PFC David S. Shapiro

courtesy of Gene Dershewitz

PFC David S. Shapiro was born 31 Jan 1922 in Chicago, Illinois. We believe his parents were Hyman (Chaim) and Minnie (Minsky) Shapiro and that his father was a tailor. Both parents and an older brother were natives of Russia or what is Poland today, most likely in the Pale and had immigrated about 1911-1915. We think that the family moved to Los Angeles, California about 1940-1941. David stayed in Chicago and worked for the U.S. Treasury Department.

David was drafted while living in Illinois in December 1943. After his basic military training he was sent to England and assigned to F Company 116th Infantry. He would not have had much training  before he departed England with his unit for the amphibious assault on the beach code-named Omaha. He was killed in action in that assault on 6 Jun 1944.

PFC Shapiro was repatriated in 1948 and re-interred in the Mount Carmel Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

It is possible that it was his sister Bertha Shapiro who enlisted in the Women's Army Corps from Los Angeles in September 1944. His mother was living at 2828 12th Avenue in Los Angeles in 1948.