Kirschbaum, Menachem Mendel. Takanoth Eich LeHithnaheg Ka’Eth Be’Epher HaNisraphim.

The tragic fate of German Jewry is reflected in this thin, scarce pamphlet. The Nazis would choose on occasion to return to loved ones the cremated remains of family members who had been arrested and subsequently murdered in concentration camps. The Gestapo sardonically forced the bereaved families to pay the financial costs for the duration the murdered individual was “housed and fed” before execution and only then would they return the body. Throughout history, Orthodox Judaism has taken a negative view of cremation and is loath to accord honors to the deceased should the remains be cremated. This traditional stance was challenged due to the shocking circumstances surrounding the forced cremation of Jews by the Nazis. In the present pamphlet, Chief Rabbi Kirschbaum ruled that the German Burial Societies are to place the cremated remains into a coffin together with a talith and tachrichin (shrouds) as if the body were to have been fully intact, in order to affirm the traditional Jewish belief in the Resurrection of the Dead. In paragraph 3, Kirschbaum invoked a letter of R. M. Horovitz of Frankfurt (author Responsa Mateh Levi) “to our Kehillah, “ dated 22nd June 1893, expressing leniency toward those willingly cremated. Kirschbaum reasoned a fortiore, that such leniency was called for in the present horrific circumstances. A later German language rendition of Kirschbaum’s decision, was sold by Kestenbaum & Company, November 2007, Lot 135.