THE JEW AS A SOLDIER
The Jewish soldier demands no defense and needs no tribute. His deeds
are written large in the history of every unit in the A. E. F.; they are
preserved in the memory of his comrades of other races and other faiths.
He was one with all American soldiers, for in the service men of every
type and of every previous standpoint were much alike, under the same
orders, holding the same ideals, with similar responses and similar
accomplishments. The Jew was an American soldier--that really covers the
story. For historical purposes, however, a further statement of numbers,
honors, personalities, may be worth while. The Jew was in the American
army, as in all the allied armies, because he exists among the
population of every land. The studies made in various lands show that
over 900,000 Jews fought in the World War altogether, of whom over
80,000 were killed in action or died of wounds. In the British forces
casualties included the names of 8,600 Jews, and in the French forces,
out of less than a hundred thousand Jewish population in the nation,
2,200 were killed in the service. These figures, picked practically at
random from enormous masses of similar material, tend to show the
participation of Jews in every army, just as they participate everywhere
in the national life.
In the American forces the Jewish soldier ranked with the best; he was
an American soldier, and there is no higher praise than that. With all
the panegyrics on the American doughboy during and since the war, not
enough has been said or can ever be said about him. His good humor, his
self sacrifice, his heroism, won the affection and the admiration of
every one. His officers loved him; his enemies respected him; his allies
regarded him with mingled enthusiasm and patronage. They loved his
youthful dash and were amused at his youthful unsophistication; at the
same time they were profoundly grateful for his forgetfulness of self
when the time for action came. I have mentioned some of the incidents in
my own experience, illustrating the magnificent courage and abandon of
Americans at the front--the youngster who came to the aid post seriously
gassed but proud that he had stayed on duty the longest of any man in
his company; the weary boys on the brow of a hill, digging in for the
fourth time in a day of advances and fighting; the little Italian who
stood on the edge of the shell hole that his comrades might advance--but
the number and the variety of them was endless. Reading a list of the
dry, official citations for decorations is like opening a mediaeval
romance of the deeds of knightly heroes. There was Captain Ireland who
came to our aid post to have his wounds dressed and then started out
without waiting for the ambulance. "Where are you going, Captain?" I
asked. "Oh, back to the boys," was the answer, "I'm the only officer
left in the battalion, and I don't want to leave them." There was the
chaplain's orderly, himself a student for the ministry, who voluntarily
organized a stretcher party to bring in some wounded men out beyond the
barbed wire. Every type of heroism and self sacrifice existed, all
carried off with the good humored bravado of school boys at a football
game.
Among these heroes the Jewish soldiers were equal to the best, as their
comrades and commanders were quick to recognize. A typical attitude
toward them was that of a lieutenant colonel, telling me a story of his
first battle, when we were on shipboard coming back home. "I was rather
nervous about that first time under fire," he told me, "because I had a
number of foreign boys in one company and didn't know how they might
behave. Among them was a little Jew who was medical man of the company,
carrying bandages instead of weapons, but going over the top with the
others, a restless fellow, always breaking orders and getting into
trouble of some kind or another. And when I came to that company on the
front line the first thing I saw was that little Jew jumping out of a
shell hole and starting for the rear as fast as he could run. I pulled
my revolver, ready to shoot him rather than have an example of cowardice
set for the rest. But I was surprised to see him turn aside suddenly and
jump into another shell hole, and when I went over there I found him
hard at work bandaging up another wounded soldier. He was simply doing
his duty under fire, absolutely without sign of fear as he tended the
boys who were hurt. I was sorry I had misjudged him so badly and watched
his work after that, with the result that I was later able to recommend
him for a decoration."
