William Shemin: Above and Beyond the Call of Duty

Heroism on the Vesle

Throughout the summer of 1918, the northern French village of Bazoches-sur-Vesle witnessed intense fighting during the Aisne-Marne Offensive. In early August, German troops retreated to the banks of the rain-swollen river that divides the village, lobbing mustard gas shells and firing machine guns at the Allied troops in pursuit.

Among the Allied soldiers was a young Jewish forestry student from New Jersey named William Shemin, a rifleman in the 47th Infantry Regiment of the Fourth Division of the American Expeditionary Forces. Shemin’s fellow soldiers watched in amazement as he ran into the line of fire multiple times to save the lives of three wounded comrades. After taking command when superior officers fell in battle, Shemin was grievously injured but stubbornly persisted, evacuating his regiment across the river amidst intense fighting, doubtlessly saving more lives.

A Long Awaited Honor

On June 2, 2015, President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously to Sergeants William Shemin and William Henry Johnson of the 369th Infantry, an all-Black unit better known as the Harlem Hellfighters. “We are a nation, a people, who remember our heroes,” the president declared. Both men fought heroically but did not receive the nation’s highest award for valor “above and beyond the call of duty” during their lifetimes.

Top image: William Shemin
Courtesy of the William Shemin Collection, National Museum of American Jewish Military History

Image at right: Medal of Honor
Washington DC, 2015
Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, 2018.24.1
Gift of Elsie Shemin-Roth and Ina Bass

This exhibition was prepared by staff of the Weitzman Museum and the National Museum of American Jewish Military History with the assistance of Jiayi Li, a student at the University of Pennsylvania and a Summer 2022 intern at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History

Explore the Story

From the Lower East Side to his valiant deeds, explore Sergeant Shemin’s life through the 30 artifacts and stories below. Scroll through to the right and click on each of the 32 images to learn more.

William Shemin

Bayonne, New Jersey, ca. 1897

<div style="width: 312px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" src="https://theweitzman.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Shemin-and-Minnie-1.jpg" alt="William and Minnie Shemin" width="302" height="303" />William and sister Minnie Shemin Bayonne, New Jersey, ca. 1904</div> William Shemin was born on the Lower East Side of New York City to Russian parents Bessie and Harris Shemin, who were among the two million Jews who immigrated to the United States around the turn of the century. In search of better opportunities for their growing family, Bessie and Harry soon moved to the nearby port city of Bayonne, New Jersey. Courtesy of the Shemin family

Baseball team

Bayonne, New Jersey, ca. 1910s

A precocious and multi-talented teenaged athlete, William boxed, swam, and even played semi-professional baseball with the Bayonne Sea Lions. He is seated on the left in this photograph. Courtesy of the William Shemin Collection, National Museum of American Jewish Military History. Courtesy of the William Shemin Collection, National Museum of American Jewish Military History.

William Shemin chops wood

ca. 1914

William Shemin chopping wood In 1914, Shemin attended the Ranger School affiliated with the New York State College of Forestry in Wanakena, New York. After completing a training program with the school’s second graduating class, he returned to Bayonne to work as an assistant city forester. Courtesy of the William Shemin Collection, National Museum of American Jewish Military History

Sheet music

New York, New York, 1917

We All Must Fight for Uncle Sam, by M. Zavodnick Already smoldering with nationalism and resentment, Europe plunged into war following the 1914 assassination of Austria’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand. For four years, ferocious destruction raged across Europe, leaving seventeen million soldiers and civilians dead. Across the Atlantic, the United States resisted the pull of war until 1917, when Germany began targeting and sinking American ships. These aggressions, along with the publication of a secret German telegram inviting Mexico into an alliance, brought a public uproar. On April 6, 1917, the United States entered World War I and began building its meager standing army into the American Expeditionary Forces. Weitzman Museum of American Jewish History, 1992.17.2, Gift in memory of Gwendolyn T. Berney

Recruiting station

ca. 1917

Shemin, who had previously enlisted in the New York National Guard in 1916, registered for the draft in June 1917. Determined to serve, but too young, Shemin later recalled that he convinced his father to affirm that he was the minimum age of 21, even though he was not. Growing impatient of waiting to be drafted, Shemin instead enlisted in the Army. In early October, he joined the men of G Company in the 47th Infantry Regiment at Camp Syracuse. Courtesy of the William Shemin Collection, National Museum of American Jewish Military History

Camp Greene

Charlotte, North Carolina, ca. 1918

Shemin’s unit departed for North Carolina’s Camp Greene in late autumn 1917 to join the Fourth Division of the American Expeditionary Force, nicknamed the “Ivy” Division after the Roman numeral IV – a fitting situation for the young forester who’d go on to establish a greenhouse and landscaping business after the war. They trained for four months before setting out for Europe. Durwood Barbour Collection of North Carolina Postcards, North Carolina Collection, Photographic Archives, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Poster

