Lampshade made of Holocaust victim’s skin sold for $26,800

Anti-Semitism watchdog blasts ‘despicable trade’ by unidentified Romanian who advertised ‘macabre’ item

By JTA 5 August 2014, 6:38 pm

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Graves of Jewish victims of the Iași pogrom in Romania on July 1, 1941. (Wikimedia commons)

A lampshade advertised as being made from the skin of a Holocaust victim reportedly was priced online at $26,800.

An unidentified individual from Targu Jiu, Romania, located 145 miles northwest of Bucharest, advertised the item and set the price, the Antena 1 news channel reported Saturday.

The Center for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism in Romania, or MCA Romania, wrote a letter to the county’s police and to Romanian Police Chief Viorel Salvador Caragea to prevent “this despicable trade,” which MCA Romania said is “outrageous and macabre.”

The group, a Romanian watchdog on anti-Semitism complained, was not able to verify the claim that the lampshade is made of human remains, Maximillian Marco Katz told JTA.

“We will let the authorities to deal with it,” he said. “The fact is that the ad is still published so the seller was not bothered by the TV’s inquiry of the matter. Even if this is a hoax, the seller should be brought to justice for abusing the Holocaust for personal gains.”