First Lieutenant Aaron Kornblau, born 21 September 1921 lived in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania and attended Duke University until 1942. He enlisted on 18 November 1942, earning his pilot's wings on 1 October 1943.



On 21 July 1944 Kornblau's was flying his 35th mission when his aircraft was hit by flak. After losing control of the aircraft the crew bailed out. The radio operator, Roger C Gagnon reported in August 1945 that he believed Kornblau had stayed on board the aircraft as it crashed, and was subsequently killed. Gagnon recollected that his German captors had showed him Kornblau's identity bracelet on 27 July 1944 and told him that they had found his body in the aircraft.



In fact, Kornblau had safely escaped the crashing aircraft and landed somewhere between Urach and Schollach in Germany. Kornblau and his co-pilot Radomski, were taken to the city hall in Schollach, before being led individually into the nearby woods by Arthur Faller, a reserve Gendarme.



Heinrich Birnbreier and Josef Eisele, a factory supervisor were waiting in the woods, where Birnbreier interrogated Kornblau, asking him if he was in Munich or in possession of any weapons. Kornblau was ordered to put his hands up and then ordered to lower them, at which point Birnbreier shot him from a distance of 2-3 metres, Eisele followed up with a mercy shot to the head.



Birnbreier and Eisele with the assistance of Feller killed both Kornblau and Radomski in this way, with approximately 45 minutes between the deaths of each men. They then buried the bodies in the woods, though they were later interred in a local cemetery. Birnbreier and Eisele were sentenced to death at the Dachau War Crimes Trials in 1947, and Feller received a prison sentence.