Remembering the Jewish Fallen at Normandy

Last week I wrote about the Normandy Kaddish Project, the brainchild of Alan Weinschel, that brought people around the world together in remembering the Jewish service members who gave their lives on the beaches of Normandy.

This past Friday Alan spoke to his own congregation in New York. An excerpt from his speech is reprinted here:

Today is the 70^th anniversary of D-Day.  As Howard noted, Barbara and I visited Normandy in September.  It was our second visit, eleven years after our first, and we each thought we would be better prepared to deal with our emotions at the Omaha Beach cemetery.  But we were confronted by the enormity of the place and moved yet again.  The cemetery is almost park-like in its beauty, with lush green grass that is maintained immaculately, and there is a perfect precision of those rows and rows of graves and markers.  When you start to look at the graves, your mood is shattered.  All those young soldiers, killed in a cause that was just — but so young and so tragic.  We looked with more care this time at the Stars of David.  Our visit was after the high holy days and some of the graves had stones on them.  Many did not, meaning no one had come to visit and no one had said kaddish.

…

From the list of men interred, I have tried to locate and contact descendants of those in the Omaha Beach cemetery simply to tell them what we are doing. Tracing family lines after 70 years turned out to be daunting. Names had changed due to marriage, many relatives were deceased, and many names were just too common to allow for tracing 70 years later.  I was able to find a Morton Marshack who was named for his uncle who died in 1944,  Dan Garnitz in South Carolina, whose grandfather’s brother was Nathan Garnitz, a Corey Rosen whose father was named after Lt. Roy Zessar and Judith Kaplan, who is the daughter of Milton Holtzberg.  I am still waiting to hear from others, but frankly I don’t expect there to be many other responses.  The difficulty of finding relatives only highlights the importance of a community effort to remember.

There are some interesting details about those who are at Omaha Beach.  One soldier, Herman Addleson, was disqualified from service because of a harelip.  He had that repaired surgically, reportedly with financial assistance from baseball great Ted Williams, and then enlisted, only to be killed on D-Day.

Another, 2d Lt. Marcus Kruke, known as “Mutt”, was awarded a Silver Star for shielding with his own body a soldier installing vital communications under fire.

Major Barmey Lihn was a group surgeon in the then Army Air Force and volunteered to go along on a mission on C47 paratrooper plane.  The plane was shot down on June 7, 1944,

Melvin Isserson was the crew chief on another C47.  He got many of his paratroopers out the door but he had no chute and went down with the plane on D-Day.

Among the men listed, there are nine Silver Stars, two Bronze Stars, four Distinguished Flying Crosses, nine Air Medals, and of course Purple Hearts for almost all.

Most were teenagers or in their twenties.  Some had been married; others not.  Some were old enough to have children; others were barely old enough to shave.  Several had not yet become US citizens.

There were all kinds of occupations.  Some were shipping or other kinds of clerks and salesmen, some were machinists, there were taxi drivers, engineers, a baker, a plumber, a printer, a welder and a policeman.  Two were actors, some were musicians, and two were farmers.  Some had already become accomplished professionals.  There was at least one physician, and one lawyer

Many had not finished high school.  Some did not even start high school.  A few had started college, and a few others had degrees. None went any further.

Why I am doing this?  One strong motivation is to honor my Dad. He did not go overseas during WWII.  He was one of the lucky ones who stayed back to train others in the Merchant Marine.  But he was a part of the Greatest Generation, and he was a member of and did volunteer work for the Jewish War Veterans for many years.  So I took this on for him and also for those who have no one to speak for them.

This has been a project that wasn’t all fun but I felt compelled to see it through.   It taught me a lot of things I didn’t know, made me think, made me reflect on that generation, where we were, and where we are, and in many ways it was very humbling.

I hope you will agree with me that this is an obligation that we must all collectively assume, and that we will remember these heroes every year.

Thank you.

Alan’s words clearly convey the passion he has for this project. It’s something he hopes will continue from year to year now. When I spoke with him, he told me that he plans to go back to the cemetery at Normandy a third time. This time with a specific plan in mind.

He is a rather talented photographer (as can be seen throughout this article) and hopes to lobby the battlefield comission for permission to photograph each of the 144 Jewish gravestones in order to create a commemorative book. With some further research the photos would be accompanied by personal details and stories of the service members. Alan is adamant that any sales of such a book would go towards a related charity.

I greatly look forward to such a project. If the enthusiasm and follow through from the kaddish project are any indication, I’m sure it will be a large success.

If you want to create a program for next year’s event, you can download the List of Names Here or contact Alan about the project at normandykaddish@gmail.com.