America is not a country that wants for heroes. This is, after all, a land founded on ideals that breed heroism: individuality, ambition, courage, and freedom. On Veterans Day, we honor the fullest expression of those ideals: the soldiers who put their lives on the line to preserve all that is precious about our country.
Aaron MacLean is one of those veterans. For seven years, he served as an active-duty U.S. Marine, including one year as an infantry officer in Afghanistan. But when we asked him to write in honor of Veterans Day, he chose not to reflect on his own service, but to tell the story of another American hero. Today, he introduces us to Johann “Hans” Kasten, a World War II veteran who passed away in 2007 and will be honored next week at Arlington National Cemetery. Kasten was targeted and beaten by German troops for refusing to reveal which of his fellow American soldiers were Jewish. In that act, he embodied the essence of American heroism: the refusal to bow down in timid passivity and betray one’s own. This Veterans Day, we’re proud to bring you the story of this extraordinary man—just one in a long line of American heroes we celebrate today. —The Editors
Next week, at Arlington National Cemetery, just across the Potomac from Washington, D.C., an American World War II veteran buried there will be recognized in a special ceremony. His name was Private First Class Johann “Hans” Kasten, and the event in his honor has been organized by Operation Benjamin, a group devoted to correcting the surprisingly frequent number of cases where American Jewish soldiers killed in action overseas were erroneously buried under Christian crosses. Rabbis will speak, a prayer will be offered by the chair of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, and salutes will be rendered by representatives of the U.S. and German Army.
But there is a difference between this and the organization’s other ceremonies: Hans Kasten, who died at the age of 90 in 2007, wasn’t Jewish, and his headstone isn’t being swapped out for a Star of David. Indeed, as Kasten was a self-described atheist, his grave is marked by no religious symbols at all.
So what is the reason for the special honors all these years later? It goes back to a moment of extraordinary heroism in January 1945 at a place called Stalag IX-B, a prisoner-of-war camp near Frankfurt.
Kasten, the son of a German American, was born in the then–Territory of Hawaii in 1916 and grew up in Wisconsin. He joined the Army in 1943 and, per research compiled by Operation Benjamin, soon found himself in the infantry in Europe, defending the surrounded Clervaux Castle in Luxembourg during the Battle of the Bulge.
Out of ammunition and food, the castle’s American defenders ultimately surrendered to the Nazis, and Kasten’s time in heavy combat was over. But his experience of war was only just beginning.
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