Ignorance, suspicion, ripening with knowledge into understanding and
admiration--that was the usual course of events. I quote Colonel
Whittlesey, commander of the famous "Lost Battalion" of the 308th
Infantry, a New York unit with a very large proportion of Jews: "As to
the Jewish boys in the Battalion, I cannot recall many of them by name,
but certain figures stand out simply because they are so unexpected. The
ordinary run of soldiers, whether Jews, Irish, or Americans--the big,
husky chaps who simply do what they are expected to do--naturally pass
from our memory. It is the odd figures who stick in your mind. There was
one chap for example (Herschkovitz was his name) who seemed the worst
possible material from which to make soldier-stuff. He was thick-set,
stupid looking, extremely foreign, thoroughly East Side, and yet, one
day when we were holding the bank of the Vesle, and it became necessary
to send runners to communicate with our commands, Herschkovitz was the
_only man_ who volunteered for the job. It was a nasty physical job. It
would have been a difficult thing if it had not been under fire, because
it meant cutting through under-brush, up hill and down hill. Under fire
this became almost impossible, and the boys knew it, so none of them
cared for the job, but Herschkovitz made the trip four times that day.
What was it? Well, just plain pluck, that's all. There were a great many
fellows of this type--East Siders of whom the regular army men expected
nothing at all--but the 77th Division just seemed equal to anything...."
In the same unit was Private Abraham Krotoshinsky, who was awarded the
D. S. C. for bearing the message which informed the division of the
exact location of the unit, and was instrumental in releasing them.
Krotoshinsky was an immigrant boy, not yet a citizen, a barber by trade.
His own words give the story simply enough: "We began to be afraid the
division had forgotten us or that they had given us up for dead. We had
to get a messenger through. It meant almost certain death, we were all
sure, because over a hundred and fifty men had gone away and never come
back. But it had to be done. The morning of the fifth day they called
for volunteers for courier. I volunteered and was accepted. I went
because I thought I ought to. First of all I was lucky enough not to be
wounded. Second, after five days of starving, I was stronger than many
of my friends who were twice my size. You know a Jew finds strength to
suffer. Third, because I would just as soon die trying to help the
others as in the 'pocket' of hunger and thirst.
"I got my orders and started. I had to run about thirty feet in plain
view of the Germans before I got into the forest. They saw me when I got
up and fired everything they had at me. Then I had to crawl right
through their lines. They were looking for me everywhere. I just moved
along on my stomach, in the direction I was told, keeping my eyes open
for them.... It was almost six o'clock that night when I saw the
American lines. All that day I had been crawling or running doubled up
after five days and nights without food and practically nothing to
drink. Then my real trouble began. I was coming from the direction of
the German lines and my English is none too good. I was afraid they
would shoot me for a German before I could explain who I was.... Then
the Captain asked me who I was. I told him I was from the Lost
Battalion. Then he asked me whether I could lead him back to the
battalion. I said, 'Yes.' They gave me a bite to eat and something to
drink and after a little rest I started back again with the command. I
will never forget the scene when the relief came. The men were like
crazy with joy."
In high position and in low the same kind of service came from the
American Jew. This is the official citation of a Colonel, who is in
civil life one of the prominent Jews of Chicago, Illinois:
"Colonel Abel Davis, 132nd Infantry. For extraordinary heroism in action
near Consenvoye, France, October 9, 1918. Upon reaching its objective,
after a difficult advance, involving two changes of directions, Colonel
Davis's regiment was subjected to a determined enemy counterattack.
Disregarding the heavy shell and machine-gun fire, Colonel Davis
personally assumed command and by his fearless leadership and courage
the enemy was driven back."
Judge Robert S. Marx of Cincinnati, Ohio, is now national president of
the Disabled Veterans of the World War and a member of the national
committee on hospitalization and vocational education of the American
Legion. But in 1917 and '18 he was Captain Marx of the 90th Division,
operations officer of his regiment during the St. Mihiel and Argonne
offensives, and reported dead on the day before the armistice, when he
was struck on the head and wounded severely. And on the other extreme, I
notice the case of First Sergeant Sam Dreben of the 141st Infantry, a
soldier of fortune in many revolutions and a member of the Regular Army
in the Philippines several years ago. Discovering a party of Germans
coming to the support of a dangerous machine-gun nest, Sergeant Dreben
with thirty men charged the German position, killed forty of the enemy,
took several prisoners, and captured five machine guns, returning to his
own lines without losing a man. For this daring and important act he was
awarded the D. S. C.
