Citation

Neander J. Hum. Remain. Viol. 2016; 2(1): 23-40.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Manchester University Press)

DOI

10.7227/HRV.2.1.3

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

During the Second World War and its aftermath, the legend was spread that the Germans turned the bodies of Holocaust victims into soap stamped with the initials 'RIF', falsely interpreted as 'made from pure Jewish fat'. In the years following liberation, 'RIF' soap was solemnly buried
in cemeteries all over the world and came to symbolise the six million killed in the Shoah, publicly showing the determination of Jewry to never forget the victims. This article will examine the funerals that started in Bulgaria and then attracted several thousand mourners in Brazil and
Romania, attended by prominent public personalities and receiving widespread media coverage at home and abroad. In 1990 Yad Vashem laid the 'Jewish soap' legend to rest, and today tombstones over soap graves are falling into decay with new ones avoiding the word 'soap'. 'RIF' soap, however,
is alive in the virtual world of the Internet and remains fiercely disputed between 'believers' and 'deniers'.

Language: en