Remains of Holocaust Victims Discovered and to be Buried in Monsey, NY

A recent survey of the Museum’s archival collections and storage areas uncovered a formerly unknown box containing ashes from the mass graves at the Chelmno death camp in occupied Poland, run by the Nazis from 1941-1944. Given to the Museum by the Znamirowski Family, these remains represent a tiny fraction of the minimum 172,000 victims of Chelmno – the first stationary death camp to use gas instead of bullets for mass murder. They are the remains of unknown Jewish children, women, and men who suffered the greatest acts of inhumanity known to our world.

Today we have the honor and the obligation to provide these victims with the dignity of a proper burial. In consultation with local Rabbinic Authorities and the Chief Rabbi of Poland, the Holocaust Museum & Center for Tolerance and Education will hold a burial service for the unidentified remains of these victims on Thursday, September 26, 2019 at 4:30 p.m. at the Congregation Sons of Israel Spring Valley Cemetery at Brick Church Road. In lieu of Shiva, a memorial will follow at the Museum. All are encouraged to attend.

The Polish Consul General of New York along with the Martyrs’ Museum of Zabikowo and Chelmno Poland are appreciative of the Museum’s efforts to bury these remains. More information regarding the burial service and relevant history is available upon request, please contact the Museum.

Graveside Burial Service: 4:30 p.m. Congregation Sons of Israel Spring Valley Cemetery, 226 Brick Church Road, Monsey, NY 10952.

Memorial: 6:30 p.m. Holocaust Museum, lower level of Rockland Community College Campus Library, 145 College Road, Suffern, NY 10901. Entrance from Viola Road. Location next to Campus Bookstore.

Jews boarding train
“Jews from the Lodz Ghetto are deported to the Chelmno death camp in occupied Poland.” Photo Credit: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum,courtesy Robert Abrams.