# Nazi human skin lampshades **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [July 26, 2010, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-human-skin-lampshades/548113 "2010-07-26T22:42:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-human-skin-lampshades/548113/61 "2012-08-15T11:23:31Z")
_\_ In 1893, John Eugene Osbourne was inaugurated governor of Wyoming while wearing a pair of shoes made from the skin of an outlaw lynched for killing two lawmen. > **[Big Nose George](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Nose_George)** > > George Parrott (20 March 1834 – 22 March 1881) also known as Big Nose George, Big Beak Parrott, George Manuse, and George Warden, was a cattle rustler and highwayman in the American Wild West in the late 19th century. His skin was made into a pair of shoes after his lynching and part of his skull was used as an ashtray. > In 1878, Parrott and his gang murdered two law enforcement officers — Wyoming deputy sheriff Robert Widdowfield and Union Pacific detective Tip Vincent — after a bungled train ro... ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-human-skin-lampshades/548113/62 "2013-05-23T04:35:39Z")
Bumping this thread… Just saw the May 1, 2013 episode of PBS’s _Secrets of the Dead_. It was titled “Bugging Hitler’s Soldiers” and was about British Intelligence’s eavesdropping on German POWs, some of them very high-ranking, during World War II. A Private Pfaffenberger, who had been a political prisoner for more than seven years at Buchenwald before being released and pressed into military service when Nazi Germany grew desperate for troops, was later captured by the Allies. He was taped on Dec. 30, 1944 saying he had been told (but did not see himself) that a hundred prisoners at Buchenwald had been given lethal injections and their tattoos removed to make lampshades for the camp commander’s wife (unnamed in the show). The show did not state whether the lampshade story was true or false, just that he’d heard it. > **[Secrets of the Dead](https://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/)** > > Secrets of the Dead is part detective story, part true-life drama that unearths evidence from around the world, challenging prevailing ideas and throwing fresh light on unexplained events. Here are two books on the MI-19 eavesdropping effort: > **[The M Room: Secret Listeners who Bugged the Nazis in WW2: Fry, Helen:...](https://www.amazon.com/Room-Secret-Listeners-Bugged-Nazis/dp/1481020080)** > > The M Room: Secret Listeners who Bugged the Nazis in WW2 \[Fry, Helen\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. The M Room: Secret Listeners who Bugged the Nazis in WW2 > **[Tapping Hitler's Generals: Transcripts of Secret Conversations 1942–45: Neitzel,...](https://www.amazon.com/Tapping-Hitlers-Generals-Transcripts-Conversations/dp/1848327153)** > > Tapping Hitler's Generals: Transcripts of Secret Conversations 1942–45 \[Neitzel, Sonke, Neitzel, Sonke\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Tapping Hitler's Generals: Transcripts of Secret Conversations 1942–45 ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-human-skin-lampshades/548113/63 "2013-05-23T19:03:27Z")
I saw that episode. Some very chilling recordings. A general complained about the SS troops taking Jews out and performing mass executions by shooting them in the streets in public. Even he was appalled that they would do that. Stories of German soldiers who were talking in presumed confidence (being secretly recorded) with other German soldiers about atrocities they witnessed and participated in. Holding children up by the hair and shooting them in the head. Going into a barracks and shooting hundreds of Jews, just to pass the time. All of this was recorded, translated, and transcripts printed. It was categorized and filed. Originally it was presumed the materials would be used for War Crimes trials, but at the end of the war the government made the decision that the method of secret tapings was more important to be kept secret than the results being used, so all the materials were filed away. They only came to light recently by accident. Someone made a request for certain files on German submariners, and accidentally was sent stacks of files of these transcripts. ---
**Author:** ![runningdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@runningdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runningdude)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2013, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-human-skin-lampshades/548113/64 "2013-06-02T17:32:36Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > > [@qpw3141](#): > > > > The problem is that after the war people made up all sorts of things and, with the documented atrocities, just about anything was believed. Even 16 years after the end of the war, as a 5 year old at school, children were stating as fact that all German soldiers used babies for target practice.:rolleyes: > > I don’t find that hard to believe. > > I have read/heard too many separate eyewitness accounts to make me doubt that a preferred mode of killing Jewish infants by SS troops was to pick them up by the ankles and smash their skulls into the nearest wall, road, etc. > … > > ETA: My mistake. I missed the word “all” in the legend that “all soldiers used them for target practice”. Obviously false. Not all. “qpw3141” wasn’t calling it a myth that the SS (the paramilitary branch of the Nazi party) cruelly slaughtered babies. He was describing as a myth that the German military (part of the German state, and NOT the Nazi party) as a whole participated in this slaughter. ETA: I see your ETA acknowledging this. