Hillside in Cook County, Illinois — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)
National Jewish War Memorial
Photographed by Sean Flynn, April 22, 2024
1. Jewish-American War Memorial Marker
To all who served our country at home or on foreign soil
May they rest in peace
Yarmo ☆ DeVere
Post No. 469
Department of Illinois
In memoriam
Commemorative of the veterans
of Jewish faith who served
the United States of America
in periods of national emergency
1775 to 1918
Site dedication: September 8, 1929
Memorial dedication: September 8, 1940
Dedicated to those who died in World War II
In memory of veterans of
WW II
Korea
Vietnam
and Persian Gulf
Dept. of Ladies Aux JWV
June 1991
Erected 1940 by Jewish War Veterans of the United States, Department of Illinois.
Topics. This memorial is listed in these topic lists: Cemeteries & Burial Sites • Religion & Religious Structures • War, World I • War, World II.
Location. 41° 51.696′ N, 87° 53.612′ W. Memorial is in Hillside, Illinois, in Cook County. It is on Roosevelt Road (Illinois Route 38) 0.7 miles west of Mannheim Road (U.S. 12/45), on the right when traveling east. The marker is in the northern tip
this page online
Regionally, this memorial is in Greater Chicago. It is also in the American Midwest and on the Great Lakes. Globally, it is in North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Viceroyalty of New France, the territory of the Mississippian Culture, and the Northwest Territory.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Veterans Memorial (approx. half a mile away); Queen of Heaven Cemetery (approx. half a mile away); Scalabrini Fathers (approx. 0.6 miles away); Missionary Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (approx. 0.6 miles away); At Peace Memorial (approx. 0.6 miles away); a different marker also named Queen of Heaven Cemetery (approx. 0.7 miles away); Mt. Carmel Cemetery (approx. 0.7 miles away); Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Photographed by Sean Flynn, April 22, 2024
2. National Jewish War Memorial
More about this memorial. The marker is topped by a large artillery piece. The various markers were dedicated over many decades since the site was selected in the 1920s, with the most recent dedicated in the early 1990s. Flanking the markers are six emblems, four for American Legion-related groups and one each for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army.
Yarmo and DeVere reference two Chicago men who were killed in World War I: Robert Yarmo and James DeVere. Yarmo's gravesite is immediately behind (south of) the memorial; DeVere is buried a mile west at Mount Carmel Cemetery.
The post acquired this section of Oakridge in 1929 as a site for Jewish-American veterans' burial plots; a photograph and caption of the dedication that ran in the Chicago Tribune that September said that two squadrons of airplanes dropped flowers on the site during the dedication. The Yarmo-DeVere post spent 11 more years developing this $15,000 memorial on this site, according to a 1940 Tribune article. Attending the dedication ceremony in 1940 were Yarmo's brother Abe and DeVere's mother
Photographed by Sean Flynn, April 22, 2024
3. National Jewish War Memorial and Robert Yarmo's gravesite
Yarmo's grave is just behind the memorial at the bottom of this photo.
Regarding National Jewish War Memorial. Robert Yarmo enlisted in June 1916 and was a member of Company I, 33rd Division, 132nd Infantry, according to an application for a military headstone, submitted in 1961 by his daughter, Mrs. Conrad Sylinski of La Porte, Indiana. The 132nd, originally known as the 2nd Illinois, traced its roots to the some of the first Illinois troops to enlist in the Civil War in 1861; its memorial sits inside Chicago's Garfield Park, and the doughboy statue that once sat atop it can be found inside Chicago's Soldier Field. Yarmo, according to a Chicago Tribune obituary in 1921, was a veteran of the Spanish-American War and a member of the McKinley camp of the Spanish War Veterans Association. A 1929 article in the Chicago Sentinel about the dedication of this Jewish veterans section at Oakridge added that Yarmo was "a well known figure in local sports circles." He was killed in action in Albert, France, on August 9, 1918, and awarded the Purple Heart. His body was returned to the United States in January of 1921. While the gravestone lists his birthday as 1888, that is almost certainly incorrect.
Courtesy of Chicago History Museum (ICHi-172728)
4. Robert Yarmo
From the Chicago History Museum files of World War I service members, a photograph of Robert Yarmo, who is buried behind the National Jewish War Memorial at Oakridge Cemetery.
James DeVere and his two brothers, John and Edward, all fought in World War I. James was a U.S. Navy seaman who was wounded in battle three days before the armistice was signed on November 11. He died on November 20, just three days shy of his 20th birthday. According to a newspaper article, his mother spent more than a year fighting to have body returned to Chicago before it was finally returned to Chicago. He was buried at Hillside's Mount Carmel Cemetery, a Catholic cemetery about a mile from here, with a cross on his headstone. The 1929 Sentinel article stated that Cardinal Mundelein, leader of Chicago's Catholic archdiocese, had officiated at DeVere's interment at Mount Carmel.
Credits. This page was last revised on June 27, 2024. It was originally submitted on April 22, 2024, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. This page has been viewed 271 times since then and 25 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4. submitted on April 22, 2024, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois.
