Abraham Silverman                                Updated:  26 JAN 2015

Airman: u055011.htm Surname: Silverman Init: A Rank: 2ndLt Service: USAAF Sqdn: 508

P_link: p233.htm Plane: B17 42-29868 Operation: Bomb G Crash_site: Sea S of Langeland

Crash_d: d091043 Buried_d: b131043 C_link: c055.htm At_Next: Magleby - L

"Den 9. oktober 1943 passerede 378 amerikanske bombefly den sydlige del af Danmark under missioner til mål
i Danzig Gdansk her), Polen og den østlige del af Tyskland. Et B-17 fly, med Anklam (her) som mål, styrtede denne dag i Østersøen.

Flyets bombekaster, A. Silverman, inddrev den 10. oktober 1943 på østkysten af Langeland (omkring her) ud for "Bukkemose" i Fodslette sogn. Begravelsen foregik den 13. oktober." (FAF) Silverman blev fundet omkring her.
Se uddrag af oversættelse af Politirapport og se Telegram til hans far om at Abraham Silverman var død i kamp.

Læs mere om Abraham Silverman og Davidsstjernen på  Krigergravene på Magleby kirkegård.

Abraham Silverman blev taget hjem den 7. maj 1948. Der er stadig et minde med en metalplade for ham på
Magleby Kirkegård! Se kortet USAAF med alle amerikanske flyvere begravet i Danmark." (FAF)
Den 8. oktober 1948 blev han ført til Montefiore Cemetery,Laurelton Queens,Gate 352/S Block 77 Row 009R Grave 6
et distrikt i New York.

1 flyver fra B17 42-29868 blev begravet i Danmark. 2 er begravet i USA. 5 blev meldt savnet.
2 blev ført til Tyske krigsfangelejre. 10 flyvere.

"On 9 October, 1943 378 American bombers passed the southern part of Denmark on missions to targets in
Danzig (Gdansk here), Poland and the eastern part of Germany. A B-17 targeting Anklam (her) this day crashed
into the Baltic Sea.

On 10 October, 1943 bombardier A. Silverman was washed ashore on the east coast of Langeland (about here)
off "Bukkemose" in the Parish of Fodslette. The burial was on 13 October." (FAF) See excerpt from a translation
of the Police Report. See also the Telegram to his father that he was not MIA any more but KIA.

Abraham Silverman was taken home on 7 May 1948. There is still a wooden memorial with a metal plate in his
memory in Magleby Churchyard! The bottom line on all metal nameplates "Hjemført til U.S.A." means
"Taken home to the USA". See the map USAAF with American airmen buried in Denmark.

The story of Abraham Silverman and the Star of David is told in  Krigergravene på Magleby kirkegård.
("the War Graves in Magleby Churchyard") and this is the relevant part translated into English:

“The American plots are marked with wooden crosses. Contrary to the English and Canadian airmen the American airmen were taken home after the war.
In Magleby it happened on 7 May 1948. On each cross there is a metal plate with relevant information.

In 2007 the wooden cross to Abraham Silverman was replaced with a wooden Star of David. This happened at the request of a relative of Bernard Bercuson,
Dr. David J. Bercuson, head of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary, Canada. When he visited his relative´s plot in Magleby,
Abraham Silverman´s plot caught his attention. Later in a letter he drew my attentention to the fact that Abraham Silverman was a Jew, so he asked to have
the wooden cross replaced with a Star of David. He sent me all necessary information, and on that basis his request was complied with.

Abraham Silverman was one of many headed by M.H. Higgins. Ten of them were the crew sent from America to Europe in January 1943. 9 October, 1943 five
of them were killed, when they flew over Langeland. The rest of them survived and returned to the U.S.A.. Four of the deceased are now buried on the Cambridge War
Cemetery in England. (Note: See details at B17 42-29868 - only 2 of 10 airmen survived)

M.H. Higgins was very pleased that this correspondence about Abraham Silverman was started and reached him in San José, California, because
Abraham Silverman was the only one of the original crew Higgins had no knowledge of.  

Abraham Silverman was found on the beach at Bukkemose in the parish of Fodslette 10 October, 1943 and was buried by a German army chaplain on Magleby churchyard 13 October 1943. He was brought home from here 7 May 1948, first to the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium, then on 8 October 1948 to his
home town New York, where he was buried in the Montefiore Cemetery, Gate 352/S Block 77 Row 009R Grave 6, in Laurelton Queens, a district of New York.”

1 airman from B17 42-29868 was buried in Denmark. 2 are buried in the USA. 5 were reported Missing in Action. 2 were taken to German POW-Camps. 10 airmen.