Hungarian Jewry to bury Holocaust victims’ remains found in Danube

The bones, which belong to Jews who were murdered on the banks of the river, are to be interred in a Jewish site

By JTA 25 February 2016, 8:08 pm

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File: Backdropped by the illuminated Chain Bridge, people light candles in front of the cast iron shoes at the Holocaust Memorial on the quay of the River Danube, during International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Budapest, Hungary, Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016. (Balazs Mohai/MTI via AP)

Hungary’s Jewish community has received government permission to bury human remains from the Holocaust that were found in the Danube River.

The bones, which were discovered five years ago during construction work on the Margaret Bridge, belong to several people who were murdered either by being shot on the banks of the river and dumped into it, or thrown into the river alive in 1944 or 1945 by troops loyal to the Hungarian government of pro-Nazi collaborationists, Tamas Desi, a spokesman for the Mazsihisz umbrella group of Hungarian Jewish communities, told JTA on Wednesday.

Hundreds more were murdered in this fashion.

The government had intended to bury the bones in a municipal burial site, but following the Jewish community’s objections, subjected the find to DNA testing that proved the bones were likely of Ashkenazi Jews, Desi said.

Hungarian politicians light candles at the Holocaust memorial on the Danube river bank in Budapest on April 16, 2014 (photo credit: AFP/ Ferenc Isza)

“Recently the government agreed in talks with the Jewish community to give the bones for a Jewish burial,” he said.

The burial ceremony is scheduled to take place March 20 at the main Jewish cemetery in Budapest.

In 2005, the Hungarian capital unveiled a commemorative sculpture along one area of the bank featuring 60 pairs of metal shoes set in concrete. The work by artist Gyula Pauer is one of the best-known monuments in Budapest.