William Shemin’s heroic effort during World War I is a profound testament to valor, resilience, and the enduring American spirit. His heroism was undeniably documented by those who fought alongside him, yet the recognition he deserved was delayed for nearly a century by the systemic prejudice of an era that resisted embracing its Jewish soldiers.
Despite not receiving the Medal of Honor in 1919, Bill Shemin (1896-1973) remained fully devoted to the United States. He saw America through the eyes of his parents, who fled the brutal pogroms of Russia to find refuge and opportunity on American shores. To Shemin, military service was not just a duty, but a proud repayment to the nation that had welcomed his family.
He moved through the rest of his life with a quiet nobility, instilling a deep sense of hard work and patriotism in his children and grandchildren—several of whom followed him into military service.
Justice Served
His legacy eventually became a catalyst for justice. One of his daughters fought tirelessly for his record to be reconsidered for the honor he deserved. Eventually, the William Shemin Jewish World War I Veterans Act was passed by Congress in 2011. This landmark legislation ensured that military accomplishments of those who were discriminated against would be met with an open mind. This allowed Jewish veterans of the past to receive the honors they rightfully earned. It also brought about the review of other minorities.
On June 2, 2015, William Shemin was honored posthumously with the Medal of Honor—the highest military honor in the country.
In addition, Harlem Hellfighter Henry Johnson, a Distinguished Service Cross recipient in World War I, received a well-deserved Medal of Honor in the same White House ceremony at which William Shemin was honored. The Shemin family has generously shared stories of Henry Johnson’s military experiences when Bill Shemin’s story has been being told.
William Shemin’s story was brought to my attention by a staff member at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History where they have an exhibit about him. They also have an excellent online exhibit about Shemin’s life and military career. Click here for the online Shemin exhibit: Above and Beyond the Call of Duty.
Table of contents
Shemin’s Early Life
William Shemin’s parents came from Orsha (modern-day Belarus) in Russia. The government of Tsar Alexander III urged attacks against the Jewish people. Because of the violence, families like the Shemins fled if they could.
When the Shemins arrived in America, they began life on the lower East Side where Bill was born. With the start of a family, the parents moved to Bayonne, New Jersey.
The suburban environment was a great place for raising children. Bill loved being outdoors and became a great athlete. When he was 15, he was recruited to play for the Bayonne Sea Lions, a semi-professional baseball team. He loved playing ball and appreciated that it was a job for which he was paid.
Forestry School
While he was still in high school, Shemin became aware of a new program that interested him. Syracuse University started a forest ranger school that was to be located in Wanakena, New York, in the heart of the Adirondacks. (The school would eventually become the New York State College of Forestry—the first ever in the country.)
Shemin applied and was accepted to the school. When he arrived, the students were put to work building classrooms for the program. They literally helped build the school and its curriculum from the ground up.
Shemin graduated in 1914 and worked for a few years as a ranger. The physical and mental toughness required for the job likely gave Bill Shemin the background for surviving and leading his men on the Vesle River in France.
World War I
When the United States ultimately entered World War I, Bill Shemin was still too young to enlist in the military. At that time, the required age for military enlistment was 21. But Bill was determined to serve.
In a video interview, his daughter Elsie Shemin-Roth says that her father told his parents that if they didn’t support his enlistment, he would leave and never come home. With that, his father agreed to go with him to assure the enlisting officer that his son was eligible, having just turned 21.
With that, Bill Shemin joined the Army and was sent to basic training in Camp Greene, North Carolina. He was assigned to be a rifleman in Company G, 47th Infantry Regiment, 4thDivision (“the Ivy Division,”) with the American Expeditionary Forces in France.
At the time the Ivy Division arrived in France, the fighting was fierce. The Allied forces successfully pushed the Germans away from the Marne River, but by August 7, the Germans paused to dig in and fight. They were on bluffs above the north bank of the Vesle River. The town of Bazoches (by then in ruins) was just below.
The Germans knew the Allies would have to cross the river to attack them, so they maintained their position and hid machine gun nests within the ruins of Bazoches. From the bluffs, they could disperse mustard gas into the valley with less risk to themselves. This dispersal worsened the situation for the Allies as this meant that troops could not fight without cumbersome gas masks.
