The author of this book was sent a strange lamp by his friend, who had found it at a rummage sale. His friend purchased the lamp for $35, which is an amazing price. For the purchase of a historical artifact, that is cheap. For the purchase of a used lamp, that is sky high. I suppose it depends on how you choose to look at it, but I think that it was an amazing price for a historical artifact. Especially considering the story behind it. The author made it a mission to research the lamp as best he could, and the story of that research is an intriguing read. There have been many reports from both Jewish survivors and former Nazis about the making of various leather products from the skin of murdered Jewish people, in particular from the Buchenwald concentration camp. This is one little grain of horror in a beach full of them during the Nazi years, or even over the course of history. People just simply do some abhorrent things.

This book was wild. I have been to a lot of antique stores, yard sales, garage sales, and flea markets in my 35 years of life. I also collect oddities. I have never ran across a piece like this in any of those places, though I have found some Nazi items for sale at extraordinary prices. I cannot imagine coming across something like this- an item made from the skin of a murdered person. I found this book to be fascinating, partly because I am a war historian, and partly because the sheer morbidity and atrocity is staggering. If you are interested in the Holocaust or World War II, I would strongly suggest picking this up. It was one of the better World War II books that I have read in quite some time.