Remains of six Holocaust victims to be laid to rest in the UK
A container holding the human remains was given to the museum after a private donor, who was believed to be a Holocaust survivor, donated it as part of a collection of Holocaust-related items.
By ILANIT CHERNICKA visitor to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum walks past a mural of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Washington, January 26, 2007(photo credit: REUTERS/JIM YOUNG)
The remains of six Holocaust victims murdered in Auschwitz will be buried in a special ceremony in the UK on Sunday.The remains of the victims, five adults and a child, had been stored for the last 22 years at the Imperial War Museum (IWM) London.According to the IWM, a container holding the human remains was given to the museum after a private donor, who himself was believed to be a Holocaust survivor, donated it to a collection of Holocaust-related items that included the container. At the time, the museum stated it did not wish to acquire them. However, it did so feeling that it was appropriate to place them back at the notorious death camp.On Wednesday, the remains were handed over to representatives of the UK's United Synagogue at a brief ceremony held at the museum.Prior to the burial on Sunday, the remains will be placed in a shroud within a coffin and laid to rest at the Bushey New Cemetery in Hertfordshire, the Jewish cemetary used by the Orthodox community.Diane Lees, the director-general of the IWM, said that the “IWM is grateful to Chief Rabbi Mirvis, the Rabbinical Council of the United Synagogue, the staff at Bushey New Cemetery and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum for the invaluable support and advice that they have provided during this process. “It is hoped that the burial, which will be attended by members of Jewish and non-Jewish communities, will afford these individuals the respect and dignity they were denied in both life and death.”
