On June 29, David and Wendy Hefter traveled to France to complete a mission David described as “108 years in the making.”

The Pikesville couple participated in the unveiling of 18 gravestones for German Jewish soldiers who died fighting for Germany in World War I and were improperly buried under Latin crosses. One of the soldiers was Isidor Katzenstein, David’s long-lost great-uncle.

Until that point, Katzenstein had just been “a person in a picture” that hung on the wall in the hallway of their home in Pikesville.

David didn’t know much about his family history. He only knew of his mother’s father, Julius, so when he got a call from his brother, Jesse Hefter, he was shocked to find out his grandfather had a brother no one had heard of.

Despite knowing nothing about Katzenstein, there was no question as to whether they’d attend his unveiling.

“Family’s been very important to us for generations,” said David.

A ‘Historical Anomaly’

The trip was a part of Operation Benjamin, a nonprofit organization that identifies American Jewish soldiers killed in World War I and World War II who were mistakenly buried under Latin crosses and replaces their headstones with Stars of David.

“Most people are unaware that well over 1,000 U.S. soldiers from World War II and World War I were killed in action overseas … and were buried accidentally under Latin crosses instead of Stars of David,” Co-Founder and Chief Historian Shalom Lamm told Baltimore Jewish Times.

Lamm explained that in 2014, his good friend Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter, a professor at Yeshiva University, was leading a tour about medieval France in Normandy on June 6, D-Day, when one of his students suggested an unscheduled stop to the Normandy American Cemetery.

“He said to me, ‘Shalom,’ and I’ll never forget these words, ‘I just visited the Normandy American Cemetery,” Lamm recalled. “It was hallowed. It was holy. It was gorgeous. I just thought there would have been more Stars of David.’ That sentence was the founding of Operation Benjamin.”

Lamm and his co-founders set out to have their question answered: “Were there fewer Stars of David than there should be?”

“The answer was yes,” he said.

In 2018, Operation Benjamin unveiled its first headstone for Private Benjamin Garadetsky, an American Jewish soldier mistakenly buried under a Latin cross at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial.

But in 2025, their mission morphed into something more. While working with the German War Graves Commission (Volksbund) to exhume the remains of an American Jewish soldier buried in a German mass grave during World War II under a cross, Lamm said the organization got an unexpected call regarding a German soldier buried in a World War I cemetery.

“One day we got a call from the secretary general of the German War Graves Commission, the fellow named General Dirk Backen,” Lamm explained. “He said, ‘I’m standing at a World War I German Military cemetery and I see the name Meier Levi, [a German] … I never would have noticed before, but clearly, he’s Jewish.”

With the unveiling of Levi’s grave, Operation Levi was born — to identify German Jewish soldiers killed in World War I fighting for Germany and replace their headstones with Stars of David.

According to Lamm, Levi was one of roughly 1,300 German Jewish soldiers who died in World War I and were buried underneath a cross for what he described as a “historical anomaly.” So was David Hefter’s maternal great-uncle Isidor Katzenstein.

Unveiling History

The discovery of their great-uncle Isidor also led to the discovery of the story of the Katzenstein family.

The photo they had of Isidor also included five of his siblings, including David’s grandfather, Julius, and Isidor’s parents.

“I’ve had it hanging for a long time in the hallway, and it’s just because I like history,” Wendy said. “I thought … that’s cool because that’s David’s grandfather and great-grandfather.”

On the back of the picture were the names written down of each of the family members, who they knew very little about until being contacted by Operation Benjamin.

“This connection to a past that my brother, who’s the archivist of the family, had no idea about was shocking to all of us,” said David.

Isidor was born in Wehrda, Germany, on Dec. 10, 1899, to Jakob Katzenstein and Betti Wallach. He served as a musketeer and died on Oct. 24, 1918, at the age of 18. He was one of at least nine siblings, four of whom died in infancy or childhood, according to a brief history prepared by Operation Benjamin staff.

His older brother Julius, David’s grandfather, was born on Nov. 5, 1895. He married Bertha Stern in Wehrda and they emigrated from Germany to the U.S. in 1938. Their sister, Sara, her husband and their two daughters died during the Holocaust. Her son survived and ultimately relocated to Israel.

Their other sister, Meta, who was never married, was murdered in Auschwitz.

From Julius’ and Isidor’s younger sister Regina, who died 1997 in Queens, New York, David has five first cousins and 10 first cousins once removed.

Unveiling Uncle Isidor

“It was 18 [German Jewish unveilings], rinse and repeat, but every one was meaningful,” said Wendy.

The couple spent two days saying Kaddish for the 18 German Jewish soldiers in the Saint-Quentin German Military Cemetery alongside Lamm, Backen, David’s brother, Jesse, German soldiers, French and British representatives, exchange students from France, Germany and Britain, musicians and many others.

“The idea that we could participate in his unveiling and … Kaddish [was] very moving,” David said. “I mean, no one would have known him after age 18 when he got killed and succumbed to his wounds in a French hospital.”

On July 2, the first day of unveilings, Wendy said she went up to speak with the German soldiers and they thanked her for letting them participate in the commemoration. “It’s amazing that they feel honored to be able to help.”

Isidor’s unveiling was on July 3, the second day of unveilings and the last day of Wendy and David’s trip.

David explained that the unveiling of Isidor’s gravestone, like the other gravestones, began with Backen putting on a yarmulke and saying, “My dear comrade, thank you for your service.”

“Then an Operation Benjamin representative says, ‘And Isidor, on behalf of the Jewish people, we welcome you home,” Wendy added. “At the very end, [Backen] says to the [German soldier] the final salute and [the soldier] does this precision final salute to his comrade who passed away 108 years ago. It’s just incredible.”

David, Jesse and Wendy all spoke during the ceremony.

“I spoke about a charm that I had because David’s grandmother, Bertha … had gotten little charms for a bracelet every time the grandchildren were born,” Wendy explained. “I had David’s [charm] and I brought that with me because that would have been a charm from [Isidor’s] sister-in-law that he never knew.”

Wendy said standing next to the German soldiers at the unveiling was “weird and wonderful.”

“It was very moving,” she said.

Lamm explained that the process up until unveiling the headstone is extremely thorough and complex but “very moving to introduce people to, what to them — if there’s any memory at all — is a faded memory, an old black-and-white photograph that they can’t identify … and tell them about their lives, who they were as flesh and blood people.”

“When it’s over and you’re standing in front of a Jewish soldier who gave his life in all good consciences for Germany, thinking that this was going to finally prove the worthy of the Jews to become full citizens of Germany,” Lamm said. “And you see it changed from a cross to a Star of David, and you say Kaddish for the first time ever at this guy’s grave after [almost] 110 years. It’s unbelievable. It’s an absolutely unbelievable feeling.”

mresnicow@midatlanticmedia.com