The Free University of Berlin admitted this week that it should have prevented the secret destruction of the possible remains of Jewish victims of Nazi experiments.

The admission came as a public memorial service took place at a Berlin cemetery to mark the burial of the remains of possibly more than 100 people, many of whom may have been Jewish victims of Nazi medical experiments.

Daniel Botmann, managing director of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told 230 mourners at the Waldfriedhof cemetery in Dahlem: “You are helping to ensure that the stories of the victims are continued, or even told for the first time.”

Fragments of human and animal bones were first found in July 2014 during construction work outside the Free University (FU) Berlin library.

It was suspected that the remains originated from the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, which stood on the site from 1927 to 1945. This meant the human remains could have been victims from colonial Africa, or victims of Nazi persecution, including Jews, Roma and Sinti.

Josef Mengele GettyImages-3309343

Mengele (Getty Images)

Auschwitz doctor Josef Mengele regularly sent the institute shipments of bones and organs from the victims of his experiments.

But in December 2014, forensic experts from outside the FU decided the remains should be quietly cremated.

FU Berlin president Professor Günter Ziegler told the JC this week the university should have done more to prevent the bones’ destruction. “It was external forensic medical experts, who were not part of the FU Berlin, who decided that the remains uncovered in 2014 should be cremated,” he said.

“This happened entirely without our knowledge or consent. So when we heard about it, we issued a statement clearly distancing ourselves from this.

“We now accept, however, in hindsight, we should have taken full control of what happened with all the remains.”

The FU Berlin continued excavation work in 2015 and 2016, uncovering a total of 16,000 bone fragments including skulls, arms, ribs, feet, teeth, hands, vertebrae, legs, pelvis and lower jaws from between 54 to 107 people.

Also in attendance at the memorial service were representatives from the Initiative of Black People in Germany, the Central Council of the African Community in Germany, the Working Group of Victims of National Socialist “Euthanasia” and Forced Sterilisation, and the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma.

The President of the Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, said he was grateful to the FU Berlin for its “dignified handling of the bone finds”.

Prof Ziegler said although it might have been able to establish the identity of the victims via DNA or radiocarbon testing, the university had decided against this. “This idea was opposed by the head of the Central Council of Jews.

"They said we should bury the remains, and not destroy or damage them, as there are important Jewish traditions and rules regarding the bodies of the dead.

“Out of respect for the Jewish community, we wanted to honour this.”