Objects

A rather unusual souvenir from the ghetto (next to an armband, purse and a coin bound in a metal bow) seems to be a cube of assigned grey soap. Its preservation may be related to the history functioning in the collective consciousness that soap with the inscription "RIF" and a number was made of human fat rendered from the remains of concentration camp prisoners.The abbreviation "RIF" was colloquially translated as "Reines Jüdisches Fett" (Polish pure Jewish fat).The source of the story was undoubtedly the experiments on melting soap from human fat, which were carried out during World War II at the Medical Academy in Gdańsk, described by Zofia Nałkowska in the book "Medaliony" (Medallions). In 2004, the Gdańsk Branch of the Institute of National Remembrance published a report on the investigation into the production of soap from people, in which the possibility of its production on the industrial scale was denied. The abbreviation "RIF" really means "Reichsstelle für Industrielle Fettvesorgung" (German Center of Industrial Supply of the Reich in Fats). Poor-quality grey soap, such as that found in the POLIN collection, was provided by the inhabitants of ghettos and concentration camps in the occupied territories. A bar of grey soap from the Lodz ghetto in the POLIN collection is small and rectangular. You can see a row of embossed signs in the centre of one of the long walls (along the entire length). The words "RIF" and "0509" are displayed alternately. The inscription runs from top to bottom.

Marta Frączkiewicz