Fighter Pilot

Fighter Pilot is the incredible story of a World War II fighter pilot, 1st Lieutenant Levitt Beck, Jr., who was shot down in German-occupied France and hidden by members of the French underground. There he wrote this story of his life practically up until the moment he was discovered. He perished in Buchenwald concentration camp, but his manuscript was delivered to his parents after the war, who took on the responsibility of seeing it published posthumously in 1946.


Lt. Beck was shot down near Havelu, Eure-et-Loir, France on 29 June 1944 on an Armed Reconnaissance mission to the Mantes-la-Jolie/Gassicourt area. Although he initially managed to evade capture, he was eventually taken prisoner and, together with more than 167 other Allied airmen, was on a convoy that left Paris on August 18, 1944. He was interned at the Buchenwald concentration camp on August 20, 1944, where he became ill from maltreatment and undernourishment and died of "Lungentuberculosis" (phthisis; pulmonary consumption) in the camp hospital on October 31, 1944, aged 24.


His remains were never found and he continues to be listed as MIA (Missing in Action). He is believed to have been cremated in Buchenwald the day following his death. He memorialized at the Luxembourg American Cemetery, Luxembourg City, Great-Duchy of Luxemburg.