Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Operation Benjamin works to replace erroneous grave markers for Jewish American service members who died in battle
Ben Zion Bernstein served in one of the most elite fighting units in the US military during World War II – the First Special Service Force – a select group picked and put through rigorous training for among the most perilous missions.
His first combat mission turned out to be his last.
Bernstein, a technician fourth grade, was killed in the famous battle of Monte La Difensa on December 3, 1943, while storming a steep Italian mountain trying to overtake a Nazi stronghold.
Snip
They also didn’t know that despite being a proud Jew, he’d been buried under a Latin cross for more than 80 years at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy, until a historian named Shalom Lamm contacted them.
Lamm is with a non-profit organization called Operation Benjamin, which works with the American Battle Monuments Commission to help find Jewish soldiers who were buried in American military cemeteries around the world under Latin crosses and correct those inadvertent errors by replacing their headstones with a Star of David.
.
His first combat mission turned out to be his last.
Bernstein, a technician fourth grade, was killed in the famous battle of Monte La Difensa on December 3, 1943, while storming a steep Italian mountain trying to overtake a Nazi stronghold.
Snip
They also didn’t know that despite being a proud Jew, he’d been buried under a Latin cross for more than 80 years at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy, until a historian named Shalom Lamm contacted them.
Lamm is with a non-profit organization called Operation Benjamin, which works with the American Battle Monuments Commission to help find Jewish soldiers who were buried in American military cemeteries around the world under Latin crosses and correct those inadvertent errors by replacing their headstones with a Star of David.
.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/24/politics/operation-benjamin-grave-makers-jewish-american-army#:~:text=Lamm%20is%20with%20a%20non,headstones%20with%20a%20Star%20of