NORMANDY, France — Samantha Baskind never met her great-uncle Nathan, a Jewish officer in the United States Army who was killed in action during World War II more than 80 years ago. But today, “Uncle Nate” is changing her life in ways she never could have imagined.
Growing up, Samantha heard stories about her uncle’s life and service — a proud family man, American, soldier, and Jew. But the circumstances surrounding his fate were a mystery.
First Lt. Nathan B. Baskind was killed in action during the Battle of Cherbourg on June 23, 1944, and his body had been deemed “unrecoverable” for decades. Unbeknownst to his family, Baskind’s remains were interred in a mass grave at a German war cemetery, commingled with the very soldiers he fought against.
Last week, that changed, and Baskind now rests under a Star of David at Normandy American Cemetery in France, thanks to exhaustive efforts that transcended culture, language, and religion, closing a remarkable saga that united former enemies and brought closure to a still-grieving family.
Born in 1916, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Baskind served in the US Army’s 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion, commanding a platoon of four M-10 tank destroyers. On June 6, 1944, he landed at Utah Beach on D-Day. On June 23, just 17 days later, he lost his life fighting in Normandy.
After Baskind’s death, his father, Abe, persistently pursued information from the Army about his son’s fate for several years. In July 1949, Abe finally received a definitive letter stating that Baskind’s remains were “unrecoverable.” The letter, penned by Lt. Col. W.E. Campbell, concluded with the following: “May the knowledge of your son’s honorable service to his country be a source of sustaining comfort to you, who gave your loved one under circumstances so difficult that there is no grave at which to pay homage.”
According to a report published last month by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), Baskind and another soldier were ambushed while scouting ahead of their tank destroyers. Although wounded, the second man escaped and reported Baskind as killed, but attempts to retrieve his body were unsuccessful. After the war, records revealed Baskind had been captured, died in a German hospital, and was buried in Cherbourg. In 1957, the German War Graves Commission (Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge) found Baskind’s identification tag, but his remains could not be individually identified and were interred in a mass grave at the Marigny German War Cemetery alongside dozens of German combatants.
Case cracked by a New Jersey genealogist
The rediscovery of Baskind’s resting place began with Eric Feinstein, a genealogist from Clifton, New Jersey. In 2022, Feinstein noticed Baskind’s name in a photo posted on the German War Graves Commission’s website and, recognizing its non-German origins, investigated further.
After learning that Baskind was Jewish, Feinstein contacted Operation Benjamin, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the memories of Jewish-American servicemen and women who made the ultimate sacrifice. Shalom Lamm, the group’s co-founder and chief historian, immediately recognized the importance of this story. With circumstantial evidence pointing to Baskind being buried in a mass grave at Marigny, Lamm contacted Baskind’s family, who expressed their desire to have the remains disinterred and given a proper Jewish burial.
“Every part of the process was fraught with difficulty,” Lamm said. Jewish religious and ethical considerations posed a challenge, as such an exhumation required approval from religious authorities.
The Operation Benjamin team flew to Israel to meet with leading Torah personality Rabbi Asher Weiss, who was initially hesitant but eventually gave consent and support for the project.
The team then reached out to Steffen Seibert, the German Ambassador to Israel, who understood the historical significance of recovering a Jewish American officer from a German mass grave and facilitated contact with the German War Graves Commission.
“He’s a very special guy who clearly cares very deeply for the Jewish people,” Lamm noted.
Operation Benjamin then secured permission from German and French officials to exhume the remains and have them DNA tested.
“At every level, we were dealing with senior decision-makers, and everybody understood it, everybody got it,” Lamm said.
Identity confirmation through DNA
Despite harsh weather conditions and acidic clay, which made DNA recovery challenging, Operation Benjamin successfully exhumed the remains in December 2023.
“It’s not often that we have experience testing bones of this age,” admits Erin Sweeney McBride, the vice president of forensic operations at Bode Technology, a Virginia-based private DNA laboratory tasked with identifying Baskind’s remains.
The identification process began with testing four femurs and one humerus. A small section of each bone was ground into a fine powder, mixed with reagents, and soaked to isolate the DNA, creating what is known as a DNA extract.
The initial focus was on nuclear DNA, which is unique to each individual, but this method is challenging with degraded samples.