Of the various types of distinction emphasized during the war, all were
as true of Jews as of any other group. Numerous cases exist where four
or more members of a single family were in the service. There was the
Fleshner family, of Springfield, Mass., from which four sons of an
immigrant father and mother entered the service, the oldest of them only
twenty-three. The oldest of these boys lost an arm and an eye while
carrying ammunition through a barrage, but exclaimed later in the
hospital: "I'm the luckiest Jew in the army. Any other man in my place
would have been killed."
The New York Herald during the war described an indefatigable Red Cross
worker, Mrs. Louis Rosenberg of North Bergen, N. J. This old Jewish
mother had six sons in the service; the two oldest, each the father of
two children, when summoned for the draft refused to claim exemption,
and having invested their savings in two small notion stores, they left
their wives in charge of them and accepted the call to military service.
Mrs. Liba Goldstein, of Cambridge Springs, Pa., a woman of eighty-four,
born in Russia, had twenty grandsons in the allied armies, ten as
officers in the British army, eight in the American forces, and two with
the Jewish Legion in Palestine. And so one might bring out one example
after another, if one desired, all showing the eagerness of loyal Jews
to serve their country.
The Office of Jewish War Records of the American Jewish Committee has
made a remarkably interesting preliminary study of the number of Jews in
the American forces. The office possesses 150,000 individual records,
gathered by extensive cooeperation with national and local Jewish
organizations. The success of certain local efforts at intensive
covering of the field indicate that the total number of American Jews in
service during the War may amount to as much as 200,000. Of these about
40,000 came from New York City, 8,000 from Philadelphia and 5,000 from
Chicago. Instead of their quota of three per cent., according to the
proportion of Jews throughout the nation, the Jews in service actually
constituted fully four per cent. of the men in the army and navy. The
causes of this excess are not easy to establish. The draft may have been
more fully enforced in cities than in many rural districts, and the bulk
of the Jews are city dwellers. The proportion of young men among the
various groups of our population would apply only if the Jews have more
than their quota of young men, and we possess no facts to confirm that.
But certainly the number of volunteers was an element in causing this
large number of Jews in the service. The records show 40,000 volunteers
among the Jewish men, practically one-fourth of the total Jewish
contingent and a far higher record than that of the army as a whole.
In certain outstanding cases this record is even more conspicuous. The
little colony of immigrant Jewish farmers at Woodbine, N. J., not over
three hundred families altogether, contributed forty-three men to the
service, of whom seventeen men, or forty per cent., were volunteers. Of
the students at the rabbinical seminaries, who were all exempt by law, a
conspicuously large number volunteered for service in the line, in
addition to the chaplains among the graduates and the large number of
both students and graduates who acted as representatives of the Jewish
Welfare Board, lecturers in the training camps and similar capacities.
In fact, the seminaries were almost empty for a year. Eleven students of
the Hebrew Union College and four of the Jewish Theological Seminary
waived exemption for regular service in the army and navy, including a
number of men with very exceptional records. Jacob Marcus, now Rabbi and
Instructor at the Hebrew Union College, volunteered in the Ohio National
Guard and won his lieutenancy by brilliant work in the ranks. Three of
the students there entered the Marine Corps during the first weeks of
the war and served for over two years in that branch. One, Michael
Aaronson, serving in the 31st Division overseas, was completely blinded
while helping a wounded comrade in No Man's Land; now he is finishing
his studies at the College with the same spirit which he showed in
entering the service and in his work as a soldier.
