Holocaust

SA’s first possible Holocaust remains consecrated in Cape

Published

2 years ago

May 11, 2023

In the early 2000s, two small, round, cement-like disks, with numbers written on them, were donated to the Cape Town Holocaust & Genocide Centre (CTHGC). Many of these disks were taken and distributed by Allied soldiers after the liberation of the Dachau Concentration Camp in 1945.

“The clay tablets were donated anonymously to the centre inside a cigar box, alongside a diary and a wind-up army torch,” says Dmitri Abrahams, the head of archives at the CTHGC. “I remember the first time I handled the disks. They were wrapped in tissue paper as I held them in my hand. I knew I was holding something special.

“In 2012, former CTHGC archivist, Michal Singer, presented a paper at the South African Museum Association Conference on archiving the Holocaust in South Africa, which contained a section on the mystery surrounding the disks. According to the diary, written by a South Africa medic who toured the camp (he was stationed in Germany at the time), a survivor told him that they were made from compressed bone and ash from the crematorium.

“We later found out that these disks had been handed out to soldiers who toured the camp,” says Abrahams. “Michal’s paper was published and discovered by Dr Donald Siegel, a senior scientist from the Chief Medical Examiner’s [CME] Office of New York. Siegel was conducting tests on a similar disk which had been given to the CME by The Center for Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Studies of North Carolina, which had been donated by the son of an American World War II veteran.

“Siegel approached the CTHGC and asked if we would like to be a part of the study, and we agreed. The study grew, and disks were discovered at Belzec, Sachsenhausen, and Yad Vashem. Five samples were included in the study – two of which came from the CTHGC, two from Yad Vashem, and the original. Using a cutting-edge method known as proteomic mass spectrometry, they tested for the presence of formally living biological material either from humans or animals.”

The test concluded that “the South African disks possibly contained human proteins. Since this possibility existed, we decided to bury the disks. They were buried in a small meaningful ceremony in April 2019 at the Pinelands Jewish Cemetery in Cape Town.

“This year, the CTHGC erected a memorial stone generously donated by Gardiner Stone, which was consecrated by Rabbi Osher Feldman on 24 April 2023, just a few days before the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the camp. We hope the burial of these remains can restore dignity to the unnamed victims of the Nazi regime who were killed and cremated against their will, and in doing so, honour their memory.”

The gravestone was erected with the words: “Buried here are the possible cremains [crematorium remains] of people who died at Dachau Concentration Camp 1933-1945. We honour all victims of the Holocaust. Cape Town Holocaust & Genocide Centre. Remember never to forget.”

The ceremony was attended by the trustees and staff of the centre, as well as members of the community. The stone is in the Pinelands II section of the cemetery.

“We encourage the community to visit the memorial stone to pay their respects to the first and only burial site of Holocaust victims in South Africa,” says Abrahams. “We continue to encourage the community to donate relevant documents and artefacts to our archive.”

Dachau was the first concentration camp established by the SS in March 1933, originally for political prisoners. Over time, other groups were interned there, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roma, homosexuals, repeat criminal offenders, and Jews. The camp was liberated by American forces on 29 April 1945.