" In German prison camps during WWII, Allied officers who were given special accomodations were supplied with luxuries such as soap.
It was made from the rendered bodies of Jews. "
They did steal the gold caps from teeth and do horrible mutilating and torturing experiments, but making soap from body fat wasn't one of them. It's unsupported - even the Holocaust museum says so.
My guess is that it was because the Nazis had starved the victims to the point that they didn't have enough fat to make it worthwhile. You've seen the pictures!
Interesting; but...
" In German prison camps during WWII, Allied officers who were given special accomodations were supplied with luxuries such as soap.
It was made from the rendered bodies of Jews. "
They did steal the gold caps from teeth and do horrible mutilating and torturing experiments, but making soap from body fat wasn't one of them. It's unsupported - even the Holocaust museum says so.
My guess is that it was because the Nazis had starved the victims to the point that they didn't have enough fat to make it worthwhile. You've seen the pictures!
It seems there is some valid controversy on the topic. At the very least, it appears that the bastards did engage in some experimental work, and small-scale production -- and, the "rumor" itself seems to have been rooted in threats by the Nazi guards in the camps.
Here are a couple of salient links I just google'd up (you would NOT believe the sick morass of Nazi links google kicks up on a query of that sort!):
The Soap Allegations - Part 2 of 6
The Soap Allegations - Part 3 of 6
(Browsing to previous and following pages would likely be of interest to anyone wishing to persue the matter further. I did not, so, I did not.)
In any case, the principle holds as metaphor for this context, and for any quibblers out there, it wouldn't be hard at all to find any number of thematically comparable metaphors. (For example, does the situation with the Donner Party validate the propriety of cannibalism?)
So, the point stands -- the original point is a pointless point, as it rests on a logical fallacy. The fact that one is a "captive beneficiary" of any commodity does NOT in any way validate anything ABOUT that commodity.