The artifact, which provides yet another proof of Nazi crimes during World War II, was presumably created in Buchenwald, one of the Third Reich's largest death camps.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum says it had obtained a photo album bound with a cover made of human skin.
The shabby book was reportedly found in an antiques market in Poland by private collector Pawel Krzaczkowski. He told local media that he handed it over to the museum because the cover was giving off a “bad smell” and there were human hair and a tattoo visible in it.
Analysis of the composition of the cover proved that it was made of human skin and was likely created during the Second World War.
“As evidenced by the folds on the cardboard, cut to fit on the paper cover, there were more than 100 photographs and postcards in the album, which were placed again in the dust jacket,” the museum revealed. “The photographs depict mainly views and panoramas.”
The macabre album was presumably a gift from a crew member of the Buchenwald death camp to a Bavarian family that ran a guest-house in a health resort town during the War.
This matches the long-held historical account – corroborated by prisoners' accounts – that Nazis had made objects from the skin of Buchenwald victims, such as book bindings and wallets.
“I bound the whole thing in covers received from my colleagues from the camp bookbinding workshop,” recounted Karol Konieczny, a Buchenwald…
