manufacture of soap was completed some time in March or April 1944. The British prisoners of war had constructed the building in which it was housed in June 1942. The machine itself was installed by a civilian firm from Danzig by the name of AJRD. It consisted, as far as I remember, of an electrically heated tank in which bones of the corpses were mixed with some acid and melted down.
"This process of melting down took about 24 hours. The fatty portions of the corpses and particularly those of females were put into a crude enamel tank, heated by a couple of bunsen burners. Some acid was also used in this process. “I think it was caustic soda. When boiling had been completed, the mixture was allowed to cool and then cut into blocks for microscopic examination.”
I continue the quotation from the following paragraph:
“I cannot estimate the quantity produced, but I saw it used by Danzigers in cleaning tables in the dissecting rooms. They all told me it was excellent soap for this purpose.”
I submit half-finished and some finished soap. (Exhibit USSR-393) Here you shall see a small piece of finished soap, which from the exterior, after lying about a few months, reminds you of ordinary household soap. I give it over to the Tribunal. Beside this I now submit to the Tribunal the samples of semi-tanned human skin (Exhibit I]SSR-394). The samples which I now submit prove that the process of manufacturing soap was already completely worked out by the Institute of Danzig; as to the skin it still looks like a semi-finished product. The skin which resembles most the leather used in manufacture is the one you see on top at the left. So one can consider that the experiments on the industrial fabrication of soap from human fats were quite completed in the Danzig Institute. Experiments on tanning of human skin were still incomplete and only the victorious advance of the Red Army put an end to this new crime of the Nazis.
Furthermore, the deliberate starving to death of millions of Russian PoWs is not in dispute, nor is the fact that it was deliberate. A good primer in the sort of things that went on can be found here, although just about any serious history book covering the Eastern Front should cover this aspect of the German campaign (although those written prior to the fall of the Berlin wall may be somewhat more limited due to having to rely on captured German sources - those able to use Russian sources too will most likely be able to give a better picture).
