In February 2023 Martin Sugarman, the archivist at AJEX, sent me a photo of a man in a WW2 uniform, carrying my Uncle Denny’s photo.  Martin is the author of ‘Fighting Back: British Jewry’s Military Contribution in the Second World War’ (Valentine Mitchell 2017) that includes an entire chapter devoted to the Jewish paratroopers who served at Arnhem.

My uncle had been killed at the battle of Arnhem, aged 21, in September 1944.  My mother never got over losing her younger brother and here was somebody out of the blue carrying his photo.  Who was he and why was he holding my uncle’s photo?  Martin not only knew the man in uniform, but also recognised the soldier because of all his research for his book.

The man was Mark Ganat, a British born Israeli who as a member of various US and Europe based parachute teams takes part in commemorative events of the airborne operations of WW2 by parachuting from period aircraft into the drop zones that were used in those operations, wearing period uniform.

Mark had sent the photo to Martin who not only recognised the soldier in the photo but told Mark he knew his niece.  And so started over a year of correspondence between the two of us.

I immediately got in touch with Mark and discovered that he is an ex-special forces soldier who is an IDF trained parachutist.   Through family in the US, he was introduced to an American jump team, Liberty, and did a refresher course so that he could honour the veterans of airborne operations of WW2 and later conflicts.  Like the other teams, Liberty has close relations with the US army and regularly jumps in France to commemorate the D-Day landings.

Mark makes a particular point of commemorating the Jewish participants in those operations, particularly those who were killed in action, by carrying their photographs when he jumps or performing short Jewish memorials at their graves.

My uncle, Private Denzil Keen (Denny),  has no known grave, but his name is engraved on the memorial at Groesbeek as well as on the memorial to the 10th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment at Burrough on the Hill, High Leicestershire.   I promised my mother before she died in 2021 that I would not forget her brother.  It seems others have not either.

Mark and I corresponded by email and I told him I planned to attend the 80th anniversary commemorations of the Battle of Arnhem and hoped to meet him should he be going.  My son, husband and I booked our flights and booked our hotel to arrive late on Friday 20th September, thinking that this would be perfect timing.  How wrong could I be?  I then got the following message from Mark:

Is there no way you can extend the beginning of your trip? By one day? My jump in the British drop zone (1st Brigade, not the 4th) is on the 20th at Renkum. I am hoping that the head of Pathfinder Parachute Group UK will give me the lead position – first flight, first stick of parachutists, first parachutist out the door. Planned time-on-target is 1000. If so, I will be opening the whole event. And I will be carrying Denny’s photo like I did two years ago. It’s a very special event. It would be terrific if you could be there on the ground when I land. Any chance you can change that?

Well – how could I say no to that?  So, we are off on Thursday 19th September to watch Mark jump, carrying my uncle’s photo yet again.  I will also be laying a Star of David wreath at the service held by the Friends of the Tenth at Burrough on the Hill on the Saturday afternoon.

We will also be attending the service of Remembrance on the Sunday morning to which a cousin from Rotterdam will be joining us. He is our daughter in law’s relative who had escaped Vienna just in time as a small child and was hidden in The Netherlands.  He survived.  His father and grandmother were not so lucky, they were taken to and died in Auschwitz. He told us that he remembers seeing the paras drop and would be honoured to attend a service of Remembrance – yet again, what a small world.