[Merged with previous posts / topic, M1]
The Museum's ClaimsThe Auschwitz Museum has claimed to have acquired a Photo Album made of human skin. They concluded it was likely manufactured at Buchenwald.
The Museum's conclusion is based on pseudoscience and fabricated results, and they have widely presented these conclusions as fact to the media and public.
Dr. Joachim Neander from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM),
has already critiqued this research in a Facebook post:
"They tested part of the book cover with IR spectroscopy and compared the spectrum with that of a human fingernail and found similarity. To show that part of the book cover is human, similarity of spectrums would be a necessary condition, but it is not a sufficient one. One would have to prove, in addition, that no other organic material can also have a similar spectrum. And that seems impossible. All further conclusions, e.g. about a provenance from Buchenwald, are speculative. The sensationalist statement that the book cover is "an irrefutable proof of a crime against humanity" is also an exaggeration."
This post will document and archive the progression of this story, present methodological decisions that indicate intentional deception by the Museum, and serve as a discussion for corrective action that should be taken to fix the historical record.
TimelineJanuary 21st, 2020: The Asuchwitz State Museum publishes a press release entitled
A unique cover. Historical proof of the crime.
This Press Release is currently (as of March 20th, 2020) the only known publication from the Museum describing the methodology and results of their research. The Press Release describes:
A unique historical object has enriched the Collections of the Auschwitz Museum. It is a photo album framed in a cover made of human skin. Research by Museum experts indicates that it could have been created at the German concentration camp in Buchenwald.
The Museum Collections already contain another, very similar object, due to the execution technique. Thanks to it, comparative research could be performed using FT-IR technology. Using a spectrophotometer available to the Museum's conservation laboratories, the composition of both covers could be established.
'The comparative analysis revealed the content of human skin and very similar amounts of polyamide 6 and polyamide 6.6...
...
'The research suggests that it is very likely that both dust jackets, owing to their technology and composition, came from the same bookbinding workshop. The use of human skin as a production material is directly associated with the figure of Ilse Koch, who, along with her husband, has disgracefully inscribed her name in history as the murderer from the camp in Buchenwald,' added Cajzer.
...
According to information gathered by the Museum staff, the album and the cover belonged to a Bavarian family that ran a guest-house in a health resort town during the Second World War. The cover was likely given to the owners as a gift by a crew member of the Buchenwald camp.
The object, which is undoubtedly a proof of the crime against humanity, is now in the possession of the museum thanks to the courtesy of the donor, Mr Paweł Krzaczkowski. We got in touch with him thanks to the Sosenko Family Collections Foundation.
The Press Release states that the Museum used
FT-IR technology to determine that the Photo Album was made of human skin. The Museum included one image containing results from the FT-IR analysis, comparing a sample to two different spectra of a Finger Nail:
In the results they presented,
Okladka 1 translates to
Cover 1.
January 24th, 2020: The Asuchwitz State Museum Twitter account
sends a tweet stating:A unique new historical in @AuschwitzMuseum Collections. It is a photo album framed in a cover made of human skin.
Research by Museum experts indicates that it could have been created at the German concentration camp in Buchenwald.
March 5th, 2020: The story is picked up by the News Media. Multiple stories are published starting on this date through the middle of March. There are no further details from the Museum on the research they conducted since the Press Release in January. The news articles include:
The Daily Mail:
Nazi photo album made from HUMAN SKIN of a death camp victim is discovered after collector noticed book cover had 'a tattoo, human hair and bad smell':
A gruesome WWII photo album made from the skin of Nazi death camp victims has been found at a bric-a-brac antiques market in Poland.
The battered WWII album was handed over to staff at the Auschwitz Memorial Museum after the buyer noticed the cover had 'a tattoo, human hair and a bad smell'.
Museum experts have now analysed the album's cover and binding and say it is likely that the skin came from an inmate murdered at the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald, in Germany.
They added that it was 'without doubt proof of a crime against humanity.' ...
The Times of Israel:
Researchers find Nazi photo album bound with human skin:
Researchers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum said they have found a Nazi photo album with a cover made of human skin.
The album was likely made at the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany, the museum said.
MSN Video:
Horrifying Nazi photo album framed in human skin discovered:
This video contains direct statements from Elżbieta Cajzer, head of the Auschwitz Museum Collections. The text overlay on the video states:
Cajzer attributed the photo album to Ilse Kock, wife of SS commander Karl-Otto Kock, who ran the concentration camp in Buchenwald.
