Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds 
 
 
 
 The late Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds, of the 422nd Infantry Regiment in the United States Armed Forces, has been recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations for rescuing Jewish servicemen at the Stalag IXA POW Camp in Germany. His son, Pastor Chris Edmonds, is currently in Israel participating in a seminar sponsored by the International School for Holocaust Studies for Christian leaders. 
 
 "Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds seemed like an ordinary American soldier, but he had an extraordinary sense of responsibility and dedication to his fellow human beings," said Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev. "These attributes form the common thread that binds members of this select group of Righteous Among the Nations. The choices and actions of Master Sergeant Edmonds set an example for his fellow American soldiers as they stood united against the barbaric evil of the Nazis." The Rescue Story Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds of Knoxville, TN served as a non-commissioned officer (NCO) in the US army, fighting in Europe during World War II. He participated in the landing of the American forces in Europe, and was taken prisoner by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge. Edmonds was interned at Stalag IXA, a POW camp near Ziegenhain, Germany. 
 
 The Wehrmacht had an anti-Jewish policy, singling out Jewish POWs from the rest of the POW population. On the Eastern Front, many Jewish POWs were sent to extermination camps or murdered. This policy was also applied in some cases in the West. In January 1945, the Germans announced that all Jewish POWs in Stalag IXA were to report the following morning. Edmonds, who was the highest ranking soldier in the American section of the camp ordered all his men, to fallout the following morning – Jews and non-Jews alike. When the German officer, Major Siegmann, saw that all the camp’s inmates were standing in front of their barracks, he turned to Edmonds and exclaimed: “They cannot all be Jews!” To this Edmonds replied: “We are all Jews.” Siegmann took out his pistol and threatened Edmonds, but the Master Sergeant did not waver and retorted: “According to the Geneva Convention, we only have to give our name, rank and serial number. If you shoot me, you will have to shoot all of us, and after the war you will be tried for war crimes.” The officer turned around and left the scene. NCO Paul Stern retold this encounter to Yad Vashem. Stern, one of the Jewish POWs rescued by Edmonds, told Yad Vashem that he was taken prisoner on December 17, 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge. "Stern stood very close to Edmonds during the exchange with the German camp commander, which, he later recalled was conducted in English. “Although seventy years have passed,” said Stern, “I can still hear the words he said to the German Camp officer.” 
 
 Lester Tanner, another Jewish soldier captured during the Battle of the Bulge, witnessed this incident. Tanner had trained in Fort Jackson where Master Sergeant Edmonds was stationed. Tanner remembered Edmonds well from his training period. “He did not throw his rank around. You knew he knew his stuff and he got across to you without being arrogant or inconsiderate. I admired him for his command… We were in combat on the front lines for only a short period, but it was clear that Roddie Edmonds was a man of great courage who led his men with the same capacity we had come to know him in the States.” Tanner told Yad Vashem that they were well aware that the Germans were murdering the Jews, and that therefore they understood that the order to separate the Jews from the other POWs meant that the Jews were in great danger. “I would estimate that there were more than one thousand Americans standing in wide formation in front of the barracks with Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds standing in front with several senior non-coms beside him, of which I was one… There was no question in my mind, or that of Master Sergeant Edmonds, that the Germans were removing the Jewish prisoners from the general prisoner population at great risk to their survival. The US Army’s standing command to its ranking officers in POW camps is that you resist the enemy and care for the safety of your men to the greatest extent possible. Master Sergeant Edmonds, at the risk of his immediate death, defied the Germans with the unexpected consequences that the Jewish prisoners were saved.” 
 
 Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds passed away in 1985. In 2015, Yad Vashem posthumously recognized Edmonds as Righteous Among the Nations. He is the first American soldier, and only one of five Americans, to be recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations, alongside Varian Fry, Waitstill and Martha Sharp, and Lois Gunden. To date, more than 26,000 individuals have received the honor. 
 
 More information about the Righteous Among the Nations, including background, stories and the Database of Righteous, can be found online here. 
 
 For more information contact: Simmy Allen, Head of the International Media Section, Communications Division phone +972 2 644 3412/0, cell +972 585098109, fax: +972 2 6443409 simmy.allen@yadvashem.org.il / www.yadvashem.org 

 JERUSALEM (AP) — 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. 
 
 This undated photograph released by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial shows World War II, United States Army Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds. Edmonds is being posthumously recognized with "Righteous Among... (Associated Press) 
 
 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. 
 
 Seventy years later, the Knoxville, Tennessee, native is being posthumously recognized with Israel's highest honor for non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during World War II. He's the first American serviceman to earn the honor. 
 
 "Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds seemed like an ordinary American soldier, but he had an extraordinary sense of responsibility and dedication to his fellow human beings," said Avner Shalev, chairman of the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and memorial. "The choices and actions of Master Sgt. Edmonds set an example for his fellow American soldiers as they stood united against the barbaric evil of the Nazis." 
 
 It's a story that remained untold for decades and one that his son, the Rev. Chris Edmonds, only discovered long after his father's death in 1985. 
 
 Edmonds was captured with thousands of others in the Battle of the Bulge in late 1944 and spent 100 days in captivity. His son vaguely knew about his father's past from a pair of diaries Edmonds kept in captivity that included the names and addresses of his men and some of his daily thoughts. 
 
