LABADIE, Mo. — It was bravery at the highest level: William Shemin defied German machine- gun fire to sprint across a World War I battlefield and pull wounded comrades to safety. And he did so no fewer than three times.
Then, with the platoon’s senior soldiers wounded or killed, the 19-year-old American took over command of his unit and led it to safety, even after a bullet pierced his helmet and lodged behind an ear.
Yet Shemin never earned the highest military citation, the Medal of Honor, a result, many suspected, of the fact that he was Jewish at a time when discrimination ran rampant throughout the U.S. military.
Now, nearly four decades after his death, Shemin may finally get that medal, thanks to the tireless efforts of his daughter, whose long quest to see her father decorated also opens the door for other overlooked Jewish veterans of the Great War.
“A wrong has been made right here,” said Shemin’s daughter, 82-year-old Elsie Shemin-Roth of Labadie, Mo., a small town about 40 miles southwest of St. Louis.
Last month, President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act, which contains a provision called the William Shemin Jewish World War I Veterans Act. It provides for a Pentagon review of Jewish soldiers and sailors who may have been overlooked for the Medal of Honor because of their faith.
Shemin’s daughter was the driving force of the effort that began a decade ago when she read news accounts of a law to review Jews possibly denied recognition in World War II. She was horrified there was no similar mechanism for World War I veterans.
So, she began gathering military records, photos, commendations and firsthand accounts of her father’s heroism.
Retired Army Col. Erwin Burtnick of Baltimore, active in the Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A., helped get the bill passed. He will present Shemin’s case to the Pentagon.
“I believe, based upon the criteria of World War I, the level of heroism exhibited by Sgt. Shemin will rise to the Medal of Honor,” Burtnick said.
Shemin’s heroics did not go unnoticed. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest honor. Shemin, who died in 1973, was satisfied with that medal, his daughter recalled, and only occasionally wondered about being passed over for the Medal of Honor because of anti-Semitism.
“My father told me there was a lot of discrimination, but he didn’t dwell on it,” she said.
