Back in 2015, Professor Jacobson reported that Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds became the first American serviceman to be recognized with Israel’s highest honor for non-Jews, “Righteous Among Nations.” The title bestowed upon non-Jewish persons who risked their lives in order to save Jews.
The Nazi soldiers made their orders very clear: Jewish American prisoners of war were to be separated from their fellow brothers in arms and sent to an uncertain fate.But Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds would have none of that. As the highest-ranking noncommissioned officer held in the German POW camp, he ordered more than 1,000 Americans captives to step forward with him and brazenly pronounced: “We are all Jews here.”He would not waver, even with a pistol to his head, and his captors eventually backed down.
Edmonds’ moral stand in a Nazi prison camp is finally being marked with the United States’ highest military honor, the Medal of Honor, more than eight decades after he calmly faced down a German officer’s pistol.
His Medal of Honor is not just a decoration for valor in war; it is a national acknowledgment that in humanity’s darkest hours, one ordinary American sergeant chose conscience over survival and, in doing so, saved nearly 200 lives. Edmond’s son discovered the incident while seeking more information about his father.
The path led to the discovery of another incident of bravery in 1945, as the German defeat was imminent.
In March 1945, as the last gasps of the bloody war were drawing to a close, the Nazis of Stalag IX-A ordered the forced march of the entire camp.Weakened by months of captivity, Roddie Edmonds knew the march would be a death sentence for many.While the British, French and Russians began to evacuate the camp, the Americans stayed put.On the day of the evacuation, the master sergeant ordered his men break ranks and run back into the barracks. Back and forth they went. Ordered out. Running back in.After several hours of this the Nazis miraculously relented, leaving the Americans as the sole inhabitants of Stalag IX-A.
The Medal of Honor is traditionally associated with visible acts of battlefield gallantry—charging enemy positions, rescuing wounded comrades under fire, or holding a line against overwhelming odds. Edmonds’ award is different: it honors a moment when the only weapon he carried was moral authority, and the only “attack” he launched was a refusal to cooperate with evil.
The award will be presented during a ceremony on March 2, and three other servicemembers will also be honored.
Edmonds will be one of four service members to receive the Medal of Honor at a White House ceremony on March 2, his son said.Army Staff Sgt. Michael Ollis and retired Navy Capt. Royce Williams will also receive the nation’s highest award for courage under fire. Ollis died saving the life of a Polish counterpart in Afghanistan in 2013, and Williams was involved in a secretive dogfight with seven Soviet fighter planes more than 70 years ago.The White House did not respond to questions about the ceremony and the fourth person to receive the Medal of Honor.
Edmonds joins about a dozen others honored for their courage in prisoner-of-war camps.
Edmonds joins roughly a dozen Medal of Honor recipients recognized for resistance in prison camps. In the Korean War, Army medic Tibor Rubin, a Holocaust survivor, kept at least 40 POWs alive while in captivity. In Vietnam, Army Captain Humbert “Rocky” Versace, Air Force Captain Lance Sijan and Navy Admiral James Stockdale all received the Medal for fierce resistance and escape attempts.
In honoring Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds with the Medal of Honor, America is finally placing its highest recognition where it has long belonged: on a man who, with true moral courage. His powerful words….“We are all Jews here”…spoke louder than any weapon, asserting the equal worth of every life in the face of a regime built on dehumanization.
As his story joins those of other American heroes who resisted even behind barbed wire, Edmonds reminds us that the measure of character is found not in the power we hold, but in the people we refuse to abandon.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY