Holocaust Survivor’s Body Found Burnt, Stabbed In Paris Apartment
(JTA) – The burnt and stabbed body of a Holocaust survivor was found in her Paris apartment, in what a watchdog on anti-Semitism said was a case reminiscent of an alleged anti-Semitic hate crime.
The National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA, wrote in a statement Sunday that the suspected murder of the 85-year-old woman, identified by BNVCA and in the French media only as Mireille K., “is reminiscent of the crime committed against Sarah Halimi,” a 66-year-old Jewish teacher and physician whom prosecutors say was murdered by her Muslim neighbor in April partly in connection with her Jewish identity.
According to the BNVCA, the octogenarian’s body was set on fire Friday night. Her charred body also had at least 11 stab wounds. Policed have a suspect in custody in connection with her death.
The victim was found dead in her apartment on Philippe August Street in Paris’ 11th District, in the city’s east near the Nation square. She reported in the past to authorities about a man from the same street whom she said had threatened to “burn her,” BNVCA wrote.
A forensic examination of the apartment showed that an arsonist started a fire in at least five distinct areas of that space, the report also said.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO