Fight to correct graves of Jewish-Australian WWII heroes: ‘We’re running out of time’

Two Anzac heroes were incorrectly buried in the fog of World War II – but 80 years on, attempts to set the record straight are falling on deaf ears.

Two Anzac heroes, and presumably more, have laid a world apart for decades, mistakenly and subtly dishonoured in their final places of rest.

He claimed to be a 21-year-old Roman Catholic by the name of James Terence Drummond when he enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force in October 1941.

Less than a year later he was dead – killed when his motorcycle collided with a bus while working as a military dispatch rider in Melbourne. His body laid to rest in the Catholic section of the city’s Springvale Botanical Cemetery.

Like hundreds of other recruits who falsified information to join the war effort, James Terence Drummond was in fact 15-year-old Jewish-born Jacob Sorsky, originally from Liverpool in the UK, who boarded the merchant vessel MV Armadale to Melbourne as a galley boy in 1940, assuming the name ‘T. Drummond’.

His enlistment photos offer a poignant thought exercise. They show a gaunt young man with scruffy hair who wouldn’t look out of place at any modern Australian high school.

Photo from Jacob Sorsky’s enlistment. He was just 15 years old when he died on duty. Picture: Operation Jacob

Australian professional engineer turned amateur military researcher Peter Allen launched ‘Operation Jacob’ in 2021 to have Sorsky’s true identity and faith acknowledged on his headstone – and that of a second Jewish serviceman, RAAF Pilot Officer Raymond Shaw.

A faded archive photo shows RAAF Pilot Officer Raymond Shaw smiling on a Libyan runway in the cockpit of his Kittyhawk, named ‘Margorie’ after his fiance.

Jacob Sorsky existing headstone in the Catholic section of Springvale Cemetery, Melbourne. Picture: Operation Jacob

She was home in the inner-west Sydney suburb of Tempe, awaiting his return as he caused havoc in the skies over Northern Africa.

Emblazoned on the side of Officer Shaw’s Kittyhawk were two swastikas – ‘kill markings’ that boasted victories over a pair of German planes.

Despite being Jewish, Officer Shaw attested as Anglican upon enlistment in the RAAF in 1940 – as was common among Jews.

Officer Shaw, a formidable fighter of the 450 Squadron, died in May 1942 after his aircraft was shot down over Tobruk, Libya.

Although records confirm the 20-year-old’s family had requested a Star of David on his headstone, a clerical error led to a cross being inscribed over his grave in Knightsbridge War Cemetery, Acroma, Libya.

RAAF Pilot Officer Raymond Shaw from Tempe was formidable in the air. Picture: Operation Jacob

P/O Shaw, 20, in the cockpit of his Kittyhawk named Margorie after his fiance. The swastika markings denote two German kills. Picture: Operation Jacob

Mr Allen took inspiration from an American organisation – Operation Benjamin – which collaborates with the American Battlefield Monuments Commission (ABMC) to identify Jews wrongly buried under crosses, as opposed to a Star of David as per Jewish custom.

It took eight decades for the ABMC to rightly acknowledge Jewish-American First Lieutenant Nathan Baskind’s faith, after he was killed in the Battle of Cherbourg in June 1944.

The Jewish war hero lay lost and incorrectly buried in a mass grave among his adversaries for almost eight decades.

1st Lt Baskind was among the brave souls to storm the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. Picture: US National Archives / AFP

Mass grave in a German War Cemetery in Marigny, France, where Lt Baskind was found. Picture: Operation Benjamin.

The reinterment ceremony 1st Lt Nathan Baskind. Picture: Sabina Cowdery @anibasphotography

Also working with the German War Graves Commission, Operation Benjaman learned through German military records that Nazi forces captured Lt Baskind, a D-Day hero, after he was shot and brought him to a German hospital in Cherbourg, where he died the same night.

According to researchers, thousands of bone fragments were in the grave, but they found remains that matched DNA samples provided by Lt Baskind’s living relatives.

The German Army handed over Baskind’s remains to the US Army during a ceremony at Ramstein Air Base in May this year.

1st Lt. Nathan B. Baskind. Picture: Operation Benjamin.

On June 23, exactly 80 years to the day since he was killed in action, the remains of Lt Baskind were buried under a Star of David in a full military and Jewish service.

At his June 24 reburial, Rabbi Jacob Schacter, the president of Operation Benjamin, praised the Germans’ involvement in helping locate Lt Baskind’s remains.

“The Jewish people were subjected to the worst inhumanity that could possibly be ever perpetrated by one people against another,” he said.

“And today we meet in peace, with mutual respect, with admiration.”

Fight continues for Sorsky and Shaw

Mr Allen told news.com.au he felt a duty to honour Australian service men and women after the remains 250 Diggers were found in a mass grave near Fromelles in France in 2008.

To date, 180 have been identified – but not Mr Allen’s cousin, Private Lionel Levy who was killed in action on July 19, 1916.

Mr Allen said it was not uncommon for soldiers of the Jewish faith to attest to another religion when enlisting, mostly out of “fear of capture and mistreatment” by the Nazis.

In Jacob Sorsky’s case, his parents were informed of their son’s death and had his name recorded on the Liverpool Jewish Lads Brigade Memorial in 1949, but had lost contact with the War Graves authorities.

Consequently, his siblings, who are still alive, never knew the location of his headstone or that it incorrectly states he is “James Drummond, age 21” ; and “Roman Catholic,” until 2016 when his story was unravelled.

“It’s heartbreaking when you think Sorsky actually has living brothers and sisters who want this change,” Mr Allen told news.com.au.

The headstone of Officer Shaw. The CWGC has been requested to change the headstone emblem to a Star of David at his final burial place at Knightsbridge War Cemetery, Acroma, Libya. Picture: Operation Jacob

But he said “we’re running out of time” given their advancing age.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), based in the UK, authorises changes to Australian soldiers’ graves.

“Clearly, as a Jew, it is most improper to be buried under a cross,” Mr Allen said.

Despite comprehensive evidence and legal backing, the CWGC has consistently refused to amend its records, citing the servicemen’s attestations at enlistment over the wishes of their next of kin.

“The CWGC must respect the wishes of the next of kin for a Star of David to be inscribed, and in the cases of Sorsky and Shaw,” Mr Allen said.

“They’ve not stayed true to their own policy or numerous similar precedents in that regard.”

Instead the CWGC required proof the men had returned – or planned to – practice their Jewish faith at the time of the deaths.

A plaque from the Liverpool Jewish Lads Brigade in the UK includes Sig Sorsky's real name. Picture: Operation Jacob

Mr Allen argues the application of the “unfeasible” test is not CWGC policy, as it was never applied to any of the previous 25 cases of Jewish Australian servicemen where the CWGC overturned their attestations of non-Jewish religions in favour of their next of kin’s wishes for a Star of David.

It was also not applied in two cases of servicemen whose attestations of the Jewish religion were overturned by the CWGC in favour of the next of kin’s wishes for no religious emblem on their headstones.

While the CWGC has agreed to replace Jacob’s headstone with one that shows his true name and age and references his Jewish heritage, but it has not agreed to inscribe a Star of David.

As a last resort, Operation Jacob is pressing for an independent review through intervention from Australia’s High Commissioner to the UK to address the matter at a CWGC Commissioners’ meeting.

The reinterment ceremony 1st Lt Nathan Baskind. Picture: Sabina Cowdery @anibasphotography

“Operation Jacob continues to strive and hope that the CWGC will recognise the true identity of fallen Jewish servicemen Jacob Sorsky and Raymond Shaw with no less empathy and effort than that demonstrated by the ABMC,” Mr Allen said.

News.com.au has asked the CWGC why it will not fully amend the graves of Sorsky and Officer Shaw, as their families wish, but the Commission has refused to budge.

“In our letter to Operation Jacob last year, we explained that the CWGC had again reviewed the information, and with continued regret, we advised that we had reached the same conclusion,” a spokesperson told news.com.au.

“Misters Drummond (Sorsky) and Shaw chose a different faith on their official enlistment documents. It is their decision at the time that has to take precedence.”

The spokesman added that while the issue is “highly sensitive and complex,” the commission is resolute in its stance.

“It therefore remains our position that we do not support the case for amendment to the headstones,” he said.

“We are very sorry this doesn’t provide the group with the outcome they hoped for, and we sympathise with and understand their significant disappointment.”