The Jewish boys went into the army to fight. That appears in their
proportion in the combatant branches of the American Expeditionary
Forces. While these branches--Infantry, Artillery, Cavalry, Engineers,
and Signal-Aviation--constituted 60 per cent. of the total, among the
114,000 records of Jewish soldiers in the hands of the War Records
Office the distribution among these combatant branches is fully 75 per
cent. The Infantry constituted 26.6 per cent. of the entire army, while
among the Jewish records it constituted 48 per cent. Artillery was 14
per cent. of the United States army, 8 per cent. of the Jewish total. In
cavalry the rate for the entire army was 2 per cent., for the Jews only
1.3 per cent. The engineer corps contributed 11 per cent. of the army
strength, and but 3 per cent. among the Jewish records. The signal and
aviation corps represented 7 per cent. of the United States total, and
15 per cent. of the Jewish total. The medical corps was 8 per cent. of
the army total, 9 per cent. of the Jewish total. Ordnance was 1.7 per
cent. of the army total, and 1.5 of the Jewish total. The quartermaster
corps was 6.2 per cent. of the army total and 5.9 per cent. of the
Jewish total.
The Army, Navy and Marine Corps altogether had nearly 10,000 Jews as
commissioned officers, and a really tremendous number of
non-commissioned officers. The Army records show more than a hundred
colonels and lieutenant colonels of Jewish faith, including such
distinguished officers as Colonel Abel Davis, whom I have already
mentioned in connection with his D. S. C. for heroism displayed on
October 9, 1918; Colonel Nathan Horowitz, of Boston, Mass. who spent 27
months in France in the heavy artillery; Colonel Samuel Frankenberger,
of Charleston, W. Va., who commanded the 78th Field Artillery; Colonel
Samuel J. Kopetzky, Medical Corps, of New York City, who commanded
Sanitary Train 396, in the A. E. F.; and Colonel Max Robert Wainer,
Quartermaster Corps, formerly of Delaware City, Del., who was awarded
the Distinguished Service Medal and appointed a Chevalier of the Legion
of Honor by the French government. These honors were but the climax to
a military career that began with enlistment as a private in 1905, and
promotion to the rank of Second Lieutenant in 1912. In the war every one
of the four battles in which he took part was the occasion of a further
promotion, so that he concluded the war as a Colonel. I have already
mentioned Colonel Wainer in another connection, as the first active
Jewish worker at Tours; as a matter of fact, he organized a Seder in his
own unit in 1918, where 500 men celebrated the Passover at the same time
that Chaplain Voorsanger was holding his Seder at St. Nazaire, and when
practically no other Jewish work was being conducted in the entire
overseas forces.
There were over 500 majors, 1,500 captains, and more than 6,000
lieutenants in the American army, with a full share of each in the A. E.
F. Over 900 Jews were officers in the navy, the most conspicuous of them
being Rear Admiral Joseph Strauss, in command of the mine laying work in
the North Sea during the war. In addition there were one captain, five
commanders and twelve lieutenant commanders. The marine corps included
among its personnel over a hundred Jews as officers, among them three
majors, one colonel, and Brigadier-General Charles Henry Laucheimer of
Baltimore, Md., who died in January 1920.
The latest estimates of casualties run from 13,000 to 14,000, including
about 2,800 who died in the service of America. This can be inferred
easily from the branches of the service in which our Jewish boys were
found, as well as from the number of honors they received. After all,
for every brave man whose acts were noted and rewarded, many others just
as heroic fought and bled unseen.
The number of Jews decorated for conspicuous courage is attested, not
only by the Office of War Records, but also by the Jewish Valor Legion,
an organization of American Jews who received such awards during the
World War. Fully 1,100 citations for valor are on record. Of these, 723
were conferred by the American command, 287 by the French, 33 by the
British, and 46 by other allied commands. The Distinguished Service
Cross is worn by 150 American Jews, the French Medaille Militaire by
four, and the Croix de Guerre by 174. The Congressional Medal of Honor,
the rarest award in the American or any other service, which was
conferred on only 78 men in the entire service, is worn by three
American Jews, one of them killed in the act for which he was rewarded.
I add their official citations, not only for their personal interest,
but as an added tribute to these three heroes, a glory both to Jewry and
to America.
"Sydney G. Gumpertz, first sergeant, Company E, 132nd Infantry.
