The Feature

The Lampshade that Drives its Owners Mad

Witness accounts of such lampshades being discovered at Nazi concentration camps are so common that I’d never questioned the idea that these gruesome ornaments existed. Ilse Koch, wife of the commandant at Buchenwald, was supposedly so partial to such accessories that she was nicknamed “The Lady of the Lampshade”. The problem for the many who have described seeing lampshades made from people (sources include Allied troops, reporters, intelligence officers and former camp detainees) is that no lampshade fashioned from human skin, of any provenance, has survived as potential support for their testimony. Until now.

Related: Mark Jacobson’s article about the same lampshade in NY Mag in September.