A Jewish-American World War II hero who stormed Utah beach on D-Day and went missing after being ambushed in the Battle of Cherbourg has finally been found — in a German mass grave where he was buried with Nazis.
Now, eight decades after his death on June 23, 1944, Lt. Nathan Baskind will finally receive a proper burial.
Baskind, the son of Lithuanian and Russian immigrants who settled in Pittsburgh and owned a wallpaper business, was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1942 at the age of 26,
according to Raugh Jewish Archives.
US troops conducted a thorough search but found “no trace of Lt. Baskind or his vehicle,” the file says.
He was listed as Missing in Action and on July 13, 1944, and was promoted posthumously from second to first lieutenant.
He was also awarded a Purple Heart.
Baskind’s name was added to the Wall of the Missing at the American Cemetery at Normandy, and what exactly happened to him would remain a mystery for eight decades.
In 2022, a US genealogist touring the German Marigny cemetery happened to notice that among the names of 17 German soldiers on a plaque at a burial mound was one name that didn’t seem to belong — Baskind’s.
He tipped off Operation Benjamin, and Lamm and his partner Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter began to investigate.
The sleuths determined it could be the long-missing lieutenant, and their senior genealogist, Rachel Silverman, got in touch with the German War Graves Commission, called the Volksbund.
They dug deep into their archives and unearthed detailed documents that finally shed light on Baskind’s fate.
He was captured after getting shot and brought to a squalid Luftwaffe hospital in Cherbourg known for its “cesspool” conditions.
He died the night of his capture.
His remains were dumped in a mass grave with 24 German soldiers in the hospital’s courtyard.
nypost.com
