Obj. ID: 57699
Memorials Soap memorial in the Jewish cemetery in Drobeta Turnu Severin, Romania, 1948
To the main object: Jewish cemetery in Drobeta Turnu Severin, Romania - Ashkenazi section
Name of the Monument:
no official name
Who / What is commemorated?
Jewish victims of Holocaust
Description
The monument is a stone obelisk set on the stteped base.
Inscriptions
in Hebrew:
פ"נ
ביתרות גופם של אחינו ואחיותנו
אשר נגזרה גזירה רעה עליהם
שנהרגו ושנשחטו ושנשרפו
על קידוש השם
5708 תנצב"ה שנת תש"ח כ באב
Translation: Here are buried / parts of the bodies of our brothers and sisters / upon whom a terrible decree was passed, / who were killed, slaughtered, and burned / for the sanctification of the Name / 5708 [1948] – May their souls be bound in the bond of life – 20th of Av, [5]708.
This inscription uses the Sephardi and Ashkenazi customs of inscribing the year from the creation: Sephardi Jews usually wrote it in Arabic numerals, while the Ashkenazim wrote it in Hebrew characters without indicating the thousands.
The Romanian inscription on a marble plaque in the lower part of the obelisk reads:
Acest monument s’a ridicat în memoria
celor 6000000 evrei masacrați în la-
gărele de exterminare morți al Ki-
duș-hașem. Trupurile lor au fost tran
sformate în săpun R.I.F. (Rein Jüdisch-
es Fett) și comercializate în acest mor-
mânt sunt îngropate 75 bucăți din acest
săpun. Să le fie țărâna ușoară
Făcut la 20 August 1948
Translation: This monument was erected in memory / of the 6,000,000 Jews massacred in the / extermination camps, who died / sanctifying the Name. Their bodies were / transformed into soap R.J.F. (Pure Jewish / Fat) and commercialized. In this grave / are buried 75 pieces of this / soap. May their memory be blessed. / Made on August 20, 1948.
Commisioned by
survivors, community
sub-set tree: 
During WWII, the legend was spread that the Nazi Germany made soap with the stamp 'RIF' from the bodies of Holocaust victims. Starting from 1944, 'RIF' soap was buried by Jews in cemeteries all over the world in memory of Holocaust victims. Yad Vashem turned down the legend in 1990. Romania most probably has more ‘Jewish soap’ graves than the rest of the world. [Neander]
"Every cake of this soap represented to the Rumanian Jew a brother or a sister lost in the horrible gas-chambers of the Auschwitz inferno. As soon as the soap began to appear in the shops the Jewish communities launched a campaign to have it bought up. Special funds were allocated for this purpose. The government banned the use of this soap and ordered every locality that had a supply to sell it only to the Jewish community. Thus all known supplies of the R.I.F. soap were collected and buried in Jewish cemeteries." [Neander, 28]
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)