BUDAPEST (JTA) — Reports that bones from a Holocaust mass grave in northern Romania were being sold to medical students appears to be false.
Aurel Vainer, president of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania, told the Romanian Agerpress news agency that he had spoken on Wednesday both with police in the town of Podu Iloaiei, where Jews killed in a 1941 pogrom are buried, as well as with the Jewish community in nearby Iasi.
"They say very clearly that they checked and found no evidence that bones were taken either from the cemetery in Iasi or in Podu Iloaiei," Vainer said.
Further investigation will take place, he added.
In recent days, news articles suggested that students from the medical school in Iasi had bought bones unearthed from the mass graves at Podu Iloaiei.
Vainer said it would be very difficult to gain access to the mass graves, as they are covered by large, heavy slabs of concrete.
