A DISTURBING lampshade made of flayed human skin that belonged to a Nazi boss and his wife “The Red Witch” has been uncovered by scientists.
Scientists made the shock discovery at the Buchenwald concentration camp and now have evidence it used stretched human skin.
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In 1992, a report had wrongfully identified the lampshade material to be made of plastic – a mistake which fuelled Holocaust deniers’ ridiculous attempts to deny the Nazi’s atrocious crimes.
But for years, it has been suspected that the small lampshade was actually made of a human epidermis – albeit, there wasn’t enough proof to support the claims.
It wasn’t until The Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorial Foundation in Thuringia used the latest technology to examine the lampshade that the horrifying suspicions were confirmed.
After performing microscopic and forensic analyses, criminal biologist Mark Benecke, 53, assured that the material “can only be human”.
The director of the concentration camp memorial, Jens-Christian Wagner, said that the lampshade is proof of how “completely dehumanised” the SS were.
He added that no other German concentration camp had produced anything like it.
The chilling artefact was retrieved by the former German political prisoner Karl Straub from one of the houses in a SS villa settlement near the concentration camp – soon after the Nazi defeat in April 1945.
It allegedly belonged to a notorious Nazi officer, Karl-Otto Koch and his wife Ilse Koch who were both sentenced to life for the hair-rising crimes they committed.
Karl-Otto was appointed the commandant of the newly established Buchenwald Concentration camp in 1937 but just four years later he was relieved of command over negligence and drunkenness.
His wife, Ilse, gained a cruel reputation during that time with many calling her “the red witch” and “the beast of Buchenwald” for her blood-thirsty tendencies.
Some witnesses recalled seeing the lamp being made of skin on special orders of the “Red Witch”.
Some heinous acts of Ilse included selecting tattooed prisoners to be executed to use their skin for items, and inciting murders and assaults.
“The Beast of Buchenwald” was finally sentenced to life in 1947 but died by suicide a few years later in her prison cell.
The lampshade was then put on display at the concentration camp memorial centre from 1954 to 1990.
It was removed from display due to ethical reasons after people began suspecting that it may in fact have been made using human skin.
The foundation says on its website: “We deliberately do not show human remains in our exhibitions, even though they are in our collection.
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“Actually, they should be buried for humanitarian reasons.
“However, since they are also evidence of the National Socialist crimes in the concentration camps, we keep them.”
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