Dutch Police Investigating 2 Pieces Of Old Soap For Traces Of Holocaust Victims

Auschwitz Birkenau the day before the 70th commemoration with head of states, 26 January 2015, Auschwitz, Poland. Today old prisoners visited the concentration camp. Photo by: Patrick Van Katwijk/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images
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THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch police have sent two pieces of soap purportedly dating back to World War II for forensic tests to establish if they contain human remains — possibly of Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

Police in the northern town of Dokkum said in a statement Friday that they are investigating the attempted sale of the soap online. The military memorabilia collector who had put them up for sale has turned them over to police.

Police say that based on the seller’s description “it could be deduced that it may be soap made in World War II concentration camps that could contain remains of dead Jews.”

Scholars largely dismiss as myth rumors that the Nazis had any program to make soap from the bodies of Jews during the war.

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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