Bernard Haikin

Private Benjamin ("Bernard") Haikin was an English soldier of the British Army who died during the Second World War.
He was born in 1920, in Marylebone, the son of Yascha and Katia Hakin (née Censor). Haikin enlisted on 11 December 1941, in the Suffolk Regiment, and served during the Sicily Campaign. While there, Haikin reputedly refused an order to shoot a soldier attempting to surrender. Others also refused and the officer shot the individual himself. Haikin retrieved the man's binoculars, tent bag, and hat, which later came into the possession of his brother (and, eventually, the Imperial War Museum).Cap, M1942 Tropical Bustina Field Cap: Italian, iwm.org.uk. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
Aged 24, Haikin died on 25 September 1944, in the desperate defence of Arnhem during Operation Market. His unit, the 156th Parachute Battalion, had been dropped over Holland on the 18th and suffered heavy casualties in the ensuing battle.156 Parachute Battalion, paradata.org.uk. Retrieved 19 July 2015. He had married Katherine Wright, whom he divorced.Jews at the Battle of Arnhem, pegasusarchive.org. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
He is buried in Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery. A Star of David was placed on Haikin's previously unaffiliated headstone after his brother and sister submitted a request to the CWGC in 1998.
==Notes==
==References==
*Ancestry.co.uk.
*Haikin, Bernard, cwgc.org. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
Category:1920 births
Category:1944 deaths
Category:British military personnel
Category:British Army
Category:British people of Jewish descent
Category:Buried in the Netherlands
Category:Privates