Crossing the River
The order for the 47th Infantry came down the line. They were to get across the river and take Bazoches. As the troops approached the river with the intent to cross it, they were pinned down along a wheat field that ran to the riverbank. During the daytime, soldiers crawled to avoid being seen, but the German machine guns fired relentlessly in a grazing motion, and sharpshooters excelled at picking out any sign of movement.
The Ivy Division had no time to dig trenches, so the soldiers created “scrapes.” Each man had a tool that looked like a gardening trowel. They moved forward when they could. Then lying flat on the ground, they dug as quickly as possible. Dirt that was removed was piled on the side of the scrape facing the river to help make each man less visible. The hope was to create something 6-12 inches deep. When the machine gun fire began again, they lay face down, hoping that they would not be hit. They longed for the time and opportunity to dig foxholes but the best they could usually do was to dig scrapes.
They Persevered
Their goal continued to be to traverse the wheat field (about 150 feet—a football field and a half) to the riverbank and then to cross the river to take out the guns on the other side. Small groups were sent forward looking for the best route. (Not everyone could swim so the area needed to be clear enough that soldier could help soldier as they crossed.)
But the scouting groups kept being shot down. Several times, Bill Shemin sprang up from his scrape and ran toward the river (and the German guns) to pull men back. One of the three men he saved during these days was Jim Pritchard who remained a lifelong family friend. Pritchard always told his own clan that if there hadn’t been a brave and heroic Bill Shemin, there would not have been any Pritchard descendants at all.
Shemin in Charge
By this time, German sharpshooters had picked off Company G’s officers. It was easy for the Germans to see the glint of their medals, and by this time, Company G was reduced to noncommissioned officers like Bill Shemin who was left to lead the rest of the platoon in a desperate swim across the river to the north side.
Eventually the Ivy Division got the platoon across the river. The Germans were well hidden within the rubble of Bazoches. The Americans fought with valor, but the pressure was too great. Bill Shemin saw that his group was greatly diminished in number, and the German onslaught was too powerful. He navigated the men back where they could secure themselves on the side of the Vesle River that they recently left.
Shemin was shot during the fighting in Bazoches, but he refused to stop. A machine-gun bullet pierced his helmet and lodged behind his left ear. His body was also riddled with shrapnel, but he kept going until he finally lost consciousness on the original riverbank where they started. His men got him to a location where an ambulance could take him to a field hospital.
Hospitalization
Shemin spent the next few months in the hospital recovering. When he was discharged, he still had shrapnel lodged in his back, and the hearing in his left ear was gone. He was offered an honorable discharge to return home, but Bill Shemin wouldn’t consider it. He wanted to return to his unit.
By this time, the Ivy Division had been sent to the Moselle River Valley in western Germany where they were charged with maintaining order. Shemin was reunited with them, and he was given administrative chores to accommodate his injuries. The men knew well Shemin’s exemplary record, and they respected him.
The “Almost Assignment”
In 1919, Europe was shattered by the war, but John J. Pershing, General of the Armies of the United States, was intent on maintaining order and showing that Europe could recover. As he traveled through the war-ravaged territory, he requested an honor guard be formed (the “bravest of the brave”). He specified that the force should consist of soldiers who had been decorated with a high-level medal for valor. This work involved precision drilling and standing as a symbol of American victory.
Shemin was the right height, and his Silver Star had been upgraded to a Distinguished Service Cross. He was a perfect candidate, and his unit put him forward for the honor.
But when Pershing’s advance man reviewed the personnel records, the officer noted that Shemin was Jewish. Despite his heroics at the Vesle River and the bullet hole in his helmet resulting in lifelong injuries, Shemin was removed from the honor guard. The advance man wanted an “All American” image for the guard.
Shemin was disappointed, but stayed focused on his military assignment with his men.
His Men Knew
His unit felt differently. Those with whom Shemin served remembered all he had done for them during the war. They knew he deserved the Medal of Honor.
To be considered for the highest military honor in the country, eyewitness accounts were needed as well as testimony from company officers. It was not hard to get men who served with Bill Shemin to speak up.
They knew they had been saved because this 19-year-old soldier not only executed three rescues (bringing men back from open territory) but he stepped forward to command the platoon—first getting them across the Vesle River, and then spearheading a retreat when the German fighting became more than their surviving group could withstand. His men wanted to ensure that the story of the “Jewish kid who saved the platoon” wasn’t lost to history.
Despite their efforts, Shemin was not awarded the Medal of Honor at that time. But thanks to those men, all the necessary documents were collected and were available when his daughter finally brought attention to the matter almost one hundred years later.
