Holocaust victims' remains, secretly conserved in French medical school, buried at last
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Members of the Jewish community of Strasbourg carry a coffin bearing the remains of a Jewish victim of Nazi anatomist August Hirt, during a ceremony at the Jewish cemetery of Cronenbourg, eastern France, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2015. The remains of Holocaust victims kept for decades in a French medical school were laid to rest on Sunday. (AP Photo/Christian Lutz) (The Associated Press)
The remains of Holocaust victims stored for decades in a French medical school have at last been laid to rest.
Several hundred people gathered Sunday for a sober burial ceremony in eastern France for the victims.
The corpses of dozens of people were sent to the anatomy institute at the University of Strasbourg for Nazi research. Some remains were buried after the war, but a few were saved and even put on display for what were described as scientific purposes.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Then they were apparently forgotten — until July, when researcher Raphael Toledano and the institute's director discovered jars and test tubes in a locked room.
The remains belonged to multiple people, and only one has been definitively identified: Menachem Taffem, a Polish Jew deported to Auschwitz and gassed to death.