Human Skin Lampshade

[olivesmarch4th]

So I came across this old Cracked article called ''The 6 Creepiest Gifts Ever Given."

That led to this article, which sounds like something out of a Stephen King novel.

A lampshade of human skin that haunts anyone who takes possession of it. People who feel dread at the feel of its texture, before they know what it's made of. A guy who names his human skin lampshade and starts anthropomorphizing it, before giving it away in desperation.

Is this a real thing? Did it really come out of the Holocaust, as the author of the article seems to believe? How much liberty are the authors taking here? Might there be others out there like it? Could the DNA tests have been mistaken?

Also, how freakin' creepy is that, right?

ETA: The reason I'm posting about this is because my husband refuses to discuss it. He thinks I'm insane for being fascinated by something so macabre.

[Covered_In_Bees!]

You should be ashamed of yourself.

[Attack from the 3rd dimension]

I own the book The Lampshade. It's not a bad read. It's not definitive that it came from the Holocaust, but very suggestive. And, really, where else is such a thing going to come from?

[samclem]

There are many threads on this site which go into this.

We'll never likely prove that a lampshade made out of human skin by the Nazis exists. It well could, it might not. There might even be two. But............


It's an isolated incident in WWII. It wasn't a thng that was mainstream.

[DocCathode]

There should be an umlaut over the u. But, I don't know how to do that.

Among its many medical specimens, the Mutter has several medical books bound in human skin. IIRC The doctor learned on a cadaver in medical school. When the cadaver was all used up, he would write out what he had learned and bind the book in the cadaver's skin.

The big surprise to me was that unless great care was taken to preserve the appearance, you end up with leather that looks pretty ordinary. DNA testing, or some kind of expert would reveal that it's human skin. But, the average person would have no clue.

[Zebra]

Originally Posted by olivesmarch4th

Also, how freakin' creepy is that, right?

ETA: The reason I'm posting about this is because my husband refuses to discuss it. He thinks I'm insane for being fascinated by something so macabre.

What the hell is wrong with him?

[olivesmarch4th]

Originally Posted by Zebra

What the hell is wrong with him?

I know, right? The weird thing is, I'm usually really freaked out by this kind of thing. I think what interests me is the mystery angle... how did a European lamp made of human skin end up in an abandoned house in New Orleans?

Wasn't there some serial killer that made lamps out of human skin?

[Joey P]

Originally Posted by olivesmarch4th

Wasn't there some serial killer that made lamps out of human skin?

Wasn't that in Silence of the Lambs?

[TriPolar]

Ed Gein made a variety of things from body parts, including a lampshade made from a face. He may have been attempting to make a female body suit a la Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs. He was the inspiration for Norman Bates in Psycho, and Leatherface in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

[Loach]

Back in the not so distant past human skin was used for keepsakes. Several items were made from an executed criminal in NJ.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iqg39N7WoWs

[aruvqan]

Originally Posted by Covered_In_Bees!

You should be ashamed of yourself.

So the crux of the matter is: Did the author actually get the lampshade DNA checked at a reputable institution, and did it actually confirm human DNA.

Look, there was a lot of crap going on in the death camps, and it has been confirmed that at least one person was collecting skin with tattoos, and at least one person was preserving organ/body part samples. [I understand that there was a hell of a skull collection at one point.] I can honestly see someone making a lampshade. It really is not a big stretch from a tattoo collection or body parts to a lamp shade.

[Revtim]

Originally Posted by Attack from the 3rd dimension

I own the book The Lampshade. It's not a bad read.

I listen to a lot of audio books on my commute, and unexpectedly, I got my biggest laugh from this one from the part where the author is describing the neighborhood he grew up in, and the tension between the Jews and Italians. When the Jewish kids would walk by group of Italian kids, the Italians would fake a sneeze - "Ah--ah--A JEW!". Then a Jewish kid would respond with "Guinea-sundheit!"

[Revtim]

Originally Posted by aruvqan

So the crux of the matter is: Did the author actually get the lampshade DNA checked at a reputable institution, and did it actually confirm human DNA.

IIRC, yes, it was confirmed to be human by a reputable lab. I do not recall with what certainty, however.

[Eve]

A lamp? That's nothing. I once had a boyfriend who was completely covered with human skin.

[TriPolar]

Originally Posted by Eve

A lamp? That's nothing. I once had a boyfriend who was completely covered with human skin.

I'll be impressed if it wasn't his own.

[rhubarbarin]

I recently learned that human leather was not terribly uncommon, or frowned upon, in the past; and fresh stuff is even available (though pricey).

