Thiais, France ? There were no eulogies. No spoken prayers. No weeping relatives. An official recited the victims’ names, and 57 caskets were lowered into side-by-side plots as President Jacques Chirac stood by silently.

Chirac paid tribute at the simple ceremony Wednesday for Parisians whose bodies never were claimed after they died in a brutal heat wave that killed an estimated 11,435 people in August. Despite the state honor, they were buried in a part of the suburban cemetery usually reserved for the destitute or homeless.

“He deserved better than this,” said Christian Lepabic, who remembered former colleague Roger Colinot, 76, as a bon vivant — someone who brought back chocolates from frequent trips to Switzerland for fellow workers at the bank.

Colinot retired in the mid-1980s. Lepabic said he lost touch this year with his friend, who had no family except for a niece in the United States.

“I’m devastated,” he said.

Most of those who died in the heat wave were elderly, and many lived in Paris, where temperatures were the highest since officials started keeping records in 1873. In early August, temperatures sometimes reached as high as 104 degrees.

At one point, several hundred bodies lay unclaimed in Paris morgues. Officials tracked down the families of most victims. By Wednesday, nearly three weeks after the heat subsided, 57 bodies still had not been claimed.

A few dozen mourners turned up at the ceremony with bouquets. Some said they didn’t know any of the victims but were moved by their solitude.

Many victims died alone in overheated city apartments while their families were away on vacation. Now, France is trying to answer painful questions about why so many of its most vulnerable citizens were abandoned.

Some of the heat victims died of dehydration, as the aging often have a dwindling sense of thirst. Others were on medications that exacerbated their water loss.

Celine Rocquain, left, and an unidentified friend, center, approach the main entrance of the Thiais cemetery, south of Paris. Rocquain and others attended Wednes-day's ceremony for victims of August's heat wave.