British Chemical Warfare Service, 1915

Library of Congress Soldiers dreaded the new chemical warfare that became a hallmark of World War I. Shemin knew what would face him on the battlefield, and pasted poetry and news clippings about the war into a scrapbook. Wilfred Owen, a British poet who lost his life fighting in France, penned some of the most famous poems of the war including Dulce et Decorum Est, about a chlorine attack.  <div style="padding-left: 2.5em;">Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime… Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. –Excerpt from Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen</div>

Gas mask

carried by William Shemin

By the time the United States entered the war, those destined for the front practiced donning masks and other equipment to evade its skin-blistering and respiratory effects. Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, 2018.24.2, Gift of Elsie Shemin-Roth and Ina Bass

Songbook

1918

Established days after the United States entered the war, the National Jewish Welfare Board (JWB) provided Jewish soldiers with prayer books and Jewish calendars, arranged for kosher foods in barracks, and organized entertainment activities. Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, 1988.56.3

American soldiers

Nice, France, ca. 1918

Shemin was promoted to Corporal on April 20 and departed for France on May 10, 1918. His company traveled aboard the USS Princess Matoika from Hoboken, New Jersey and joined the thousands of American troops pouring daily into France. Once overseas, the 47th Infantry received further training with French and British divisions before proceeding to the battlefield. Shemin, standing in the second row at the right of this photograph, was promoted to Sergeant on June 20, 1918. Courtesy of the William Shemin Collection, National Museum of American Jewish Military History

Portrait of William Shemin

ca. 1918

On July 18, the Fourth Division’s 47th Infantry joined the Aisne-Marne Offensive, a series of battles in northeastern France throughout the summer. During the Second Battle of the Marne, the Ivy Division helped push the German army north in an important Allied victory before the enemy dug in for another month of intense fighting along the Vesle river. Courtesy of the William Shemin Collection, National Museum of American Jewish Military History

Souvenirs

ca. 1918

<img decoding="async" src="https://theweitzman.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/DSC_0769-mod-small-1.jpg" alt="artillery shells" /> While in France, many Americans picked up souvenirs on the battlefield. Shemin tucked this German canteen and these artillery shells into his kit while at the front. German canteen, ca. 1918. Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, 2018.24.6, Gift of Elsie Shemin-Roth and Ina Bass. Artillery shells, ca. 1918. Courtesy of the William Shemin Collection, National Museum of American Jewish Military History.

Trench warfare

An ancient military defense tactic, trench warfare became a defining feature of World War I. Modern artillery and machine guns capable of launching a barrage of bullets far into the distance made it essential for soldiers to protect themselves by burrowing into the ground. Soldiers dreaded going “over the top,” or leaving the trench and exposing themselves to enemy fire, especially in daylight. Library of Congress

Chateau ruins

Bazoches-sur-Vesle, France, 1918

Under heavy fire from machine guns, artillery, and chemical weapons, Fourth Division soldiers swam or crawled on fallen trees across the Vesle to the German-held side of the river. As Shemin’s company reached the far bank, his friend Jim Pritchard was among the first casualties. Unwilling to watch him die, Shemin left his cover, running 150 yards across sun-soaked open ground under enemy fire. <blockquote>With the most utter disregard for his own safety, (Shemin) sprang from his position in his platoon trench, dashed out across the open in full sight of the Germans, who opened and maintained a furious burst of machine gun and rifle fire. – Captain Robert Purdon</blockquote> He retrieved the wounded man and carried him back to safety; to the astonishment of his fellow soldiers, Shemin would repeat this heroic act twice more in the days that followed, even after sustaining his own shrapnel injuries. Creative Commons

Sergeant William Shemin

ca. 1918

Shemin’s commanding officers were soon killed or wounded and in the absence of leadership, the young soldier took command. He was terribly wounded on August 9, but refused evacuation for medical treatment until his men were safe. Found unconscious the following day, medics carried Shemin to the nearest field hospital. Courtesy of the William Shemin Collection, National Museum of American Jewish Military History

Helmet

ca. 1918

Shemin later marveled that he survived a bullet ricocheting off his helmet’s buckle and striking him in the head. He was deafened upon impact and the wound never healed. “No man came closer to death than I,” he later wrote. This helmet replaced the one that was destroyed when it saved his life. Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, 2018.24.4, Gift of Elsie Shemin-Roth and Ina Bass

Distinguished Service Cross

1919

In 1919, Shemin received the military’s second highest honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, on the recommendation of his platoon members. An officer wrote that “Sergeant Shemin was cool, calm, intelligent and utterly fearless. He was a big factor in maintaining splendid morale and tactical efficiency of his platoon.” Courtesy of the William Shemin Collection, National Museum of American Jewish Military History

