GRGR: A general GR historical tidbit. . .

[Kevin Won]

This might have been covered at some earlier date on the list, but I stumbled upon an interesting factoid in Sherer's _The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich_ ( a good read, I might add) that puts an exclamation point on German/Reich brutality with a special connection to GR, as I think will come clear. ..

". . .The skins of concentration camp prisoners, especially executed for this ghoulish purpose, had mearly decorative value.  they made, it was found, excellent lamp shades, several of which were expressly fitted up for Frau Ilse Koch, the wife of the commandant of Buchenwald and nicknamed by the inmates 'the Bitch of Buchenwald.'  Tattooed skins appear to have been most sought after.  A German inmate , Andreas Pfaffenberger, deposed at Nuernberg on this:

'. . .All prisoners with tattooing on them were ordered to report to the dispensary.  After the prisoners had been examined the ones with the best and most artistic specimens were killed by injections.  The corpses were then turned over to the pathological department where the desired pieces of products were turned over to Koch's wife, who had them fashioned into lamp shades and other ornamental household articles.'

One piece of skin which apparently struck Frau Koch's fancy had the words 'Hansel and Gretel' tattooed on it" (p. 984).

Gives me the willies. The Jew/oven parallels H&G/oven in a way I had not thought about before.  

Sherer in _Rise & Fall_ also documents the various German industrial powerhouses which bid for (and eventually completed) the desperate new need for ovens capable of burning the high volume of human bodies (and, contrary to their depositions, they knew quite well the intent) stating the easiest way of loading them was "with a pitchfork," stating a lifetime guarantee against defects while ensuring the highest level of craftsmanship.  The hinges on the door will last, along with the Reich, a thousand years.  Technology, such as efficient ovens and large, 'productive' gas chambers allowed some camps to exterminate Jews & other inmates at a much faster clip then their less innovative brethren.  Such is the result of the German volk which esteems precision and exacting craftsmanship.  The ineffability of these people at this particular time boggles the mind.

Kevin