This is good info (from 1903 no less).

[FriarTed]

Originally Posted by TriPolar

Ed Gein made a variety of things from body parts, including a lampshade made from a face. He may have been attempting to make a female body suit a la Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs. He was the inspiration for Norman Bates in Psycho, and Leatherface in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Not exactly "a female body suit a la B.B."- first, he has a few face-masks, breast-vests, vulvas, & leggins, which he did claim to occasionally wear & dance out in the moonlight, but it wasn't a big- BB-style project, especially not one which required killing people, mostly grave-robbing.

[Yorikke]

Originally Posted by rhubarbarin

I recently learned that human leather was not terribly uncommon, or frowned upon, in the past; and fresh stuff is even available (though pricey).

What an unsettling link. I feel queasy. That's saying a LOT.

Joe

[Beastly Rotter]

Originally Posted by wheresgeorge04

What an unsettling link. I feel queasy. That's saying a LOT.

Joe

I strongly suspect it's a windup.

[IvoryTowerDenizen]

That thread title is even a trigger for me. As a child of survivors, it's awfully unsettling. I'm with the boyfriend.

[Spoke]

I own a book on World War II published in 1946. It contains the "widely circulated photograph" referenced in Cecil's column. The photograph is of a table covered with "Nazi souvenirs," including shrunken heads, various preserved human body parts, and yes, two crudely-made lamps that certainly look as though the shades could be made of human skin. Cecil kind of glosses over this picture without actually saying it has been debunked. Has it been debunked?

I'd be curious whether either of these lamps matches in appearance the lamp found in New Orleans. I'd upload a scan for group consideration, but I'm not sure I want to be uploading pictures of Nazi souvenirs on my Photobucket page.

[Spoke]

Originally Posted by Attack from the 3rd dimension

I own the book The Lampshade. It's not a bad read. It's not definitive that it came from the Holocaust, but very suggestive. And, really, where else is such a thing going to come from?

Does the book contain a picture of the lampshade? Is there a picture online (for comparison with the picture in my 1946 book)?

[Revtim]

Originally Posted by Beastly Rotter

I strongly suspect it's a windup.

Yeah, just another version of that human meat website hoax from a few years back.

[Revtim]

Originally Posted by Spoke

Does the book contain a picture of the lampshade? Is there a picture online (for comparison with the picture in my 1946 book)?

The book has a pic on the cover, can't say for sure it's the actual lampshade
http://www.amazon.com/The-Lampshade-.../dp/1416566279

[Spoke]

Originally Posted by Revtim

The book has a pic on the cover, can't say for sure it's the actual lampshade
http://www.amazon.com/The-Lampshade-.../dp/1416566279

Is that a picture or a drawing? It does not match the lampshades in my 1946 book.

[Spoke]

Correction: there is only one lampshade in my 1946 book. What I had thought was a second lampshade appears to be part of a sheet that had been covering the "souvenirs."

[Max Torque]

Another point for the "human leather" data collection: "Big Nose" George Parrot. Apparently you can still see the shoes made from George's skin on display at the Carbon County Museum in Wyoming. A doctor bag was also made from his skin, but it has disappeared. If an old medical bag made from unusually pale leather turns up at a garage sale, snap it up....could be Big Nose George.

[Eyebrows 0f Doom]

Originally Posted by wheresgeorge04

What an unsettling link. I feel queasy. That's saying a LOT.

Joe

I don't believe for one second that that site is for real.

[kittenblue]

I seem to recall a movie they made us watch twice in high school...maybe "Night and Fog"? can't remember the name, will Google later...about the Holocaust. We had to watch it first with no sound, then with the sound. I recall that it mentioned and showed a lampshade made with the skin of a Holocaust victim, possibly with the tattoo...that the Allies found when they liberated the camps. Is that the one Cecil was referring to?

[Revtim]

Originally Posted by Spoke

Is that a picture or a drawing? It does not match the lampshades in my 1946 book.

I think it's a crappy faded-out photo used in some but not all covers of the books. Do a Google Image search of lampshade jacobson and you'll see better versions of the photo.

[Yorikke]

Originally Posted by Beastly Rotter

I strongly suspect it's a windup.

You may be right, but that didn't change how I felt as I was reading it.

Joe

[Spoke]

OK, I found online the picture of Nazi "souvenirs" from my 1946 book on the war. Lampshade is on the right.

[aruvqan]

Originally Posted by Spoke

OK, I found online the picture of Nazi "souvenirs" from my 1946 book on the war. Lampshade is on the right.

