OPERATION BENJAMIN
1LT Nathan Baskind
Burial and Memorial
Operation Benjamin, the American Battle Monuments Commission (AMBC),
the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), and the U.S. Army
will inter 1LT Nathan Baskind
with full military honors at the Normandy American Cemetery.
We will honor the life and sacrifice of 1LT Nathan Baskind,
a Jewish American WWII soldier, who was buried in a mass grave
with 51 German soldiers for nearly 80 years.
Join us as we bring 1LT Nathan Baskind to his final resting place.
June 20th - 24th, 2024
$5,150 per person (airfare not included)
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1LT NATHAN BASKIND
Lieutenant Nathan Baskind, of Pittsburgh, PA, came ashore on Utah Beach on D-Day with the 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Engaged in fierce battle, he went ahead of his troops to reconnoiter their position in the Battle of Cherbourg June 23, 1944. He was never heard from again. His name appears on the Tablets of the Missing at the Normandy American Cemetery.
A search of contemporaneous German war records revealed that Baskind was ambushed and shot, taken prisoner by the German army, and sent to a Luftwaffe field hospital. Later on the 23rd, the German position was attacked by US forces and in what is presumed to be a single or several large explosions, Nathan Baskind and 23 German soldiers were killed. The explosion being intense, separation of the bodies was impossible, and all were buried in a mass grave.
ABOUT THE MISSION
Join Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter and the Operation Benjamin Mission Team for a unique historical program.
Thursday, June 20
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Arrive Charles De Gaulle Airport, Paris, France by noon
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Coach bus to Hotel Mercure Saint-Lo, Saint-Lo, France
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Welcome Dinner & Orientation
Friday, June 21
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Marigny German War Cemetery Ceremony, in memory of 1LT Nathan Baskind
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The Overlord Museum, Omaha Beach
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Coach bus to Hotel De Bourgtheroulde, Rouen
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Kabbalat Shabbat at the Rouen Synagogue
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Shabbat Dinner at the Rouen Synagogue
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Oneg Shabbat, Lecture #1
Saturday (Shabbat), June 22
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Tfillat Shabbat at the Rouen Synagogue
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Drasha
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Shabbat Community Kiddush
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Shabbat lunch at the Rouen Synagogue
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Shabbat afternoon Lecture #2
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Free time
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Shabbat afternoon Lecture #3
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Shabbat afternoon Lecture #4
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Mincha
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Seudah Shlishit at the Rouen Synagogue
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Maariv and Havdallah
Sunday, June 23
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Coach bus to the Normandy American Cemetery
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The Burial of 1LT Nathan Baskind with full military honors, Normandy American Cemetery
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The Rosette Ceremony, Tablets of the Missing, Normandy American Cemetery
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Lunch
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Coach bus to Paris
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Dinner and closing thoughts at Bassar, Paris
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Coach to Airport Sheraton Hotel, Terminal 2, CDG Airport, Paris
Monday, June 24
Bon voyage!
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Security in Rouen over Shabbat will be provided by the French government.
If you choose, your flight arrangements can be made with our travel professional, Liora Cohen, who will contact you following your registration.
Contact Liora with any questions at:
310-402-4042
Anthropologist and volunteer meticulously working the exhumation of the mass grave of the German War Graves Cemetery at Marigny, where Nathan Baskind was found.
December 19 2023