The mission of Operation Benjamin is to correct the mistakes of the past by making sure the graves of Jewish American GIs who fell in World War II are properly marked with a Star of David and not a Latin cross.
Rabbi Heshie Billet and his wife, Rookie, recently returned from their second trip with Operation Benjamin.
Heshie tells the story
About 18 months ago, we joined Operation Benjamin at the American Military Cemetery in the Philippines, where four headstones were changed from Latin crosses to Stars of David. Present at that event was the Israeli ambassador to the Philippines. It was interesting to see him, a proud Orthodox Jew, in the synagogue every day, putting on his tallit and tefillin. This time we traveled to France for Operation Benjamin’s first “earth to earth” reburial of the remains of a Jewish soldier killed in WW II.
Operation Benjamin was started by Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter some years ago after visiting a US Military Cemetery in Normandy. The group is named after Private Benjamin Garadetsky, who was mistakenly buried under a Latin cross. After much research and after developing a relationship with the American Battle Monuments Commission, his grave was marked with a Jewish Star. Operation Benjamin has now been incorporated as a tax deductible 501c3.
The story of this particular mission began about a year ago when a researcher found the name of an American soldier, First Lt. Nathan B. Baskind, listed among the names of Nazi soldiers buried in a mass grave in Marigny Cemetery in France. The name sounded Jewish, and further research revealed that he had survived the Omaha Beach invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, and had been wounded in battle a few weeks later. Additional research revealed that he had been taken prisoner by the Germans and died of his wounds in their custody.
The detailed spade work of Operation Benjamin began with Herculean efforts to get permission to open the grave and exhume the bodies, to conduct a search for remains of Lt. Baskind, and try to identify him with DNA from some family members who were most interested in uncovering information about this long-lost relative whom they had known of as a “great American Jewish hero.”
Nathan’s grandniece, Prof. Samantha Baskind, a professor of art history at Cleveland State University, cooperated fully with Shalom Lamm, chief historian of Operation Benjamin, Rabbi Schacter, president of the organization, Stephen Lamar, treasurer, and all the genealogists, researchers, diplomats, and army officials from Germany, France, and the US who collaborated to make this happen. The story has been written up in great detail in the New York Post (“Remains of Jewish-American soldier missing for nearly 80 years recovered from mass grave where he was buried with Nazis”) and on northjersey.com (“Remains of Jewish WW II vet found after being MIA since 1944. Clifton genealogist tells how”).
From Rookie’s perspective
The special connection that I feel toward Operation Benjamin and its activities traces back to my childhood. My father, Arthur (Aharon HaKohen) Katz, a gentle, soft-spoken man, served in the US Army during World War II. He was drafted in 1943 at the age of 20 and trained at Fort Bragg. In 1944, he was sent to the European theater to fight against the Nazis. He was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge, catching a piece of shrapnel in his leg. I remember the telegram sent to my grandparents that was saved by the family. In terse telegram language, it said, “Your son, PFC [Private First Class] Arthur Katz is reported missing in action.” A later telegram (I can only imagine the agony of waiting) gave his parents his whereabouts. Thankfully, he was evacuated with other wounded and sent to a hospital in London, where he recovered. Then he was shipped back to the United States.
When I look at the sea of graves in the American cemeteries, or at the seemingly endless list of names on the Walls of the Missing, I am powerfully aware that because my father survived the war, he was able to come home to the US, marry my mother, and build a family.
So many men like Nathan Baskind unfortunately did not have that good fortune, and my heart aches for them and their families.
Though my father and mother passed away years ago, their family numbers about 140 members from their four children, including grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren, and is still growing. When I was trying to count the members of their various generations over Shabbat, I found I could not do it without a pencil and paper! The irony was very vivid when on Friday, in the company of over 100 mourners – most of whom had never known him but still came to pay their respects – we visited the grave in the Marigny Cemetery where some of Nathan’s remains still lie, even as some of his identified remains were brought to kever Yisrael among his American brothers in arms in the US Military Cemetery in Normandy.
Every one of the speeches presented was inspiring, but perhaps the most impressive and moving of all was by German Brig.-Gen. Dirk Backen, the secretary general of the Volksbund, the German War Graves Commission. Gen. Backen spoke like a true ohev Yisrael, lover of Israel. He addressed the elephant in the room, so to speak, by reflecting on the idea that who could have thought 80 years ago that a German soldier would be cooperating with and helping a group of Jews do the ultimate kindness for a Jewish American soldier by repatriating him to his family, his people, his brothers in arms, and his nation. Gen. Backen spoke so articulately with the highest order of sensitivity and was so impressive, that many of us were moved to tears. When he added that his niece, the daughter of his sister, had converted to Judaism, married an Israeli and is serving in the IDF, well, the irony just blossomed! In addition to Gen. Backen, every German military and civilian official we met was simply outstanding in his/her philo-semitism. As students of the Holocaust, we felt it was a true tale of righting the wrongs of history from several angles.
All in all, every aspect of the Operation Benjamin program was uplifting and inspirational. The eulogies for Nathan at the gravesite; the endorsement of all the steps in the process of exhuming the mass grave; identifying the partial remains; lining the grave in the US military cemetery in such a way that it would be considered kever Yisrael, all approved by gedolei Yisrael [great rabbis] every step of the way; the lowering of the coffin with full military honors; the playing of Taps by the bugler; the recitation of Kaddish by all present, led by Heshie – all contributed to a dignified, honorable burial of a true American Jewish hero whom so many had gone to such lengths to bring home to his people. We hope we have done Operation Benjamin justice in our description.
Rookie and Heshie sum up
Jonathan Conricus, the IDF spokesman, was on our trip and shared his insights and analysis of the current situation with the group. While we always enjoy hearing the hizuk [strengthening] speeches filled with emunah and bitachon [faith and trust in God] that make us feel united and victory-bound, it was sobering to hear Jonathan’s views from his vantage point.
We would also add that in Manila last year – after we had changed the four headstones in the US Military Cemetery – we met the US colonel who attended our ceremony and saluted each time a headstone was changed. He was sitting in the coffee shop of our hotel, and we went over to thank him for his participation.
He told us, “The Jewish people are the most incredible people I have ever met. Who else worries about the dead soldiers who are members of their faith and who died in combat 80 years ago? You people really care about your people, and I admire that greatly “
We returned to Israel and our home in Jerusalem, fulfilled and spent. May the political and military situations in Israel improve. May we all have the zechut [merit] to do good things for individuals and for klal Yisrael [all the Jewish people]. May there be no more injuries and losses. May the Jewish people live and thrive in our homeland and the world over.
Rad more about Operation Benjamin:
operationbenjamin.org.