A disgraceful scandal has been exposed regarding the cemeteries in
Paris. Jews are duly buried and afterwards, their remains are removed
and replaced by bodies of non-Jews. The remains of the disinterred are
placed in storage coffins in a warehouse or simply incinerated with a
total disregard of human dignity.
In a talk with Rabbi Nosson Kahn, editor of the French publication
Kountrass, he revealed details about this painful affair only
recently discovered which has sent shock waves throughout France and
in families living in Israel. "The government in Paris decided at one
time that since there aren't enough burial places in and around Paris,
after a period of thirty to fifty years from burial, the bodies are to
be removed to make way for others. Even when additional fees were paid
for perpetual burial, so long as no one periodically tends the graves,
the situation is exploited and the deceased bodies are quickly
removed. According to law, the remains are transferred to the custody
of the government though this is done in terrible dishonor and
disposed of as the authorities so wish. They are thrown away or
cremated. Those who purchased burial plots for perpetuity are also
treated thus, with their remains transferred very ignominiously to
boxes for storage in vaults, without burial. This is the sorry
reality. Aside from the travesty to human dignity, this is contrary to
Halacha according to all the poskim."
There is only one completely Jewish cemetery in all of Paris and it
has been full for many years. Many Jews are buried in Jewish sections
of various cemeteries throughout the city but their remains, as
reported, are dug up and replaced with other corpses, often of non-
Jews.
HaRav Kahn tells of a recent outrageous incident where a resident of
Bayit Vegan asked to see the graves of the great-grandparents of her
family in Paris. When she arrived at the designated plot, she had the
shock of her life, finding gentiles buried there. Upon returning to
the information office, she was blithely told that her ancestors had
been removed long since, and replaced with the remains of gentiles.
When she asked what could be done about it, she was all the more
traumatized to learn that "your great-grandmother is in a box. Maybe
you can obtain that box. The great-grandfather is a problem since his
box also holds the remains of another person of unknown identity, so
that it cannot be released to your custody."
In question are the remains of a couple by the name of Tudesku who
have thousands of descendants living in Israel today, who sorely feel
the ignominy of their ancestors' state of non-burial.
He adds, "In a different case, a dayan noticed in a work of HaRav
Yehoshua Heschel Levin, who was the author of Aliyos Eliyahu
about the Vilna Gaon and was also a grandson of HaRav Chaim of
Volozhin, that the introduction tells that he was buried in Paris.
That dayan made a search for his grave and finally learned that the
remains had also been removed to a box. This is a distinguished rav
who, in his time, was asked by HaRav Yisroel Salanter to administer
the chareidi community in Paris. In this case, since he was held in a
box all by himself, with no other remains, his descendants were
located and he was brought to a dignified burial in Eretz Yisroel."
