Well Done!

Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds

Seventy years ago, during World War II, Sgt. Roddie Edmonds saved the lives of many Jewish people.

He was one of many people who were in a German POW camp.  The Germans wanted desperately to root out all of the Jews.   When asked who among them were Jews, Master Sgt. Edmonds, being the highest-ranking noncommissioned officer,  ordered more than 1,000 American captives to step forward with him and courageously pronounced, “We are all Jews here”.  He would not waver, even with a pistol to his head, and his captors eventually backed down.

Master Sgt. Edmonds, a 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.”

We love hearing of people who have such a strong sense of morality that they can do nothing else but stand up for it, even in the face of danger.

Well done, Master Sgt. Edmonds.  You are certainly the winner!