Badly proportioned damned thing, ugly as hell. The one in the other picture is how the author describes it [and it seems better proportioned] though I wouldn't care for mardi gras color tassels on anything ...

[Boulter's Canary]

Originally Posted by Max Torque

Another point for the "human leather" data collection: "Big Nose" George Parrot. Apparently you can still see the shoes made from George's skin on display at the Carbon County Museum in Wyoming. A doctor bag was also made from his skin, but it has disappeared. If an old medical bag made from unusually pale leather turns up at a garage sale, snap it up....could be Big Nose George.

And another: - William Corder

[olivesmarch4th]

Originally Posted by IvoryTowerDenizen

That thread title is even a trigger for me. As a child of survivors, it's awfully unsettling. I'm with the boyfriend.

I'm sorry, Ivory. I was worried the thread title might be upsetting for some people, but I also wanted people to know what they were getting themselves into. I apologize for any suffering this thread might have caused you. I certainly did not intend offense to any Holocaust survivors.

[IvoryTowerDenizen]

It's ok, olives. It's not about offense, it's about the secondary PTSD. Some things are just triggers.

[cmyk]

Originally Posted by Joey P

Wasn't that in Silence of the Lambs?

(apologies in advance)

No, that was Silence of the Lamps.

[Namkcalb]

Originally Posted by wheresgeorge04

What an unsettling link. I feel queasy. That's saying a LOT.

Joe

You think that's bad, when I visit the site, the sidebar ad is this

[Attack from the 3rd dimension]

Originally Posted by cmyk

(apologies in advance)

No, that was Silence of the Lamps.

Now I feel queasy.

[Lust4Life]

No cite, but the story I heard was that a female concentration camp administrator saw an ex merchant seaman prisoner who was covered in tattoos, actually had him on one side while she discussed what she was going to do in front of him, had him gassed and flayed and then the lampshade made which she sent as a gift to Hitler to ingratiate herself with him.

When he received it he was livid with anger and revulsion and sent word that he was never again to be sent a gift like this.

Though she wasn't punished.

I read this a good many years ago, but couldn't say whether or not its true.

[Laudenum]

Originally Posted by IvoryTowerDenizen

It's ok, olives. It's not about offense, it's about the secondary PTSD. Some things are just triggers.

Secondary PTSD.

....I've never heard of it before.

[aruvqan]

Originally Posted by Laudenum

Secondary PTSD.

....I've never heard of it before.

To be honest, I would personally call it something like pwecious snowflake PTSD, as it is not hte person who had the trauma, but their 'loved one' - I theoretically can have it because some family member of mine has been in a war zone and may have PTSD. [even the sight of a body part can cause primary PTSD, so theoretically mrAru working as an EMT and doing a body part search after an accident can have PTSD, and him having PTSD can cause *me* to have secondary PTSD for a body part I never even saw.] If I eyerolled as much as I would like, my eyes would fall out of my head.

I figure it is because we treat everybody like the slightest hint of something nasty has obviously traumatized them and hurry to slam in the therapists to 'counsel' people at the slightest hint of anything happening. This would mean, frex not only does every survivor of Stalingrad have PTSD because of the Nazi seige, but pretty much every family member *they* have come into contact with after that unless they hurry up and get into therapy.

Sorry if I have insulted any pwecious snowflake reading this, just get yourself some therapy and you will be fine. IMHO, secondary PTSD is headshrinkers drumming up business for themselves.

[MickNickMaggies]

Originally Posted by aruvqan

Look, there was a lot of crap going on in the death camps, and it has been confirmed that at least one person was collecting skin with tattoos, and at least one person was preserving organ/body part samples. [I understand that there was a hell of a skull collection at one point.] I can honestly see someone making a lampshade. It really is not a big stretch from a tattoo collection or body parts to a lamp shade.

There certainly was. I've moved to Strasbourg which, as it turns out, is the final resting place of 86 people who has been earmarked to become the official Nazi skeleton collection. To be used to study what makes people inferior, of course. There is damning, chilling correspondence that relates to these people's remains and whether they are to hide the existance of the 'project' or to continue to achieve the most 'scientific value'.

Once you accept that the mindset existed, the idea of such items is almost comprehensible. Almost.

Consider the case of Burke and Hare- Burke was hanged and they have charming things such as a coroner's note written in Burke's blood, books and various etuis made from his skin and his skeleton on display. Establish that the person is subhuman and voila, one less moral hurdle.