And more:
stopantisemitism.orgmetro.co.ukThe Museum's Academic MisconductAs demonstrated above, the Auschwitz Museum's conclusions regarding the provenance and materials of this Photo Album are unequivocal. They have claimed it is made of human skin, and suggested that it was manufactured in Buchenwald. However, the science they used to justify these conclusions, and the results they have so far published, are nothing short of fraudulent.
First, as Dr. Neander pointed out, the Auschwitz Museum in their FT-IR results presented the "fitness scores" of the sample against only Human Skin candidate materials. This is deeply dishonest because there is no basis for comparison to non-human materials. For example, in the plot I included above, the Museum presents the Fitness Score of the Sample as 97.77 when compared to a "Finger Nail", but that number is quite useless without comparison to other candidate materials such as animal leather and hide. That is not an oversight, it is an intentional omission. The fitness scores for other materials would be automatically calculated by the software used by the Museum to score the sample against the reference database.
It is possible that other animal-based materials had a
higher fitness score than the Human Fingernail, and we cannot know because the Museum did not include them in their results.
Second, it is unexplained why the fitness score for the Fingernail is higher than the score for "Skin, Human, Dried." The Museum presents the FT-IR plots of the sample against the Finger Nail, but not against the Human Skin, which is the material that the Museum is claiming to match the sample. It is deceptive to include a plot against a candidate material that they are
not claiming the cover is composed of, rather than to plot the results against the material that they are claiming is the match. Presumably, that plot does not look as compelling for the purposes of a press release.
Third, it is clear that some transformation has been done to the data from the Cover, as the Y-axis is on a completely different scale than the reference spectra of the Finergnails. It's not uncommon for such transformations to be used when measurements are taken by different instruments, but this underscores the negligence of the Museum in propagating these conclusions to the media
before publishing their research for peer review.
The Museum's Sleight of HandI believe that an even more serious deception has been presented by the Museum. Again, refer to the plot of the FT-IR results I included above, which the Museum included in the Press Release. The sample in the top plot,
Oklakda 1, translates to "Cover 1."
Here is a question that must be answered: does Oklakda 1 even refer to the "Photo Album"? Or does it refer to a completely different artifact?On the surface this seems like a silly question, because anybody who reads the Press Release would assume that, surely, the FT-IR results included by the Museum in their press release relate to a sample of the
Photo Album. However, a careful re-reading shows that this left ambiguous by the Museum. The Museum does not state that the sample in their FT-IR analysis refers to the Photo Album, and in fact they include vague language that alludes to the fact it is not a sample of the Photo Album:
The Museum Collections already contain another, very similar object, due to the execution technique. Thanks to it, comparative research could be performed using FT-IR technology. Using a spectrophotometer available to the Museum's conservation laboratories, the composition of both covers could be established.
'The comparative analysis revealed the content of human skin and very similar amounts of polyamide 6 and polyamide 6.6...
I believe that what the Museum did was sample the notebook on the left, not the Photo Album, for the FT-IR results they presented in the Press Release.
That would mean that all of the plots and results included in the Press Release wouldn't even pertain to a sample of the Photo Album itself. At the same time, they give the impression that the results they are showing pertain to a sample of the Photo Album to the reader.
This issue
must be clarified by the Museum. It is unacceptable that they present results from an FT-IR analysis without even clarifying what artifact was sampled in their analysis. Their ambiguity on this point is
prima facie deceptive.
Corrective ActionGiven that these conclusions reached by the Auschwitz State Museum have already spread in the media, the Museum must take immediate corrective action. Due to the shutdowns caused by COVID-19, some of these remedies will have to wait until things re-open, but answers to basic questions about their methodology do not:
- The Museum should immediately clarify whether the FT-IR results they published in the Press Release even pertain to a sample of the Photo Album, or if that sample was from a different artifact.
- The Museum should immediately publish the full results of the FT-IR "fitness score" against all the indices/materials that were included in their reference database.
- The News publications above should retract their stories, as the headlines and conclusions that this Photo Album was made from "human skin at Buchenwald" are unfounded. While these stories remain un-retracted, they are spreading false news.
Longer term, legitimate research should be done on these artifacts to correct the public and historical record:
- The Auschwitz Museum should transfer these artifacts to the USHMM for further study. The USHMM should conduct a thorough forensic analysis and transparently publish their research for peer-review.
