Menschliche Überreste - Buchenwald Memorial

Office of the camp commandant. You can see the lampshade that was also shown on the table with the specimens on 16 April 1945.

Human remains as a "gift item" for the SS 1941/42

Initiated by the SS camp doctor Dr Hans Müller, the removal, tanning and processing of tattooed skin from prisoner corpses into everyday objects such as pocket knife cases and lampshades began in 1941.

The picture shows a table with human specimens. On the far right is a lampshade made of human skin. To the left are pieces of tanned, tattooed human skin on the front of the table. At the back of the table, organs are displayed in preparation jars. A heart and a lung are clearly recognisable. Two shrunken heads can also be seen between the organ preparations.

Table with human specimens 16th April 1945

On the 16th April 1945, just a few days after the liberation of Buchenwald concentration camp, 1,000 Weimar residents were ordered by the American city commander to visit the camp on the Ettersberg. They were confronted with the conditions in the...

On display is a small lampshade made of human skin, which is presented on an exhibition wall.

Small lampshade Original in der Sammlung seit 1953

The small shade of a bedside lamp, which apparently came from one of the houses in the SS villa settlement of the Buchenwald concentration camp, was taken by the former German political prisoner Karl Straub (1898-1966) immediately after the liberation...

You can see an exhibition wall on which organ preparations and a small lampshade made of human skin are displayed on the left. Above them is an information board depicting two shrunken heads. On the front left are pieces of tattooed human skin.

Pieces of skin with tattoos Originale in der Sammlung seit 1953

The pieces of skin from the pathology department of the Buchenwald concentration camp had been taken after the liberation by an unnamed inmate, possibly Karl Straub, and initially ended up in the holdings of the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute of the GDR in...

You can see a pocket knife case made from human skin. It has a yellowish colour due to the tanning process. It is rounded at both ends. On the right-hand side, you can see a folded and pointed clasp that has been folded onto the pouch.

Case for a pocket knife In der Sammlung seit 2023

During his visit to the pathology department in April 1945, a British parliamentarian received two artefacts from its deputy prisoner chaplain, Dr. Kurt Sitte (1910-1993). These were a penknife case made from human skin and a small piece of human skin...

The picture shows a large lampshade sewn together from square pieces of skin on the sides and triangular pieces of skin on the top.

Piece of a lampshade In the collection since 2023

On 21 April 1945, a British parliamentary delegation visited Buchenwald Concentration Camp to see the conditions in the liberated camp for themselves. Two of the MPs took objects from the pathology department home with them to present to the British...

On display is an organ preparation of a bullet-riddled heart presented on an exhibition wall.

Bulleted heart In der Sammlung seit 1955

The dissected heart is also one of the specimens found in the Buchenwald concentration camp's pathology department after its liberation. According to the report of a former German inmate who published his memoirs at the end of 1945, the dissected...

You can see a collection of hairs on a square plate. Some tufts have merged into matted clumps. The accumulation of hair therefore has a predominantly brown colour.

Further human remains in the collection Human hair from Auschwitz - "Shrunken head" - Skull

In addition to specimens that had already been secured and presented as evidence in April 1945, other human remains, or objects that were thought to be such, were added to the memorial's collection from the 1950s onwards.

The picture shows an exhibition wall in the 1985 exhibition of the National Memorial of the GDR. A Shrink head can be recognised at the bottom of the picture.

"Shrink head" Falsification

On 19 February 1985, the son of a former Buchenwald inmate presented the director of the memorial, Klaus Trostorff, with a "shrunken head" for the collection. His father had received the head at the end of the 1950s from someone who claimed to...

Storage, Provenance, and Forensic Examinations

All human remains in the Buchenwald Memorial’s collection are currently stored in the underground repository built in 2013. The human remains are housed there in a dedicated climate-controlled area, where conditions are continuously monitored.

In recent years, the Memorial has reconstructed, to the extent possible, the provenance - that is, the origin and history of transmission - of the human remains in its collection. The collection comprises a total of twelve objects related to human remains. Additional human remains from the Buchenwald concentration camp are housed at the German Historical Museum in Berlin and at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Historical revisionist circles repeatedly question the crimes committed by the SS at the Buchenwald concentration camp and the authenticity of the preserved human remains. For this reason, among others, the Buchenwald Memorial commissioned new forensic reports in 2022.

The memorial entrusted the scientific investigations to forensic biologist Dr. Mark Benecke. Since 2001, he has been a publicly appointed and sworn expert in the collection, examination, and analysis of biological evidence. Several laboratories were involved. Among other methods, microscopic and genetic techniques were used.

Among other things, the expert reports confirmed that the small lampshade and the preserved fragment of another lampshade are made of human skin. The alleged “shrunken head,” acquired in 1985, turned out, however, to be a forgery made from animal material. (This object should not be confused with the two shrunken heads already documented in 1945 at the liberated camp, one of which is now in the collection of the German Historical Museum in Berlin.) The dossier presents the individual objects and summarizes their provenance, the methods of examination, and the key findings.

Human remains — Historical Evidence and Forensic Findings