As of: March 26, 2024, 12:57 p.m
By: Anna-Lena Kiegerl
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Studies have shown that a small lampshade from the Buchenwald concentration camp is actually made from human skin.
This contradicts analyzes from the 90s.
Frankfurt – After the skin specimens from the Buchenwald concentration camp were examined again, it is now clear: a small lampshade is “obviously of human origin,” explains Jens-Christian Wagner, director of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation.
Analyzes from the 1990s that stated that the lampshade was probably plastic were refuted with analysis by criminal biologist Mark Benecke.
“Gift items” from the Buchenwald concentration camp: skin was made into everyday objects
A second case, a specimen with a tattooed lighthouse, is also based on human skin.
The production of “gift items” was a special feature of the SS in the Buchenwald concentration camp; the skin of tattooed prisoners in particular was taken from the corpses, sometimes tanned and processed into everyday objects.
The camp gate of the Buchenwald memorial.
© Dpa/Martin Schutt
The new reports were commissioned by the memorial because these crimes and the authenticity of human remains are repeatedly questioned, especially in historical revisionist circles, and thus set an example against the denial of Nazi crimes.
Because they should be countered by “scientifically based, source-supported information,” explains Wagner.
This is “especially important in times of right-wing shift and historical revisionism,” said the director.
Examinations of skin preparations: Further results are still pending
The items were kept as evidence after the camp was liberated in April 1945.
Final laboratory tests are ongoing in two other cases.
This is a knife case and a piece of skin that probably belonged to a large lampshade that stood on the desk of concentration camp commandant Karl Otto Koch and his successor in Buchenwald.
This is what photos from the time show.