Identification and Interment of Ashes from the Dachau Concentration Camp Sixty-Nine Years After Its Liberation
Kevin Alter, Student/Researcher, Touro College
In 1945 the U.S. Army liberated the Dachau Concentration Camp after a brief battle with the camp’s remaining guards. One of the soldiers who visited the camp shortly after liberation was Walter Corsbie. Corsbie received a tour of the camp by an ex-prisoner, who told him that the Nazis sometimes compacted the crematorium ashes into round, cake-like objects, which they sent to next of kin. He gave Corsbie one of these ashcakes, which he, in turn, placed in his cigarette case.
After Walter Corsbie died in 1986, his son Joseph inherited the cigarette case that contained the ashes. Recognizing the rarity of his memento and aware of his increasing age and worsening health problems, Joseph Corsbie sought a proper disposition of the ashes. A Rabbi was contacted who, in turn, contacted the Center for Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Education. The Director of the Center, a daughter of Holocaust survivors, is married to the Chancellor of New York Medical College. After learning about the ashes, he elected to locate a laboratory to potentially verify if the ashes contained human remains.
The specimen was white/beige, measured 34x37mm wide and 19mm thick, and was firm with a waxy surface consistent with adipocere. Protein analysis was conducted on samples taken from the surface and middle of the ashcake. Nine proteins from collagen 1 and alpha 1 were found at 99% confidence on the surface of the specimen along with Hemoglobin beta 1 (HbB1) and hemoglobin alpha (HbA) peptides, which are shared by humans, Pan paniscus (bonobo), Talpa europaea (European mole), and rhinoceros. Six peptides of collagen 1 and alpha 1 were found from the center of the specimen, along with one peptide of HbA. The presence of these peptides in the middle of the specimen argued against the findings being surface contamination from handling.
Insofar as a significant proportion of Dachau’s inmate population were Jewish, it is probable that a portion of the ashes were remains of one or more Jews. Jews view reverent treatment of the body of the deceased as a Biblically ordained precept. Cremation of the body of a deceased Jew is a gross desecration and forbidden by Jewish law. It is important to make the distinction, however, that according to Jewish law a person is only held accountable for his/her actions when they are done willingly and with full cognizance of their implications. The prohibition of cremation does not apply to an individual cremated against his/her will.
The role of consent to and cognizance of the implications of wrongdoing in determining a violation of Jewish law are commented upon in the Talmud. Since the ashes were the result of cremation done without the consent of the concentration camp victims, and in view of the precedents established by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, two Rabbis ruled it permissible to inter these ashes in a Jewish cemetery.
This presentation will discuss the ethical, scientific, and theological issues raised by the discovery, analysis, and disposition of these ashes.
In 1945 the U.S. Army liberated the Dachau Concentration Camp after a brief battle with the camp’s remaining guards. One of the soldiers who visited the camp shortly after liberation was Walter Corsbie. Corsbie received a tour of the camp by an ex-prisoner, who told him that the Nazis sometimes compacted the crematorium ashes into round, cake-like objects, which they sent to next of kin. He gave Corsbie one of these ashcakes, which he, in turn, placed in his cigarette case.
After Walter Corsbie died in 1986, his son Joseph inherited the cigarette case that contained the ashes. Recognizing the rarity of his memento and aware of his increasing age and worsening health problems, Joseph Corsbie sought a proper disposition of the ashes. A Rabbi was contacted who, in turn, contacted the Center for Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Education. The Director of the Center, a daughter of Holocaust survivors, is married to the Chancellor of New York Medical College. After learning about the ashes, he elected to locate a laboratory to potentially verify if the ashes contained human remains.
The specimen was white/beige, measured 34x37mm wide and 19mm thick, and was firm with a waxy surface consistent with adipocere. Protein analysis was conducted on samples taken from the surface and middle of the ashcake. Nine proteins from collagen 1 and alpha 1 were found at 99% confidence on the surface of the specimen along with Hemoglobin beta 1 (HbB1) and hemoglobin alpha (HbA) peptides, which are shared by humans, Pan paniscus (bonobo), Talpa europaea (European mole), and rhinoceros. Six peptides of collagen 1 and alpha 1 were found from the center of the specimen, along with one peptide of HbA. The presence of these peptides in the middle of the specimen argued against the findings being surface contamination from handling.
Insofar as a significant proportion of Dachau’s inmate population were Jewish, it is probable that a portion of the ashes were remains of one or more Jews. Jews view reverent treatment of the body of the deceased as a Biblically ordained precept. Cremation of the body of a deceased Jew is a gross desecration and forbidden by Jewish law. It is important to make the distinction, however, that according to Jewish law a person is only held accountable for his/her actions when they are done willingly and with full cognizance of their implications. The prohibition of cremation does not apply to an individual cremated against his/her will.
The role of consent to and cognizance of the implications of wrongdoing in determining a violation of Jewish law are commented upon in the Talmud. Since the ashes were the result of cremation done without the consent of the concentration camp victims, and in view of the precedents established by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, two Rabbis ruled it permissible to inter these ashes in a Jewish cemetery.
This presentation will discuss the ethical, scientific, and theological issues raised by the discovery, analysis, and disposition of these ashes.