How does Heidegger connect authenticity with being-toward-death?

In Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time, the concept of authenticity (Eigentlichkeit) is fundamentally linked to an individual’s confrontation with their own finitude, which he terms "being-toward-death".12

For Heidegger, the majority of human existence is characterized by "inauthenticity," where the individual—or Dasein—seeks to escape the reality of their own limited existence by losing themselves in the anonymous conformity of "the They" (das Man). In this state, individuals distract themselves through idle talk, curiosity, and ambiguity, effectively avoiding the truth of their own mortality.12

Authenticity, conversely, requires Dasein to stop fleeing from this reality and instead embrace its own existential condition. By acknowledging the inevitability of death, the individual moves away from the distractions of mass society and heeds the "call of conscience," which summons them to fulfill their potential as a self. Thus, being-toward-death is not a morbid preoccupation but a necessary, resolute acceptance of one's finitude that allows Dasein to move from a passive, inauthentic existence to an authentic, self-actualized way of being in the world.21