Back Home
Bill Shemin returned home and was determined to move forward with his life, despite a limp, shrapnel in his back, hearing loss, and what we now know as PTSD.
By this time, Syracuse University had expanded the forest ranger school and had a full-scale College of Forestry. Bill Shemin did not have a college degree, so he enrolled in the forestry program and was an asset to the school. He played varsity football and then lacrosse, graduating in 1923.
He married Bertha Schiffer and they raised three children: daughters Elsie and Ina and son Emmanuel.
His love of growing things continued, so he soon opened his own greenhouse and nursery in the Bronx. The name he chose referred back to his military service with the Fourth Division: Ivy Floral and Landscape (IV or Ivy). Shemin’s business was very successful, and he became one of the main nurseries from which the parks in New York City purchased their plantings.
In addition to work and family, Shemin also dedicated his time to issues regarding his religion and the military. He was involved with both the Legion of Valor and the Jewish War Veterans. Many men needed assistance finding health care and employment, and Shemin was happy to help. He also stood strongly for Jewish rights.
The Impact of Elsie Shemin-Roth’s Mission
Like many soldiers who fought in World War I or II, Shemin had little interest in talking about his war experience. His daughter, Elsie Shemin-Roth, was always curious. She gained more information when fellow soldier Jim Pritchard, one of the men Bill Shemin carried to safety, came to visit. Pritchard was open about the fact that Shemin was denied the Medal of Honor because of his faith.
In a Legacy Video about her father, Elsie, who became a registered nurse and volunteered for overseas service during the Gulf War, describes how furious she was…and how puzzled she was that her father bore no anger. But he told her: “War is not about medals. I love my country. I love my men. That’s all that counts.”
The Jewish WWI Veterans Act
In 2002, Elsie Shemin-Roth, saw that Congress had passed legislation that veterans of WWII, Korean, War, and Vietnam would be considered for honors posthumously if the family and friends could show that they were denied because of religion or race.
To Elsie, this was a no-brainer. Why not push for an amendment to the law that included World War I veterans? She began working through friends, organizations, and her representatives from her Congressional district in Missouri, to push for an expansion of the law.
In 2011, with the passage of the William Shemin Jewish World War I Veterans Act (part of the 2002 National Defense Authorization Act), the Pentagon was compelled to go back and look at all Jewish veterans who received the Distinguished Service Cross or Navy Cross.
Fortunately, her father saved documentation from his war service, so he had the required testimonials from three officers and three enlisted men as well as reports from review boards of the era.
Medal of Honor Awarded
On June 2, 2015, nearly a century after his acts of valor, Sergeant William Shemin was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in a ceremony held in the East Room of the White House. President Barack Obama presented the nation’s highest military decoration to Shemin’s daughters, Elsie Shemin-Roth and Ina Bass, finally correcting a historical oversight rooted in the prejudices of the early 20th century.
Medal of Honor Citation
Sergeant William Shemin distinguished himself by extraordinary acts of heroism at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a Rifleman with G Company, 2d Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment, 4th Division, American Expeditionary Forces, in connection with combat operations against an armed enemy on the Vesle River, near Bazoches, France from August 7 to August 9, 1918. Sergeant Shemin, upon three different occasions, left cover and crossed an open space of 150 yards, repeatedly exposing himself to heavy machine-gun and rifle fire, to rescue wounded. After officers and senior noncommissioned officers had become casualties, Sergeant Shemin took command of the platoon and displayed great initiative under fire until wounded on August 9. Sergeant Shemin’s extraordinary heroism and selflessness, above and beyond the call of duty, are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, with G Company, 2d Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment, 4th Division, American Expeditionary Forces, and the United States Army.
Amazing Accomplishment
The ceremony served as a powerful conclusion to Elsie’s fifteen-year crusade, ensuring her father’s legacy was officially etched into the highest level of American military history.
Also honored at the same White House ceremony was Henry Johnson, the Harlem Hellfighter who fought valiantly in France during World War I but was also overlooked. (The Shemin family graciously includes recognition of Henry Johnson at events when William Shemin is being honored,)
Among President Barack Obama’s remarks in the East Wing that day were these: “It’s never too late to say thank you.”
The story of William Shemin remains important in 2025 because it serves as a powerful reminder of historical injustice and the ongoing need for equality and recognition within American society and its institutions.