Imagine, if you can, a world without soap. Dish soap, laundry soap, bath soap. Without it, how would you clean yourself or the things in your home? Would children, the elderly, the sick—or anyone—be as safe without it? Are there any natural substitutes that you would feel as confident using?

Soap is one of those things that seems simple and straightforward. We think of it as being readily available everywhere. But the main ingredient in soap is fat—which was one of the most rationed ingredients during World War II. Aside from bathing, soap, soap flakes and soap chips were used to clean dishes and clothes. Nobody wanted to be without soap.

Grease and Gunpowder

In Europe, cooking fats were extremely scarce and it would have been next to impossible for a homemaker to find enough to make a batch of homemade soap. Even in the USA housewives were encouraged to render and turn in all their used cooking fat. This is because fats were essential in making bombs, gunpowder and other munitions. Did you know leftover grease could do all that?

Sarah Sundin, author of numerous World War II-era novels, writes, “The vital substance of glycerin comes from fats. In the United States, most glycerin came from the production of soap—when fats and lye are combined, soap and glycerin are formed. Glycerin is a crucial ingredient in the manufacture of explosives such as nitroglycerin. It was also needed for other military uses—as a lubricant, in protective paint for planes and tanks, in hydraulics, in the production of cellophane for food wrappers, and in dyes for uniforms.” Glycerin was also used in many civilian products, as it still is today. Perhaps it was the great need for glycerin that kept soap in production during the War.

You can see from this 1944 Fels-Naptha advertisement how important soap was. Would anyone today put it on par with precious jewels?

Floating Soaps

Ivory soap, invented in 1879, was marketed as a floating soap. Its ability to stay on top of water was a huge advantage for military men who sometimes had to bathe in ponds or lakes. In 1941, Lever Brothers introduced Swan floating soap as a competitor to Ivory. As you can see in the advertisement, Swan was used for washing everything from babies to dishes to underwear. Civilians in Europe would probably have been envious of these images of bathtubs brimming with water. In England, citizens were asked to use water no more than five inches deep when bathing—using the smallest possible amount of soap.

Soap and Other Wartime Commodities

Other wartime soaps included Palmolive, Life Buoy and Camay. Palmolive was marketed as a beauty treatment. Realizing how hard women worked during the War, I am not sure how they would have found time to massage their faces with soap three times a day. This ad must have appealed to busy, weary women. Makeup had become scarcer due to materials being diverted for the war effort, but keeping up one’s appearance was seen as a sign of courage.

Soap was a carefully guarded commodity along with gasoline, clothing, shoes and paper. G.I. issue soap was distributed to military personnel in packs that supplemented their food rations. The Red Cross sent soap to POWs in the Far East. In England, soap rationing began in February 1942. As most of the oils and fats used for making soap had to be imported, some of the precious cargo space on ships had to be reallocated for food. Soap could only be bought with ration coupons or a buying permit. For the ones in hiding from Nazis in occupied nations it must have been very hard, indeed, to get enough soap and water.

Today, we use synthetic detergents for many cleaning tasks. Detergent was a recent invention at the time of World War II, having been created in 1907. Soap was much more in use. There is a huge difference between the two—soap is made from natural ingredients, while detergents are full of synthetic chemicals. There will likely never be any substitute for soap that is as natural and helpful to the skin. It is no wonder people appreciated and were careful with soap. Whether glycerin, castile, floating or milled, it is a humble yet powerful tool for the homemaker even today.

These two images are from a puzzle of World War II-era posters civilians would have seen everywhere. They show the urgent need for waste fats.

References

Sundin, Sarah. “Make It Do–Rationing of Butter, Fats & Oils in World War II.” Monday, March 27, 2023.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
Psalm 51:1-2