Israeli couple bury Holocaust survivor mother to receive payments

A couple in Israel is suspected of burying a Holocaust survivor on their property after her death one and a half years ago in order to continue receiving payments on her behalf.

The 93-year-old woman had been financially supported by the Israeli state as well as various organizations, according to Israeli police.

Several Israeli media outlets reported that the elderly survivor had received monthly aid amounting to the equivalent of more than €4,600 ($5,360), including from Germany.

Emergency services discovered the woman's body at the end of September in a pit roughly 3 metres deep on the family's property in the northern Israeli city of Karmiel, police said.

The woman had lived there with her daughter and the daughter's partner. Both were taken into custody, according to police.

Police said they launched an investigation into the case last month after relatives raised concerns about the elderly woman's wellbeing.

The daughter had given them contradictory information about her mother's health.

But, after conversations with officers, the 64-year-old daughter and her partner admitted that the mother had died in April 2024, according to police. However, the two gave conflicting accounts of where she had been buried, according to the police.

Israeli police said the woman's body had been transferred to a forensic institute. The Israeli news portal ynet reported that the results of an autopsy to determine the cause of death were still pending.

The daughter's partner is suspected of having buried the woman's body, police said. The man later took his own life while in pre-trial detention, they added.

During the Nazi regime between 1933 and 1945, German National Socialists and their collaborators murdered an estimated 6 million Jews. Today, nearly 120,000 Holocaust survivors still live in Israel.