On this day in 1945, Jewish paratrooper Abba Berdichev was executed in the Mauthausen concentration camp after being captured on his mission to save European Jews from the horrors of the Holocaust. His body was never recovered and an empty tomb was erected on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, alongside the other seven Jewish paratroopers who died in Europe in 1944 and 1945. Born in Galati, Romania, in 1920, Berdichev was a descendant of a prominent Hasidic family. From a very young age, Berdichev found a common cause in the Zionist movement as a member of the youth movements in Romania. He also trained in agricultural work, developing a desire to live in Mandatory Palestine. In 1940, when the pro-Nazi government took over Romania, Berdichev decided it was time to leave Europe and arrive in the Land of Israel. Upon release, Berdichev moved to Kibbutz Geva, later settling in Ashdot Yaakov. By 1943, Berdichev had volunteered to work with the British as a paratrooper and was trained in both Ramat David and Egypt for about a year. On March 15, 1944, Berdichev was dropped in Yugoslavia with Hannah Szenes, Reuven Dafni, and Yona Rosen. His main tasks were re-entering Romania and helping smuggle out Romanian Jews and British prisoners-of-war (POWs). Unable to reach Romania, Berdichev went to Bari, Italy to recuperate and by August 1944 found himself in Slovakia fighting alongside the British and American troops. The mission was to reach Hungary, but after a Nazi ambush, Berdichev and his team were forced to flee into the mountains where after two months, the Germans captured them. As a prisoner, Berdichev was sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria in December of 1944, where he was tortured and interrogated by the Nazis. After his death, a will that he wrote was found, and it read, “All of you please – do not cry. We only weep for the unfortunate. I am fortunate that I had the honor of being chosen by the Jews in Palestine to bring encouragement and help to those in need in the Diaspora."