He Saved 200 Lives With Five Simple Words

Master Sgt Roderick Edmonds

Most of you have never heard this story. But in the recent face of hatred, racism, and murder, Master Sargent Roddie Edmonds' example reminds us that we can all stand up to evil and injustice.

Roderick "Roddie" Edmonds was a humble man from Knoxville Tennesse. Born in 1919, his father was a paper hanger. His mother died when he was only three years old. By the time he graduated in 1938 from Knoxville High School, the world's attention was focused on the coming storm of fascism in Europe. A Methodist, he found Jesus Christ in his teen years. He enlisted in the Army in 1941 and helped train other soldiers. By 1944 he was in Belgium with thousands of inexperienced, green American troops just as the Germans launched the winter offensive that would become known as the Battle of the Bulge. Captured, he was forced to walk 30 miles in freezing weather, where he was placed on a train for a German Stalag prisoner of war camp. And there he sat for three and one-half months until he and his men were liberated by Patton's advancing army. He returned home, got a job, raised a family and coached his son's baseball team. He rarely talked about his war service. In 1985, he died of congestive heart failure.

GIs in a German POW camp

OK, you get it. He served his country, like so many of our fathers and grandfathers, and he was a hero. They're all heroes, and that's true. But this man was no ordinary hero. His son, Chris Edmonds, discovered this only after his father died. His mother gave Chris his father's wartime diaries. One entry caught his attention, a January 1945 entry from his father's time in a German POW camp. The words simply said "Before the commander."

Chris began his research on the internet, determined to find out what had happened to his father during the war. The first article that mentioned his dad was from, of all places, The New York Times! The article discussed the sale of a home by New York lawyer Lester Tanner, who mentioned almost in passing that "If not for the bravery of my Master Sargent Roddie Edmonds, I wouldn't be here today." Chris was intrigued, and managed to track down Lester Tanner after several months and meet the man. And that's when he learned the amazing story behind his father's cryptic wartime diary entry.

Lester was also captured with Sargent Edmonds during the Battle of the Bulge, and along with 1271 other GIs, found himself at Stalag IXB, where they arrived on Christmas Day 1944. A month later, a voice crackled over the loudspeaker in the camp. All American Jewish soldiers, and only the Jewish soldiers, were to assemble for Roll Call the following morning.

As the senior non-commissioned officer in the camp, Roddie Edmonds was responsible for

Master Sgt Roderick Edmonds

maintaining discipline among his men, and making sure they were not mistreated. He knew immediately what this order meant. By 1945 the US Army was well aware that the Germans had been slaughtering Jews all over Europe, and had instructed all GIs of the Jewish faith to destroy their dog tags and prayer books in the event of capture. There were 200 Jewish soldiers in the camp.

Sgt Edmonds held a meeting with all the other officers in the camp to discuss the Kommandant's order. "We are not going to do that," he told them without hesitation. "Tommorrow morning, we are all falling out for roll call." Every man in that room knew such defiance might not end well, but they returned to their barracks to pass on the instructions.

The following morning, Major Siegmann emerged to find over 1200 men standing in the camp yard. He strode over to Sargent Edmonds. "What is the meaning of this?" he asked.

"Roll Call," Sgt Edmonds replied.

"You were instructed to assemble the Jewish soldiers. They cannot all be Jews!" the Major said.

"We are all Jews here," Edmonds said.

Paul Stern, another Jewish soldier standing in formation nearby, told an interviewer, "Although 70 years have passed, I can still hear the words he said to the German camp commander." 

Stalag IXB

Major Siegmann pulled his pistol from his holster and pressed it to Edmonds' forehead. "You will order the Jews to step out or I will shoot you right now."

Lester Tanner remembers what Roddie Edmonds said next. "Major, you will have to shoot all of us because we all know who you are, this war will soon be over and you will be a war criminal."

Red-faced with fury, the Major stood for several seconds before he finally holstered his weapon and walked away. Sargent Edmonds dismissed the troops and they returned to their barracks, where the men cheered him.

In a recent interview, Paul Stern added while talking about that day, "I was so proud of him...We are all Jews here," he repeated in a whisper.

Sometimes that's all it takes. A voice of defiance, and a few simple words.

We Are All Jews Here.