Telegram sent by Chief Rabbi Herzog of Eretz Israel to the Union of Orthodox Rabbis, New York.

During World War II it was feared that soap was being mass-produced from the bodies of the victims of Nazi concentration camps. These rumors were believed to have been substantiated due to German bars of soap marked with the initials RIF, interpreted as Reichs-Juden-Fett (“State Jewish Fat”). RIF in fact stood for Reichsstelle für industrielle Fettversorgung (“National Center for Industrial Fat Provisioning”, the German government agency responsible for wartime production and distribution of soap and washing products). During the Nuremberg Trials, Sigmund Mazur, a laboratory assistant at the Danzig Anatomical Institute, testified that soap had been made from corpse fat at the camp. Later investigators found little concrete documentation of mass production of soap from human fat, but concluded that there was evidence of experimental soap making. Chief Rabbi Herzog likely received evidence from Holocaust survivors recently arrived to Eretz Israel and concluded that the rumors were indeed true. He therefore cabled the Director General of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), Fiorello La Guardia (the celebrated former Mayor of New York - and himself a Jew) in order to arrange for the proper burial of this “Jewish Soap” in accordance with Jewish Law. Rabbi Herzog likely provided this information to the Union of Orthodox Rabbis as they had maintained strong relations with La Guardia when he was Mayor of New York over the previous decade and would not doubt be able to encourage him to comply with this tragic reques