[Max Torque]

In case anyone is interested, the National Geographic Channel will air Human Lampshade: A Holocaust Mystery next on October 6th at 10 AM. It premiered a few days ago, but I wasn't able to catch it all then.

[Malthus]

Originally Posted by MickNickMaggies

There certainly was. I've moved to Strasbourg which, as it turns out, is the final resting place of 86 people who has been earmarked to become the official Nazi skeleton collection. To be used to study what makes people inferior, of course. There is damning, chilling correspondence that relates to these people's remains and whether they are to hide the existance of the 'project' or to continue to achieve the most 'scientific value'.

Once you accept that the mindset existed, the idea of such items is almost comprehensible. Almost.

Consider the case of Burke and Hare- Burke was hanged and they have charming things such as a coroner's note written in Burke's blood, books and various etuis made from his skin and his skeleton on display. Establish that the person is subhuman and voila, one less moral hurdle.

Don't even need the subhuman angle. Check out the Hunterian Collection at the London College of Physicians & Surgeons - they still have on display numerous human specimins taken by John Hunter, including the "Irish Giant" - totally, it may be added, against his will (though after he died of natural causes). Hunter hired agents to follow the "Giant" around and keep tabs on him, waiting for him to die - and the "Giant" knew it, and arranged for his friends to bury him at sea - but Hunter got his body nonetheless. His skeleton is still hanging there like a trophy!

[cochrane]

Originally Posted by Max Torque

In case anyone is interested, the National Geographic Channel will air Human Lampshade: A Holocaust Mystery next on October 6th at 10 AM. It premiered a few days ago, but I wasn't able to catch it all then.

I watched that. It was very fascinating. I won't spoil it, but DNA testing yielded some very surprising results.

[LouisB]

Originally Posted by Max Torque

In case anyone is interested, the National Geographic Channel will air Human Lampshade: A Holocaust Mystery next on October 6th at 10 AM. It premiered a few days ago, but I wasn't able to catch it all then.

I watched this a few evenings ago; I think the DNA testing might surprise a few people. I didn't think the program was terribly interesting even though I did watch it.

[Malthus]

Originally Posted by cochrane

I watched that. It was very fascinating. I won't spoil it, but DNA testing yielded some very surprising results.

Please spoil it in a spoiler box. I'll not likey get a chance to see it ...

[olivesmarch4th]

Originally Posted by aruvqan

.
I figure it is because we treat everybody like the slightest hint of something nasty has obviously traumatized them and hurry to slam in the therapists to 'counsel' people at the slightest hint of anything happening. This would mean, frex not only does every survivor of Stalingrad have PTSD because of the Nazi seige, but pretty much every family member *they* have come into contact with after that unless they hurry up and get into therapy.


Sorry if I have insulted any pwecious snowflake reading this, just get yourself some therapy and you will be fine. IMHO, secondary PTSD is headshrinkers drumming up business for themselves.

A couple of things. First, I don't think secondary PTSD is even an official diagnosis. Second, even if that's true, your statement in this context looks very much like you're trying to downplay the impact of the Holocaust on children of survivors. Calling it "PTSD" might be a misnomer, but the effects of generational trauma on entire societies have been pretty well documented. Remember, when you are a child, your parents' worldview shapes yours. If a child has parents that believe that the world is inherently dangerous and without compassion, that is how the child will come to see the world. Not to mention the grief associated with having a person you love so frequently distorted by such a traumatic experience, and the knowledge that your people have a collective identity marked by oppression and cruelty.

I will now recommend (to evereyone) the excellent graphic novel "Maus" which does a fantastic job of explaining the issues that come with being related to a survivor of the Holocaust. It will crush your soul into tiny pieces, but you will be the better for it.

[cochrane]

Originally Posted by Malthus

Please spoil it in a spoiler box. I'll not likey get a chance to see it ...

SPOILER:

Mark Jacobson, who obtained the lampshade from a friend who found it in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, submitted the lampshade for DNA testing in 2007. The results indicated that it had human DNA and likely was made from human skin. He also had the steel ring of the lampshade tested and some threads from the stitching and found they were likely to have been made in the mid-1940s and were consistent with materials made in Germany in that time period.

However in 2011, he submitted the lampshade for more DNA testing by two different labs. DNA testing had advanced by then to the point where DNA could be extracted from deep within the lampshade material. The results from both labs agreed with about 99% certainty that the lampshade was made from bovine, or cowhide and that the earlier findings of human DNA were cross contamination from many people handling the lampshade.