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2013, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-human-skin-lampshades/548113/65 "2013-06-02T20:19:42Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > I have read/heard too many separate eyewitness accounts to make me doubt that a preferred mode of killing Jewish infants by SS troops was to pick them up by the ankles and smash their skulls into the nearest wall, road, etc. That’s hardly new. See _Psalm 137:9_ from the Bible: > [@](#): > > Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones. [Nor is that feeling just ancient history: when SEAL Team Six killed Osama bin Laden during the attempt to capture him, but did not hurt his wives & children, I heard some local Christians denouncing the soldiers for failing ro follow this Biblical injunction!] ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2013, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-human-skin-lampshades/548113/66 "2013-06-02T20:35:32Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > [Nor is that feeling just ancient history: when SEAL Team Six killed Osama bin Laden during the attempt to capture him, but did not hurt his wives & children, I heard some local Christians denouncing the soldiers for failing ro follow this Biblical injunction!] I’m not sure which part of this thread is the most sickening now. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2013, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-human-skin-lampshades/548113/67 "2013-06-03T01:45:50Z")
I’m against anything that blurs the line between contemporary U.S. military policy and either the Old Testament or Nazi Germany. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2013, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-human-skin-lampshades/548113/68 "2013-06-03T11:01:05Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I’m against anything that blurs the line between contemporary U.S. military policy and either the Old Testament or Nazi Germany. puts down Photoshop and backs slowly away… ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2013, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-human-skin-lampshades/548113/69 "2013-06-03T18:25:36Z")
> [@choie](#): > > There’s another excellent article about Mark Jacobsen’s _The Lampshade_ Just started reading this book. Despite the disturbing subject matter, it’s strikingly well-written; I keep finding myself thinking, “nice turn of phrase.” So if you’re looking for a good old-fashioned entertaining summer read on Nazi human skin lampshades, this is definitely the book for you! ---
**Author:** ![Anthony\_Kaye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Anthony\_Kaye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anthony_Kaye)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-human-skin-lampshades/548113/70 "2013-06-11T01:12:00Z")
Only last week I watched a TV programme about Trent Park, the country house where captured Nazi top brass were ensconced in comfort to see out the war. British Intelligence had bugged the house and grounds from top to bottom with ultra-sensitive microphones. Conversations were recorded on disc then transcribed, resulting in 57,000 pages of recorded conversation. One such between two young officers concerned using tattooed human skin to make lampshades. Neither could believe such a thing could happen. Neither, it seems, could the transcriber, who wrote across the page “I give you this conversation for what it is worth” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-human-skin-lampshades/548113/71 "2013-06-11T01:59:36Z")
> [@Anthony\_Kaye](#): > > Only last week I watched a TV programme about Trent Park, the country house where captured Nazi top brass were ensconced in comfort to see out the war. > British Intelligence had bugged the house and grounds from top to bottom with ultra-sensitive microphones. Conversations were recorded on disc then transcribed, resulting in 57,000 pages of recorded conversation. > One such between two young officers concerned using tattooed human skin to make lampshades. Neither could believe such a thing could happen. Neither, it seems, could the transcriber, who wrote across the page “I give you this conversation for what it is worth” See post 62. Same program[me]? ---
**Author:** ![Anthony\_Kaye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Anthony\_Kaye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anthony_Kaye)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-human-skin-lampshades/548113/72 "2013-06-11T07:45:25Z")
Yes. I should have read all the above posts!. There is the possibility that Channel 4 may have made a different version, as our ad. breaks are shorter and the original programme would not have filled its allotted time slot. ---
