I see a lot of stories posted on the Internet that appear interesting at first, but after researching further and doing some fact-checking, turn out to be exaggerated or even false. Not so with a story I saw late last week. It's worth repeating here.
Roderick W. Edmonds, known to all as his friends as "Roddie" was a soldier in the U.S. Army during World War II. He fought at the Battle of the Bulge and was captured in December 1944, and he spent the remainder of the war in a German Prisoner of War (POW) camp, Stalag IX-A. Master Sergeant Edmonds was the highest ranking American non-commissioned officer at the camp, and he was therefore responsible for 1,275 American POWs.
On their first day at Stalag IX-A, the German commandant told Master Sergeant Edmonds that the next morning, all the Jewish soldiers should assemble outside their barracks. He had heard rumors that European Jews were being sent to death camps, and he was determined to protect the Jewish servicemen under his command. Instead of following the Nazi’s orders, Master Sergeant Edmonds issued his own: All 1,275 American POWs would assemble outside the barracks in the morning.
The next day, when the Nazi officer saw that all the soldiers were outside, he angrily demanded that Master Sergeant Edmonds identify the Jews. Instead, Master Sergeant Edmonds told his men that they would not obey the order. Then he turned to the commander and said, "We are all Jews here."
Furious, the Nazi officer took out his pistol and threatened to shoot him. "They cannot all be Jews!" he said, insisting again that Master Sergeant Edmonds identify the Jewish soldiers.
Even with a gun to his head, Master Sergeant Edmonds did not back down. "WE ARE ALL JEWS,” he repeated. "If you shoot me, you’ll have to shoot all of us and after the war, you’ll be tried for war crimes."
The Nazi officer backed down, and 200 Jewish-American soldiers were saved. Stalag IX-A was eventually liberated, and Master Sergeant Edmonds and his fellow POWs returned home to the United States. He never told anyone about his experiences there.
Master Sergeant Edmonds died in 1985. Shortly after, his children began to read the diary that he had kept during his time as a POW. Most of the diary just listed the names and addresses for his fellow POWs. When his son Chris contacted one of those individuals in order to learn more about his father's time as a POW, he learned what had really happened. Chris contacted several others who confirmed the story.
In 2015, Master Sergeant Roderick "Roddie" Edmonds was honored by the Israeli Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations. 26,000 non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust have been so honored, but Master Sergeant Edmonds is the only U.S. serviceman on that list. And after a decade of advocacy from his family, community, and legislators, Master Sergeant Edmonds’s bravery was recognized with the nation’s highest military decoration, the Congressional Medal of Honor, which President Trump awarded posthumously to Edmonds on March 2, 2026. His citation ends:
Without regard for his own life Master Sergeant Edmonds gallantly led these prisoners in a relentless pursuit of opposition and resistance, forcing the Germans to abandon the camp leaving the 1,200 American prisoners behind. The full extent of his bravery, unbending will, and courageous leadership would be realized when soldiers from 3d U.S. Army liberated the camp on March 30, 1945. Master Sergeant Edmonds’ conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life, above and beyond the call of duty, are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.
Master Sergeant Edmonds' bravery reminds me of one of my favorite poems, "First They Came" by Martin Niemöller, a German theologian and Lutheran minister (I posted about Niemöller's story in my post, "First They Came"). As I wrote in a post from August, 2017 ("A life of privilege - Part I"), "It doesn't matter whether you are white, black, brown, yellow, or red. It doesn't matter whether you are gay or straight. It doesn't matter whether you are male, female, or transgender. It doesn't matter whether you are Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Hindu, Buddhist, or Muslim. It doesn't matter whether you first learned to speak English or another language. It doesn't matter whether you were born here or whether you moved here later. We are all Americans. That is what this country stands for - and we need to stand up. Or some day there will be no one left to stand up for us."
As Master Sergeant Edmonds said, "We are all Jews here."
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