The body of an American Jewish soldier who went missing while fighting in the European theater during World War Two had been found in a mass grave in which Nazi soldiers were buried, Ynet reported.
Lt. Nathan Baskind, a native of Pittsburgh, was killed in action on June 23, 1944, at the age of 28. He served in the US Army’s 899th Tank Destroyer battalion and commanded four M-10 tank destroyers during the D-Day offensive on the French coast.
During a reconnaissance mission in Cherbourg, France, Baskind and a US army driver were ambushed by German forces and both were wounded. The driver managed to escape, and Baskind was missing and presumed dead. His fate remained unknown for nearly 80 years.
Baskind was posthumously promoted from Second Lieutenant to First Lieutenant and awarded the Purple Heart.
The breakthrough in Baskind's case came when a US genealogist visited the German Marigny cemetery in 2022 and noticed an irregularity in the names at a burial mound German soldiers who were killed during World War Two. T
The genealogist contacted Operation Benjamin, a non-profit organization that identifies the graves of Jewish war veterans who are mistakenly buried as Christians in military cemeteries. The organization launched an investigation and determined that the missing Baskind was buried with the German soldiers he had fought.
It was found that Baskind had been captured alive and brought to a hospital in Cherbourg, where he died that night. He was buried together with 24 German soldiers. In 1957, this grave was exhumed and the remains were brought to another mass grave. This time, Baskind was buried together with over 50 German soldiers.
The German government gave permission for Baskind's remains to be exhumed, and his remains were turned over to the US military last Tuesday.
Shalom Lamm, co-founder of Operation Benjamin, told the New York Post that it was important for him to ensure Baskind had a proper burial because “You have a Jewish kid from Pittsburgh buried with these enemy soldiers."
His great-niece, Samantha Baskind, said following the exhumation, "Knowing that he’s been buried in a German cemetery, so far from home and under a cross is a jagged scar for my family."
"I am profoundly thankful for the extraordinary lengths that all of those groups have gone to," she said.
Baskind will receive a proper Jewish funeral burial with full military honors at the American cemetery in Normandy on June 23, exactly 80 years to the day after he was killed in action.