18

Hyman Josefson was born in New York State as the son of Romanian Jews. He graduated from school with success and was awarded a scholarship to attend the renowned Cornell University. After studying law, he worked in a social welfare office in New York State. Josefson volunteered to join the US Army in January 1942, a few weeks after the attack on the US military base at Pearl Harbor, as one of 550,000 Jewish soldiers. In 1944 he landed in Normandy as commander of a scout car and successfully participated in the liberation of France. In Pétange, his scout car was hit by a German shell and caught fire. Hyman Josefson was unable to get out and became the first American to die on Luxembourg soil. Although the first US soldier to have died in Luxembourg is commemorated every year in the city, his name remained unknown until 1985, and it was not until 1989 that an initially nameless monument was dedicated to Hyman Josefson and a square named after him.