Story by Lee Habeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a date chosen to align with the fateful day back in 1945 when Allied troops liberated the worst of the Nazi deathcamps: Aushwitz-Birkenau. Approximately 960,000 Jews were murdered there, and nearly 1.1 million lives were cut short in all. But amidst the tragedy and horror associated with the Nazi genocide, there were stories of hope and courage, too. One involved an American GI who helped save 200 Jewish-American GI\u2019s from near certain death. \u00a0His name was Master Sergeant Roderick “Roddie” Edmonds, and the most remarkable part of his story wasn’t his courage or the lives he saved. It was his humility. And the source of his humility\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0his courage: his\u00a0faith in God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Edmonds never told anyone about what he did, not even his son Chris, a pastor in Tennessee and co-author of a book about his father\u2019s exploits, No Surrender<\/em>. “I asked him several times about his WW2 experience and he would say, ‘Son, there are some things that are just too difficult to share,'” Chris Edmonds told \u201cOur American Stories.\u201d Chris was startled. Could that be his dad Tanner was talking about? So Edmunds did what any son would do\u2014he tracked Tanner down like a detective, and pieced together the rest of his father\u2019s remarkable story. When they got to the camp, Edmunds became the senior commander of the American GI\u2019s. And that’s when the story got interesting. \u201cOne day, they got an announcement over the loudspeaker that asked for the Jewish POWs to fall out for the morning roll call,\u201d Edmunds said. \u201cLester Tanner told me my dad immediately said, \u2018We are not going to do that\u2019 and sent orders throughout the barracks to have all the men fall out the next morning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What would they do? Would they risk their lives to protect their Jewish brothers in arms? Edmunds continued with one of the most harrowing accounts of mass bravery on or off the battlefield in WW2. Needless to say, the commanding German officer of the camp was not pleased. Edmunds\u2019 son continued. Paul Stern, who was also Jewish, told Yad Vashem that seven decades later he could remember every detail of that day, and the five words that would save his life\u2014”We are all Jews here.” It turns out Edmund\u2019s sense of moral clarity \u2013 and sense of right and wrong – sprang from his faith, which was nurtured at a Methodist church in South Knoxville, where he gave his life to Jesus Christ as a young man. “My dad was the real deal,” Chris Edmunds said. “He lived by his\u00a0faith in God, and it’s even mentioned in his diary. He talked about how bad war is and how he wants to get back and serve God.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n It wasn\u2019t clear whether Edmunds had ever met a Jewish person until he’d enlisted. \u201cBut to dad, people were people. People were God’s creation,\u201d his son explained. \u201cAnd everyone was made equally in the sight of God. Everybody mattered.\u201d The Jewish men who served under Edmunds agreed with that assessment. \u201cHe had no reason to do what he did, to stand up for us,\u201d Paul Stern noted. \u201cThat\u2019s a real Christian that puts their life on the line for others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His father died and took his secrets to his grave. It would take 20-plus years for his son to unearth his father’s WW2 story. Poking around on Google, he stumbled upon his dad’s name in a New York Times<\/em> story about a home President Richard Nixon purchased in the 1970s from a man named Lester Tanner. In the piece, Tanner briefly noted he’d been saved from certain death at a POW camp during World War II by a soldier named Roddie Edmonds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“My dad was a part of the Battle of the Bulge,” Edmunds explained. “They were sent to replace the men on the front lines and on December 17, 1944, the German forces overwhelmed his unit. Edmonds and the 1,200-plus soldiers eventually ended up in a camp called Stalag IX-A in western Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So the next morning, all the soldiers and POWs fell out. There were approximately 1,275 men, and they were all standing there before the barracks and Lester says the commandant came over to my dad and was furious and said, \u2018All of you can’t be Jews.\u2019 Then Paul Stern, who was standing close by, said that my dad responded, \u2018We are all Jews here.\u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The commandant was angry that this American had the audacity to disobey an order. He said, \u2018I am asking you to command your Jewish men to step forward.\u2019 My dad’s response was simply this, \u2018According to the Geneva Convention all that is required is name, rank and serial number.\u2019 That again infuriated the commandant, who was a Major. He pulled his gun out of his holster and pressed it to my dad’s forehead and said, \u2018You will have your Jewish men step forward immediately or I will shoot you on the spot.\u2019 Lester Tanner said that my dad said, \u2018Major, if you shoot me, you will have to shoot us all.\u2019 And then my dad added some more, \u2018We know who you are and when we win this war you will have to stand for war crimes.\u2019 Tanner said that the major blanched and turned blood red and for what seemed like a very long time (but wasn’t)and stuck his gun in his holster and turned and walked away. They all went back into the barracks and cheered my father.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though Roddie Edmunds was their fearless leader, the contribution of the other American GIs in the prison camp can’t be underestimated. “Every one of those 1,200 men who stepped up all had the choice, and they made the right choice as well,” Edmunds noted. Two questions still lingered: Why didn’t Edmunds tell anybody his story? And why did he risk his own life to save others?
“He wasn’t one to brag, or share stuff like that,” Edmunds explained. “Probably even today, if he were here, he’d be saying, ‘What’s the big deal? I did what I was supposed to do, I did what anybody else would do, and I\u2019m glad it worked out.’ He just wouldn’t think it was a big deal.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n