Swastika soap tested for human remains

A bar of soap that its owner claims was made from Jewish corpses during the Holocaust has been seized by police for tests. Montreal police last week took possession of the soap from Jewish shop owner Abraham Botines after he tried to sell the alleged World War II relic from his curiosity shop on the city's trendy St. Laurent Boulevard.

The police will conduct an in-house chemical analysis of the bar of soap, which has a swastika stamped on it, to determine whether it was made from the corpses of Holocaust victims.

Botines was willing to sell the bar for $300. The store owner claims he bought the bar of soap from a retired Canadian soldier who found it in a concentration camp. Botines' son Ivan, who co-owns the store, said its ingredients are a mystery. "I can only tell you what [Abraham] told me, which is it was probably made from human fat or grease," he said.

Botines said he tried to sell the item to a Holocaust museum, which refused the offer. He said he has long been collecting memorabilia from the Nazi era. He has also been criticized in the past for selling Nazi memorabilia.