“Many people think it just has to do with the age of the sample, but it actually has more to do with the conditions,” Sweeney McBride explained. “The level of degradation, and things like water, sun, or bacteria all degrade DNA. In this case, we were worried about the water table in the grave and the bacteria, as well as the age.”
Despite the challenges, there was initial success.
“We showed likelihood for a match, but we needed more support to confirm,” she said.
Next, Y-chromosome DNA testing linked the remains to a paternal relative, confirming a match to Baskind. Finally, mitochondrial DNA testing on the humerus provided a maternal match, solidifying the identification.
“The conditions on the ground were horrible,” Lamm recalled when describing the exhumation. “But we got spectacular matches. God was looking out for us.”
Charles K. Djou, secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), the governmental agency that administers US military cemeteries overseas, explained the significance of such success.
“Modern technology, with DNA identification, has allowed us to be able to make identifications that several decades ago we simply lacked the technology to be able to do,” said Djou. “We are very excited that with 21st-century identification technology, we can identify a soldier and give them the proper burial.”
Reburial in Normandy
The ABMC now faced a unique challenge with the reburial of Baskind at Normandy American Cemetery, combining military honors with Jewish traditions.
The cemetery serves as the final resting place for over 9,300 American soldiers who fought and died in the Normandy campaign, including 152 Jews, though none of the burials had been closely monitored for adherence to Jewish law at the time.
New burials at this cemetery are exceedingly rare, reserved only for soldiers who were previously missing in action and have been recently discovered and identified. Baskind’s reinterment is one of four such occasions and the first-ever funeral held there according to Jewish tradition. The ABMC allowed a full military and full Jewish burial, described by Lamm as “the height of elegance and the height of dignity.”
On June 23, 2024, exactly 80 years to the day since 1st Lt. Nathan B. Baskind was killed in action, his remains were buried under a Star of David.
Djou emphasized the rarity and significance of this event.
“We are burying Lt. Baskind with full military honors, 80 years after his death,” he said. “The majority of our burials occurred after the world wars. It’s a great testimony to the United States and the American people that we make a commitment to bring our fallen heroes home, no matter how long it takes.”
“Today, a jagged scar in my family will be at least partially healed,” Samantha Baskind said during an emotional eulogy at the funeral. “We are here to finally pay homage to a great Jewish American war hero, a son, a brother, an uncle who was well-loved and desperately missed. May his memory be for a blessing.”
Decades of uncertainty and unanswered questions finally reached a poignant and meaningful conclusion.
“From a family perspective, there’s closure,” Lamm said. “There’s nothing worse than a child being lost and not knowing where they are. It’s the saddest thing in the world.”
The ceremony was attended by military officials, dignitaries, representatives from the involved organizations, and members of Baskind’s family. Among those present was Jonathan Conricus, a former international spokesperson for the IDF, who reflected on the significance of the ceremony.
“We are standing here at the solemn, but I would say happy, occasion of finally bringing to eternal rest the remains of Nathan B. Baskind, who was put to a proper American grave amongst his fellow American soldiers,” Conricus said. “We should be thankful for the sacrifice that these brave young men and women made, the ultimate sacrifice. We should be respectful of their heritage, and I think Operation Benjamin does that in a tremendous way.”
Conricus also stressed the lessons to be drawn from WWII, particularly the need to remain vigilant against hatred and bigotry.
“Many people are complacent when they are faced with hatred, when they are faced with racism, and bigotry, and antisemitism,” he said, underscoring the ongoing duty to stand guard against new forms of evil and antisemitism, drawing parallels between past and present struggles.
When reflecting on the historic nature of Baskind’s identification, disinterment, and reburial, Lamm turns to the Torah to explain the “why” of Operation Benjamin’s mission. After 210 years in captivity, as millions of slaves prepared to leave Egypt under the leadership of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, the narrative pauses to highlight a crucial moment in the Exodus.
“At the very height as they are about to leave, boom, the narrative stops dead,” Lamm said. “It totally stops, and the verse says, ‘Moses took the bones of Joseph with him.’ Because the Israelites promised they would take him out of Egypt.”
Lamm believes this act underscores a timeless lesson: “You never leave your heroes behind.”
