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"We Are All Jews": Soldier Who Defied His German Captors to Be Awarded Medal of Honor
(Military Times) Claire Barrett - Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds from Knoxville, Tennessee, alongside thousands of other Americans, was captured by the Germans in Dec. 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II and transported to Stalag IX-A. On Jan. 27, 1945, Edmonds, the highest-ranking American noncommissioned officer at Ziegenhain stalag that day, was told to order his nearly 200 Jewish-American soldiers out of the morning roll call. Instead, he ordered more than 1,000 of his fellow prisoners to stand together in front of their barracks. The commandant scoffed that they couldn't all be Jewish. Edmonds was defiant, telling the Nazi: "We are all Jews." The commandant placed his Luger to Edmonds' forehead and told him to order his Jewish soldiers to step forward or he would be executed. Edmonds answered: "You can shoot me. You can shoot all of us. But we know who you are. And this war is almost over, and you'll be a war criminal." The Nazi slowly lowered his pistol and walked away. In 2016, Roddie Edmonds was recognized by Yad Vashem as "Righteous Among the Nations" - an honorific title bestowed to non-Jewish persons who risked their lives in order to save Jews.