Obj. ID: 53226
Memorials Burial of soap and Torah scrolls in the Jewish Cemetery in Gura Humorului, Romania, 1947
To the main object: Jewish Cemetery in Gura Humorului, Romania
Memorial Name
No official name
Who/What is Commemorated?
Holocaust victims of Gura Humorului
Description:
The monument is a vertical concrete slab, typical of matzevot of the period. A large rectangular recession is cut into the slab where typically an inscribed stone plaque might be affixed, but here the Hebrew memorial text is inscribed directly into the concrete. Below, on the “frame,” is a smaller Romanian text identifying the donors, which is also inscribed directly into the concrete.
Inscriptions:
in Hebrew:
פנ [=פה נטמן]
סבון שנעשה ע''י הרשעים
הארורים האשכנזים ימ''ש ונ''ז [=ימח שמם ...זכרם ?]
מחלב אחינו הקדושים שנהרגו
בשנות תש''ב - תש''ד ה'יד [=שם יקום דמם]
תנצבה [=תהי נשמתם צרורה בצרור החיים]
שארית יריעות מספרי תורות
הקדושים שנקרעו ע''י השונאים
בחימה שפוכה
נקברו פה ער''ח ניסן תש''ז לפק
---
נעשה ע''י המשחות הנכבדות
יעקוב פישלער דוד שארפשטיין
ע''ה [=עליהם השלום]
Translation: Here is buried // the soap that was made by cursed German villains, may their names and memory [?] be obliterated, from fat of our martyr brothers, who were murdered in the years 1942-1944, may God avenge their blood / May their souls be bound in the bundle of life // Pieces of the holy Torah scrolls that were torn apart by the haters "with overflowing fury" [Ezekiel 20:33] were buried here on the eve of Rosh Hodesh NIssan 5707 [=March-April 1947]// Done by the respectful families of Jacob Fischler [and] David Scharfstein, peace upon them.
Iמ Romanian:
Donat de Faimilia
David Scharfstein
Jacob Fischler
Translation: Donated by the family / David Schnelstein / Jacob Fischler
Commissioned by
The family of David Schnelstein and Jacob Fischler
sub-set tree: 
During and immediately after World War II, the legend was spread that Nazi Germany made soap with the stamp 'RIF' from the bodies of Holocaust victims. The acronym RIF indicated on the soap was commonly believed to be the abbreviation of Reichs-Juden-Fett ([made] of fat of Jews from the Reich). In fact, it stood for Reichsstelle für Industrielle Fettversorgung.
Burials of bars of soap took place in Jewish cemeteries in Hungary, Romania, and elsewhere. These burials were seen to commemorate all victims and became the locus of subsequent commemorative ceremonies. Romania most probably has more ‘Jewish soap’ graves than the rest of the world. [Neander].
Yad Vashem refuted this legend in 1990.
Neander, Joachim, "'Symbolically burying the six million’: post-war soap burial in Romania, Bulgaria and Brazil,” Human Remains & Violence: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2 (1) (April 2016): 23–40, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301933744_%27Symbolically_burying_the_six_million%27_post-war_soap_burial_in_Romania_Bulgaria_and_Brazil (accessed August 25, 2024)