 But it was only while scouring the Internet a few years ago that he began to unravel the true drama that had unfolded — oddly enough, when he read a newspaper article about Richard Nixon's post-presidency search for a New York home. As it happened, Nixon purchased his exclusive upper East Side town house from Lester Tanner, a prominent New York lawyer who mentioned in passing how Edmonds had saved him and dozens of other Jews during the war. 
 
 That sparked a search for Tanner, who along with another Jewish POW, Paul Stern, told the younger Edmonds what they witnessed on Jan. 27, 1945, at the Stalag IXA POW camp near Ziegenhain, Germany. 
 
 The Wehrmacht had a strict anti-Jew policy and segregated Jewish POWs from non-Jews. On the eastern front, captured Jewish soldiers in the Russian army had been sent to extermination camps. 
 
 At the time of Edmonds' capture, the most infamous Nazi death camps were no longer fully operational, so Jewish American POWs were instead sent to slave labor camps where their chances of survival were low. U.S. soldiers had been warned that Jewish fighters among them would be in danger if captured and were told to destroy dog tags or any other evidence identifying them as Jewish. 
 
 So when the German camp commander, speaking in English, ordered the Jews to identify themselves, Edmonds knew what was at stake. 
 
 Turning to the rest of the POWs, he said: "We are not doing that, we are all falling out," recalled Chris Edmonds, who is currently in Israel participating in a seminar for Christian leaders at Yad Vashem's International School for Holocaust Studies. 
 
 With all the camp's inmates defiantly standing in front of their barracks, the German commander turned to Edmonds and said: "They cannot all be Jews." To which Edmonds replied: "We are all Jews here." 
 
 Then the Nazi officer pressed his pistol to Edmonds head and offered him one last chance. Edmonds merely gave him his name, rank and serial number as required by the Geneva Conventions. 
 
 "And then my dad said: 'If you are going to shoot, you are going to have to shoot all of us because we know who you are and you'll be tried for war crimes when we win this war,'" recalled Chris Edmonds, who estimates his father's actions saved the lives of more than 200 Jewish-American soldiers. 
 
 Witnesses to the exchange said the German officer then withdrew. Stern, who currently lives in Reston, Virginia, told Yad Vashem that even 70 years later he can "still hear the words." 
 
 About 6 million European Jews were killed by German Nazis and their collaborators during World War II. The names of those honored for risking their lives to protect Jews are engraved along an avenue of trees at the Jerusalem memorial. 
 
 More than 26,000 have been designated "Righteous Among the Nations," the most famous being Oskar Schindler, whose efforts to save more than 1,000 Jews were documented in Steven Spielberg's 1993 film "Schindler's List," and Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who is credited for having saved at least 20,000 Jews before mysteriously disappearing. 
 
 But prior to Edmonds, only four were Americans, who belonged to the clergy or volunteered for rescue groups. He's the first serviceman and the first whose actions saved the lives of fellow Americans. A ceremony for Edmonds is planned next year. And, thanks to his son's efforts, Edmonds is now also being considered for a Congressional Medal of Honor. 
 
 Irena Steinfeldt, the director of the Holocaust memorial's Righteous Among the Nations department, said all rescue stories were unique. She said Edmonds actions were reflective of those of a military man, who was prepared to take a quick, clear, moral decision. 
 
 "It's a matter of five minutes and that is it. When he tells the German, 'No,' that is something that can kill him," she explained. "It is something very dangerous that is happening in one moment. ... But it is very heroic." 
 
 Chris Edmonds, who leads a Baptist congregation in Maryville, Tennessee, said he believed his father had a "deep moral conviction" instilled in his faith that inspired his actions. 
 
 "All he had to fight with was his will power and his wits," he said. "I'm just glad he did the right thing." 
 
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– Roddie Edmonds is the first US soldier to receive Israel's Righteous Among the Nations honor, 70 years after he risked his life to save 200 Jews. The native of Knoxville, Tenn., was captured in the Battle of the Bulge in late 1944 and held at German POW camp Staleg IXA, according to Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. When the Nazis ordered all Jewish-American POWs to step forward on Jan. 27, 1945, Edmonds—the highest-ranking noncommissioned officer at the camp—ordered 1,000 US soldiers to do so, regardless of their religion, per the AP. "They cannot all be Jews!" a German commander said, per Yad Vashem. "We are all Jews here," Edmonds replied, adding soldiers didn't need to divulge their religion under the Geneva Conventions. The commander then put a gun to Edmonds' head. He said, "'I'll give you one more chance. Have the Jewish men step forward or I will shoot you on the spot,'" Edmonds' son, the Rev. Chris Edmonds, tells NPR. "They said my dad paused, and said, 'If you shoot, you'll have to shoot us all.'" The commander yielded. Chris Edmonds believes his dad's move saved 200 lives. Edmonds died in 1985 and his untold story nearly died with him. How it surfaced is fascinating: Some time after his father's death, Chris Edmonds read an article about Richard Nixon's purchase of a tony Manhattan townhouse from a man named Lester Tanner—who mentioned that Edmonds saved his life. The son then embarked on a quest to find Tanner. Edmonds was honored on Wednesday as only the fifth American to receive the Israeli honor, the country's highest for non-Jews who undertook heroic acts in WWII. He is now being considered for a Medal of Honor. (Read about another WWII hero.)