South side. Grave 22. Russian Federation (North).

Isolated Burial

An inscribed Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) memorial headstone.

Note: The exact identity and circumstances of death are unclear for the U.S. Merchant Mariner identified on his headstone as Maurice Liebman. According to archival documents citing U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters information, Merchant Mariner Morris Leibman died on 11 April 1942 onboard ship SS EL ESTERO -- one of the ships in Allied convoy PQ13 which was attacked en route into Murmansk in March 1942. The CWGC website spells his surname as Leibman and shows his death date as 15 April 1942. Some local Russian archival information identifies him in the Russian language as МОРИС ЛИБМАН (literal transliteration: MORIS LIBMAN), including his first name which could be interpreted as Maurice or Morris.

Source of information: 

- Memorial Division Repatriation Branch Memorandum, 10 March 1950

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convoy_PQ_13

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_El_Estero

- https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/2016904/murmansk-russian-cemetery-extension/

- Register of Allied Necropolis-Diagram 3 (Murmansk, in Russian) https://proza.ru/2023/11/04/93

Source of photo: avp23649.livejournal.com/212224.html

MAURICE LIEBMAN

MESSMAN

UNITED STATES

MERCHANT MARINE

11TH APRIL 1942

✡

Note:

It appears that the Hebrew inscription within the Star of David is an abbreviation ת נ צ ב ה of a verse from the Bible, the first book of Samuel, 25:29, “May his soul be bound up in the bond of eternal life.”

INFORMATION SOURCE:

https://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/tombstones.html

https://www.cwgc.org/our-work/blog/written-in-stone-exploring-different-cwgc-headstones