Respecting a legend

Valley Press on ^ | Sunday, January 28, 2007. | TITUS GEE

[BenLurkin]

Cadet Maier Ben Himelstaub is more than a ghost story. The British RAF pilot-in-training, whose 1942 death at War Eagle Air Field in Lancaster inspired legends of haunting by the "Ghost of Mira Loma," was a real young man far from home.

His passing during training for WWII was a tragedy worthy of respect, said organizers of a memorial in Himelstaub's honor.

"In Europe, the fallen Americans' grave sites are revered, honored, very well cared-for," said Lani Glasscock , one of the organizers. "We want to reciprocate that respect."

Toward that end, Glasscock, a Middle School history teacher, helped plan a Feb. 16 ceremony to remember the fallen pilot 65 years after his death. Glasscock collaborated with her mother, Barbara Little, who manages the Lancaster Cemetery where Himelstaub is buried, and with local history enthusiast Bob Alvis to arrange the event.

The ceremony will feature World War II aircraft flying the missing man formation, a new headstone for Himelstaub's grave, and flowers laid by some of Glasscock's students.

The organizers believe the Antelope Valley owes something to the memory of a serviceman who died and was buried here.

"He became a citizen of Lancaster. There was no road home for him," Alvis said.

Before America joined the war, British pilots often got their wings through "unofficial" training at War Eagle Field in Lancaster, Alvis said. Himelstaub, a Polish Jew, fled Europe to escape the Nazi invasion, according to Norma Gurba, curator of the Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery.

Himelstaub's mother and brother suffered in the Warsaw ghetto and two concentration camps. After being liberated in 1945 from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp (where Anne Frank died), they emigrated to Tel Aviv, Israel. Brother Israel Himelstaub changed his name to Israel Shahak , and became a professor and prominent political activist in Israel, Gurba wrote.