The ashes being buried, at Arcadia Lakes Cemetery, in Columbia, South Carolina, Dec. 6, 2020. Photo: Allen Wallace.

Ashes said to be of Nazi victims who perished at the Dachau concentration camp were buried during a ceremony held on Sunday at a Jewish cemetery in South Carolina.

The ashes — contained in a small box for the past seven-and-a-half decades — were recently found by Daniel Bouknight, of Chapin, South Carolina, after his grandfather, US Army veteran John Bouknight, passed away at the age of 93.

The box said to be containing ashes of Dachau victims.

A message written on the box read, “These ashes was taken from the crematory at Dachau, Germany on 11 Feb. 1945. Prisoners were burned in the oven that these ashes were taken from, small portions of bones remains.”

It is believed that John Bouknight received the box after World War II ended while serving in Germany, where he took part in tracking down and prosecuting Nazi war criminals.

After discovering the box, Daniel Bouknight reached out to a local rabbi, Rabbi Hesh Epstein of Chabad of South Carolina, to discuss what to do with it.

While the identities of the remains were unknown, and Jews and non-Jews alike were imprisoned at Dachau, it was decided to inter the ashes at the Arcadia Lakes Cemetery in Columbia.

“For reasons beyond our comprehension, Providence has placed this incredible opportunity into our hands to bring some solace to the souls of the departed and lay them to rest here among their people,” Rabbi Epstein told The Algemeiner ahead of the burial ceremony.