Congressional Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity
above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy in the Bois
de Forges, France, September 26, 1918. When the advancing line was held
up by machine-gun fire, Sergeant Gumpertz left the platoon of which he
was in command and started with two other soldiers through a heavy
barrage toward the machine-gun nest. His two companions soon became
casualties from a bursting shell, but Sergeant Gumpertz continued on
alone in the face of direct fire from the machine-gun, jumped into the
nest and silenced the gun, capturing nine of the crew. Awarded January
22, 1919."
"First Sergeant Benjamin Kaufman, Company K, 308th Infantry,
Congressional Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity
above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy in the Forest
of Argonne, France, October 4, 1918. Sergeant Kaufman took out a patrol
for the purpose of attacking an enemy machine-gun which had checked the
advance of his company. Before reaching the gun he became separated from
his patrol, and a machine-gun bullet shattered his right arm. Without
hesitation he advanced on the gun alone, throwing grenades with his left
hand and charging with an empty pistol, taking one prisoner and
scattering the crew, bringing the gun and prisoner back to the first aid
station. Awarded April 8, 1919."
"Sergeant William Sawelson, deceased, Company M, 312th Infantry,
Congressional Medal of Honor awarded for conspicuous gallantry and
intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy
at Grandpre, France, October 26, 1918. Hearing a wounded man in a
shell-hole some distance away calling for water, Sergeant Sawelson upon
his own initiative left shelter and crawled through heavy machine-gun
fire to where the man lay, giving him what water he had in his own
canteen. He then went back to his own shell-hole, obtained more water
and was returning to the wounded man, when he was killed by a
machine-gun bullet. Posthumously awarded January 10, 1919."
The 27th Division, in which I served, was fairly typical in this
respect, as it was a National Guard unit, composed of volunteers from
both the New York metropolitan district and "up-state." There were
about a thousand Jews in the entire division and seven hundred of them
were in the infantry, machine-gun battalions and engineers, which served
together. I did not find a company without from two to thirty Jewish
soldiers, and seldom without at least one Jew among the non-commissioned
officers. I remember the time I motored over to one battalion to
organize a Jewish service and inquired for a "Jewish non-com" to take
charge of getting the boys together. I was told that three top sergeants
out of the four companies were named Levi, Cohen and Pesalovsky, and
that I could take my choice. The same thing occurred time and again when
I visited other divisions. For example, Sergeant Major Wayne of the
320th Infantry prepared the Passover passes for the 40 Jews of his
regiment, then in the Le Mans area, but missed the Seder himself,
staying at his post of duty to prepare the regimental sailing list.
The 27th Division had several Jews among the officers of high
rank--Lieutenant Colonel H. S. Sternberger, the division quartermaster;
Lieutenant Colonel Morris Liebman, killed in action in Flanders; Major
(later Lieutenant Colonel) Emanuel Goldstein, Medical Corps, who was
awarded the D. S. O. by the British command, one of four such
decorations given to officers of our division. Captain Simpson of the
106th Field Artillery, Lieutenant King of the office of the division
chief of staff, 2nd Lieutenant Samuel A. Brown of the 108th Infantry,
2nd Lieutenant Sternberger of the Interpreters' Corps and 2nd Lieutenant
Florsheim of the division quartermaster's office were among the officers
of Jewish origin. In addition, there were a few, such as Sergeant
Schiff of the 102nd Engineers and Sergeant Struck of division
headquarters, who were recommended for commissions for their excellent
service but were disappointed on account of the stoppage of all
promotions after the armistice.
I mentioned in connection with my own work the list of sixty-five Jews
of the 27th who were killed in action or died in hospitals in France,
their full proportion of the nearly 2,000 dead of the division. The
first man in the 27th who was killed in action was a Jew, Private Robert
Friedman of the 102nd Engineers. Most of our losses, like those of the
division as a whole, were incurred in the terrific fighting at the
Hindenburg Line, and most of our men were buried there in the great
divisional cemeteries of Bony and Guillemont Farm, right at the furthest
point which they reached alive. The cemetery of Bony is to be one of the
permanent American cemeteries in France, and I can still see the Magen
Davids standing here and there among the rows of crosses, where I had
them placed.