Purple Heart

ca. 1930s

George Washington created the Purple Heart in 1782, but only a few soldiers received the honor before it fell into disuse. The Army revived it in honor of Washington’s 200th birthday on February 22, 1932, to honor military personnel like Shemin who had been injured or killed on the battlefields of World War I. Courtesy of the William Shemin Collection, National Museum of American Jewish Military History

Passover postcard

1919

Shemin recuperated in a hospital before rejoining his regiment. The 47th Infantry fought in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and served in the Armies of Occupation in Germany after the Armistice of November 11, 1918. Courtesy of the William Shemin Collection, National Museum of American Jewish Military History

Baseball team

47TH Infantry, Company G

Baseball became a popular pastime for soldiers both stateside and overseas, allowing Americans from all walks of life, and from all ethnic and racial backgrounds, to form connections with each other and their foreign allies. The YMCA organized leagues, and Shemin, who had played semi-professional baseball as a teenager, joined his company’s team. He’s second from right in the middle row. Courtesy of the William Shemin Collection, National Museum of American Jewish Military History

Postcard

Jewish Welfare Board, 1919

After the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919 officially ended the war, the men of the 47th Infantry returned to the States and traveled home to resume their civilian lives. Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, 1982.5.6, Museum Purchase, Weinberg Trust

Certificate of Honorable Discharge

1919

Following his discharge, Shemin resumed his pre-war profession. He traveled to the state reservation at Niagara Falls, New York, to work as a forester under his former chief at Bayonne, Emil Waldenberger. Courtesy of the William Shemin Collection, National Museum of American Jewish Military History

William Shemin on the football field

Syracuse University, ca. 1920s

In 1920, Shemin decided to pursue a college degree on a veteran’s scholarship from the Federal Board for Vocational Training. He enrolled in the College of Forestry at Syracuse University as part of the class of 1924. A talented athlete, Shemin was a star on the football field and played on the school’s undefeated 1923 varsity lacrosse team. He belonged to the forestry club and the federal board club, which aimed to foster bonds among veterans attending the college. Shemin graduated in January 1924 with a degree in Horticulture and Landscape Gardening. Courtesy of the William Shemin Collection, National Museum of American Jewish Military History

William Shemin's garden center

Bronx, New York, 1930

Tax assessor’s photograph After graduating, Shemin launched a Bronx, New York landscape and gardening business in partnership with his college friend, Thomas MacDougall, who became a renowned botanist specializing in Mexican plants. Shemin named the business “Ivy Floral & Landscape Company” in a nod to the Fourth (or IV) Division that he’d served in, and focused on growing potted plants and propagating nursery stocks. Over the next four years, Shemin added five greenhouses, a potting shed, and a storefront to an existing house on the property. He married Bertha Schiffer in 1928 and together they raised three children at the nursery. Elsie, Emanuel, and Ina Shemin all attended their father’s alma mater, Syracuse University. New York Municipal Archives

William Shemin with a tree friend

ca. 1930

Shemin’s business flourished, and Ivy Floral & Landscape Company even employed Shemin’s former boss, Emil Waldenberger, as a salesperson. Shemin’s son, Emanuel, took over the company in 1955, eventually moving it to Greenwich, Connecticut and growing it into the world’s largest wholesale nursery with 29 locations in 14 states and the Netherlands. Courtesy of the William Shemin Collection, National Museum of American Jewish Military History

William Shemin visits a war memorial

Montfaucon-d'Argonne, France, ca. 1970

An active veteran, Shemin served as an officer in the Army and Navy Legion of Honor and the Jewish War Veterans, and even represented the Fourth Division at an anniversary event in France. He inspired his descendants to serve, as well: son Emanuel served as an Air Force Lieutenant during the Korean War and as a Major in the Reserve for 18 years. Shemin’s grandson, William Roth, served in the Marine Corps in the 1980s; Joseph Roth, another grandson, served in the Navy in Afghanistan in the early 2000s. Courtesy of the William Shemin Collection, National Museum of American Jewish Military History

Poppy pin

2018

As a child, Shemin’s eldest daughter, Elsie Shemin-Roth, listened to tales of her father’s bravery recounted by family and friends including Jim Pritchard, one of the men her father saved on the banks of the Vesle. They believed William deserved a Medal of Honor, and that institutional antisemitism prevented him from receiving the recognition. In the late 1990s, legislation allowed reconsideration of military honors previously denied to several ethnic and racial minority soldiers. Shemin-Roth pushed for similar considerations so that Jewish Distinguished Service Cross recipients from World War I might be reviewed for upgrade to the Medal of Honor. With bipartisan support and the help of Missouri Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer and Senators Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt, the “William Shemin Jewish World War I Veterans Act” became part of the National Defense Authorization Act in Fiscal Year 2012. Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, 2018.24.8, Gift of Elsie Shemin-Roth and Ina Bass

