Sergeant Alvin Jerome Ellin was born on November 19, 1925 and was from Norton, Virginia. He enlisted in the US Army Air Force (#15364395) in 1943; he was 19 at the time of his death.
Sergeant Alvin J. Ellin served as the Tail Gunner on the B-17 “St. Francis” (42-32104) of the 419th Bomber Squadron, 301st Bomber Group, 15th Air Force.
On December 17, 1944 “St. Francis” was part of a mission flying from Lucera Airbase in Italy to bomb the synthetic oil manufacturing plants in Blechhammer (in present day Poland). The plane was shot down while on the bombing run over the target and the entire crew bailed out. The plane crashed near the infamous Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Upon landing, Sergeant Ellin was shot by a German Gendarme while reportedly attempting to escape. The rest of the survived: nine were taken prisoner and one evaded capture with the help of the Polish resistance. (Missing Aircraft Report {MACR} 10670).
Sergeant Ellin initially not identified, was buried in the local graveyard. After the war his body was repatriated to the United States. The local town remembers Sergeant Ellin by maintaining a cenotaph and celebrating his sacrifice each on December 17 this cenotaph lies on the Polish “Route of Remembrance” (Trasa Pamieci), remembering sites associated with the Auschwitz Death Camp.
After the war, he was reburied in the New Jewish Cemetery in Knoxville, Tennessee.