The claim that Germans used the fat from human bodies to make products had already been made by the British during World War I ( see Kadaververwertungsanstalt ) , with The Times reporting in April 1917 that the Germans were rendering down the bodies of their own dead soldiers for fat to make soap and other products . The claim that Germans used the fat from human corpses to make products had already been made by the British during World War I ( see Kadaververwertungsanstalt ) , with The Times reporting in April 1917 that the Germans were rendering down the bodies of their dead soldiers for fat to make soap and other products .