The Jews of the 27th won their full share of decorations, too. Nine of
them wear the Distinguished Service Cross conferred by the American
command; one, the British honor of the Distinguished Service Order; one,
the British Distinguished Conduct Medal; seven, the British Military
Medal; one, the French Croix de Guerre with star; and one, the Belgian
Order of the Crown. Eliminating cases where one man received several
such honors, fifteen Jews of this one division alone were decorated for
unusual courage and initiative in battle. I add the official citations
of four of these men as further examples of the heroism of the Jewish
soldiers in the American forces.
"Major Emanuel Goldstein, Medical Corps, 102nd Engineers. D. S. O.,
Belgian Order of the Crown. On Sept. 29, 1918, in the vicinity of
Lompire and Guillemont Farm near Ronssoy, France, he remained in the
most exposed positions under heavy shell fire and machine-gun fire, to
render first aid to several wounded men, displaying exceptional bravery
and courage, and setting a fine example of devotion to duty to all
ranks."
"Second Lieutenant Samuel A. Brown Jr., 108th Infantry. D. S. C. awarded
for extraordinary heroism in action near Ronssoy, France, Sept. 29,
1918. Advancing with his platoon through heavy fog and dense smoke and
in the face of terrific fire which inflicted heavy casualties on his
forces, Lieutenant Brown reached the wire in front of the main
Hindenburg Line, and, after reconnoitering for gaps, assaulted the
position and effected a foothold. Having been reenforced by another
platoon, he organized a small force, and by bombing and trench fighting
captured over a hundred prisoners. Repeated attacks throughout the day
were repelled by his small force. He also succeeded in taking four field
pieces, a large number of machine guns, anti-tank rifles, and other
military property, at the same time keeping in subjection the prisoners
he had taken."
"Corporal Abel J. Levine, Company A, 107th Infantry. For extraordinary
heroism in action near Bony, France, Sept. 29, 1918. After his platoon
had suffered heavy casualties and all the sergeants had been wounded,
Corporal Levine collected the remaining effectives in his own and other
units, formed a platoon and continued the advance. When his rifle was
rendered useless he killed several of the enemy with his pistol. He was
wounded shortly afterward, but he refused assistance until his men had
been cared for and evacuated." Corporal Levine received the D. S. C. and
the British D. C. M.
"Private Morris Silverberg, Company G, 108th Infantry. For extraordinary
heroism in action near Ronssoy, France, Sept. 29, 1918. Private
Silverberg, a stretcher bearer, displayed extreme courage by repeatedly
leaving shelter and advancing over an area swept by machine-gun and
shell fire to rescue wounded comrades. Hearing that his company
commander had been wounded, he voluntarily went forward alone, and upon
finding that his officer had been killed, brought back his body."
Private Silverberg received both the D. S. C. and the British M. M.
One more point must be noted with regard to these Jewish boys who served
America so bravely and so effectively. Many of them showed in their
sacrifices the true Jewish spirit of Kiddush ha-Shem, sanctification of
the name of God. Time and again have I heard men give such a turn to
their speech, as when I asked a boy from one of our machine gun
battalions why he had led a group of volunteers in bringing from an
exposed position some wounded men of another regiment, an act in which
the only other Jew in the company had been killed and for which my
friend was later decorated. "Well, chaplain," he answered me, "there
were only two Jewish boys in the company and we'd been kidded about it
a little. We just wanted to show those fellows what a Jew could do." Dr.
Enelow tells a similar story of a boy dying in a hospital, who gave the
rabbi a last message to his parents, saying: "Tell them I did my duty as
a soldier and brought honor to the Jewish name."
Once again, in the American forces during the World War, the Jew has
proved himself a devoted patriot and a heroic soldier, and this time he
has done so in broad daylight, before the eyes of all the world.