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A Jewish soldier died saving a Christian friend. Eighty years later, a grave reunited their families.

JL;DR SUMMARY In 1945, during a night assault on Mount Belvedere in Italy, Jewish American soldier Frank T. Kurzinger died trying to save Christian friend Del Riley after a landmine explosion. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

World War Ii10th Mountain DivisionRemembranceOperation BenjaminZachorFrank T. KurzingerDel RileyJewish ServicemembersMount BelvedereFlorence American Cemetery

Places mentioned

Florence, Italy
"At a cemetery outside Florence, Italy, two families gathered around the grave of a young American soldier."
Wisconsin, United States
"During training, he became close friends with a soldier from Wisconsin named Del Riley."

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This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 86009
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2026-06-24 05:30:59 UTC
Curated 2026-06-24 08:31:02 UTC