**Author:** ![Anthony\_Kaye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Anthony\_Kaye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anthony_Kaye)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-human-skin-lampshades/548113/73 "2013-06-11T08:24:05Z")
P.S. I was only 10y/o at the time, but a war crimes trial in the early '60s of one of females in charge of a women’s concentration camp mentioned the lampshade story. It was widely reported in the British press. I can’t remember whether the story was proved or not, but the answer presumably lies in the transcripts of the trial. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-human-skin-lampshades/548113/74 "2013-06-12T02:22:16Z")
The original article says: > [@](#): > > (3) Shortly after U.S. troops liberated Buchenwald in 1945, director Billy Wilder made a documentary about the camp to publicize Nazi atrocities. A widely circulated still photo from the film showed a table covered with preserved human remains, including two shrunken heads; several pieces of what appears to be tattooed skin; and an ordinary-looking table lamp. The film’s narration says that among the items found was “a lampshade, made of human skin, made at the request of an SS officer’s wife.” The press went nuts, and soon the lampshade became emblematic of Nazi barbarism. Via [an interesting article](http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/06/11/photo_german_soldiers_react_to_concentration_camp_footage.html) at Slate’s The Vault, The National Holocaust Museum has a 3 minute clip of [German civilians being shown the inside of Weimar Camp](http://resources.ushmm.org/film/display/detail.php?file_num=1923). There’s a table with 2 shrunken heads and a lamp allegedly made of human skin. I’m offering this not in the way of evidence, but out of the suspicion that this is the clip referenced above. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-human-skin-lampshades/548113/75 "2013-06-14T18:22:59Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > The original article says: Via [an interesting article](http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/06/11/photo_german_soldiers_react_to_concentration_camp_footage.html) at Slate’s The Vault, The National Holocaust Museum has a 3 minute clip of [German civilians being shown the inside of Weimar Camp](http://resources.ushmm.org/film/display/detail.php?file_num=1923). There’s a table with 2 shrunken heads and a lamp allegedly made of human skin. I’m offering this not in the way of evidence, but out of the suspicion that this is the clip referenced above. Are you sure it’s Weimar Camp (with which I am, I admit, not familiar) and not Buchenwald? The above-mentioned book, _The Lampshade_, describes this display as “the Buchenwald table,” and it’s a major focus of the book that it happened at Buchenwald. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2013, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-human-skin-lampshades/548113/76 "2013-06-16T07:46:04Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Are you sure it’s Weimar Camp (with which I am, I admit, not familiar) and not Buchenwald? The above-mentioned book, _The Lampshade_, describes this display as “the Buchenwald table,” and it’s a major focus of the book that it happened at Buchenwald. The caption at the National Holocaust museum says Weimar. The link at Slate says Buchenwald. I gathered from the preceding that Weimar is a subset of or maybe a town near Buchenwald, but honestly that’s a WAG. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-human-skin-lampshades/548113/77 "2013-06-17T02:09:50Z")
Buchenwald Camp is near the city of Weimar, but “Weimar” is also the name of one of the female satellite camps of Buchenwald Camp, so it could go either way. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-human-skin-lampshades/548113/78 "2013-06-26T00:57:06Z")
[Anthropodermic bibliopegy.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropodermic_bibliopegy) ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-human-skin-lampshades/548113/79 "2013-06-26T01:03:20Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > [Anthropodermic bibliopegy.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropodermic_bibliopegy) [More photos and text.](http://thechirurgeonsapprentice.com/2012/01/31/books-of-human-flesh-the-history-behind-anthropodermic-bibliopegy/) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-human-skin-lampshades/548113/80 "2014-06-05T16:11:31Z")
Harvard U. now says they have such a book - looks like the skin was taken post mortem, at least: [http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/05/us/harvard-book-human-skin/index.html?hpt=hp\_t2](http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/05/us/harvard-book-human-skin/index.html?hpt=hp_t2) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-human-skin-lampshades/548113.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nazi-human-skin-lampshades/548113.md?page=5)