It’s not widely known that the Nazis used human beings as fuel for the ovens of their death camps. Body fat will burn adequately, and the Nazis had a surplus in the form of overweight individuals newly arrived at the camps. A few of these unfortunates – most of them women – would be murdered early in the morning and set alight. The day’s total of victims of gassing, starvation, disease, and brutality would then be thrown on top. If necessary, some could be set aside for use if more heat was required. This fact is overlooked in many histories of the Holocaust because – obviously enough – it goes beyond the disgusting and into the demonic. (This is a case where delicacy has worked against true decency: many Holocaust deniers take advantage of this oversight by arguing that the Nazis lacked the fuel to burn their victims. It’s usually put in the form of “It takes 7.3 liters of gas to burn a body. Where did they get all that gas?”...(Read Full Post)