Medal of Honor

Washington, DC, 2015

William Shemin became the first person in his unit to receive the Medal of Honor. He was the fourth Jew to receive the honor for service in World War I, and the seventeenth in the history of the Medal, which was first issued during the Civil War. Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, 2018.24.1, Gift of Elsie Shemin-Roth and Ina Bass

Needham Roberts and Henry Johnson

by James Van Der Zee, 1919

William Shemin was not the only World War I soldier celebrated on June 2, 2015. Sergeant William Henry Johnson also received a posthumous Medal of Honor from President Obama that day. Johnson, a member of New York’s National Guard, served in the 369th Infantry Regiment, an African American unit known as the Harlem Hellfighters. The unit fought alongside French troops because segregation prevented African Americans from fighting in the American military. With no known living relatives, his medal was accepted by Sergeant Major Louis Wilson of the New York Army National Guard. Special Collections/Archives John B. Coleman Library, Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, Texas

Commemorative poster

ca. 1918

On night patrol in the Forest of Argonnes on May 15, 1918, Henry Johnson held off a German raiding group of at least twelve men while also rescuing Private Needham Roberts, an injured fellow soldier, from being taken captive. Johnson managed to kill four enemy soldiers with his rifle and bolo knife while suffering 21 serious wounds. Courtesy of the Pritzker Military Museum & Library

Henry Johnson

New York, New York, 1919

The French military awarded Johnson the Croix de Guerre Palme d’Argent, the highest French military decoration. Americans marveled at newspaper accounts of his heroism, but Johnson received neither official US Army recognition nor even a pension, despite debilitating wounds that prevented him from gaining stable employment after the war. Johnson died in poverty in 1929, at only 32 years old. It took 78 years for supporters to win him the honor of the Purple Heart, and another 7 years to receive the Distinguished Service Cross. New York Division of Military and Naval Affairs

Shemin family

with Staff Sgt. Andre Gittens in France, 2018

The Shemin family felt a strong bond with Henry Johnson after he received the Medal of Honor alongside their father and grandfather. In August, 2018, Shemin’s family traveled to France to commemorate Shemin and Johnson, and asked Johnson’s National Guard unit to select a present-day soldier to accompany them on the trip. Staff Sgt. Jonell Andre Gittens made the journey, visiting sites related to Johnson’s and Shemin’s service alongside the Shemin family. The Shemin family also installed a monument and planted trees in honor of Shemin and Johnson at Staten Island’s Baron de Hirsch cemetery, where Shemin is buried. Johnson is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Courtesy of the Shemin family

Conclusion and Resources

William Shemin believed it was his duty to support his country. He fought courageously and demonstrated selfless devotion to his comrades. Nevertheless, like many minority soldiers who fought valiantly, he did not receive the highest honor to which he was entitled.

Thanks to the hard work of family members and supporters, Shemin received a posthumous Medal of Honor in 2015, alongside William Henry Johnson. The William Shemin Jewish World War I Veterans Act stands as a further legacy to his valiant service, allowing the review of records in search of similarly overdue honors for other Jewish World War I soldiers.

Want to learn more? Here are just a few suggestions for books and online exploration.

Virtual Installation

William Shemin: Above and Beyond the Call of Duty

Explore the Story

William Shemin

Bayonne, New Jersey, ca. 1897

Baseball team

Bayonne, New Jersey, ca. 1910s

William Shemin chops wood

ca. 1914

Sheet music

New York, New York, 1917

Recruiting station

ca. 1917

Camp Greene

Charlotte, North Carolina, ca. 1918

Poster

British Chemical Warfare Service, 1915

Gas mask

carried by William Shemin

Songbook

1918

American soldiers

Nice, France, ca. 1918

Portrait of William Shemin

ca. 1918

Souvenirs

ca. 1918

Trench warfare

Chateau ruins

Bazoches-sur-Vesle, France, 1918

Sergeant William Shemin

ca. 1918

Helmet

ca. 1918

Distinguished Service Cross

1919

Purple Heart

ca. 1930s

Passover postcard

1919

Baseball team

47TH Infantry, Company G

Postcard

Jewish Welfare Board, 1919

Certificate of Honorable Discharge

1919

William Shemin on the football field

Syracuse University, ca. 1920s

William Shemin's garden center

Bronx, New York, 1930

William Shemin with a tree friend

ca. 1930

William Shemin visits a war memorial

Montfaucon-d'Argonne, France, ca. 1970

Poppy pin

2018

Medal of Honor

Washington, DC, 2015

Needham Roberts and Henry Johnson

by James Van Der Zee, 1919

Commemorative poster

ca. 1918

Henry Johnson

New York, New York, 1919

Shemin family

with Staff Sgt. Andre Gittens in France, 2018

Conclusion and Resources

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