April 13, 2016
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By Larry A. Brown
Photo courtesy Chris Cross and the Jewish Federation of St. Louis Rabbi Yosef Landa stands in the Chevra Kadisha Cemetery in St. Louis on April 3 before a ceremony where the remains of an unknown victim of the Dachau Concentration Camp were laid to rest.
Remains of an anonymous concentration camp victim are laid to rest in St. Louis
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Home & Garden
By Sara Hardin A burial service was held under very special circumstances on Sunday, April 3 at the Chevra Kadisha Cemetery in St. Louis. The service laid to rest a small bundle of human remains obtained by William Elston from Dachau Concentration Camp, which was liberated on April 29, 1945. Elston, who served in the European Theater in World War II, brought the remains back to the United States as proof of the terrible events that occurred during the Holocaust. Debra Cordy, Elston’s daughter, recovered the remains after Elson’s death and decided that the best course of action would be to entrust them to the St. Louis Holocaust Museum. “Once the remains were brought to the museum, they were accepted to become part of our Holocaust Museum archives,” said Dan Reich, Curator and Director of Education at the St. Louis Holocaust Museum and Learning Center. “Debra Cordy was extremely eager that these remains be treated respectfully and appropriately, which is why she wanted to bring them to a Jewish organization. We accepted them with the intention of doing the proper thing with them. While we know there were other prisoners at Dachau in addition to Jewish prisoners, such as political prisoners
and other victims of the Nazis, the majority were Jewish, so we were told that we could assume that the remains were those of a Jewish victim. In that case, the proper thing to do would be the same as with any other deceased Jewish human being: return them to the earth.” Reich decided to consult Rabbi Yosef Landa, Chabad of Greater St. Louis, on how to handle the remains. For Landa, the answer was simple: a Jewish burial as mandated by Jewish law, among the Jewish people. The history behind the remains and the fact that they belonged to a victim of the Holocaust created an especially powerful atmosphere at the service. “[The service] had a tremendous amount of meaning,” said Landa. “The namelessness of the remains makes it somewhat symbolic of all of the victims of the Holocaust, not too different from the respect that Americans pay to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The fact that so many years later we can participate in the burial of a victim that somehow personifies the victims of the Holocaust makes the moment even larger and more powerful. The very unique set of circumstances made the moment very, very powerful and awesome.” After attending the burial service,
Cordy explained that she is confident that the decision she made to turn the remains over to the St. Louis Holocaust Museum and Rabbi Landa resulted in the most appropriate conclusion of the remains’ journey. “The Holocaust Museum and Rabbi Landa did a marvelous job and I have the deepest respect for them,” said Cordy. “When I look back now, my goal was to See A SOLEMN LOOK page 2
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