JERUSALEM, Israel – Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds will be honored posthumously for saving the lives of 200 American Jewish prisoners of war during World War II.
Captured by the German army during the Battle of the Bulge on December 19, 1944, Edmond's captors put him in charge of the 1,292 American POWs at the camp because he was the highest ranking officer there.
When ordered by his German captors to identify the Jewish POWs so they could be separated from the others, Edmonds refused. When threatened with a pistol to his head, he told the German officer, "We are all Jews here."
For whatever his personal reasons, Edmonds never relayed the incident to his family when he came home after 100 days in the prison camp. Sometime after his death in 1985, his heroic actions in the camp came to light.
The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (JFR) will present the Yehi Or Award at a dinner on November 28 to be held at the New York Public Library. His son, Pastor Chris Edmonds, will accept the award.
"Over the years we have worked with an honored many Holocaust survivors and their rescuers, but the story of Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds saving Jewish-American soldiers truly distinguishes the man and the leader he was," said JFR Chairman Harvey Schulweis. "Though unfortunately we were not privileged enough to honor him during his lifetime, we hope that his year's Yehi Ohr Award will show the gratitude and appreciation that our nation has on behalf of his heroic actions that day."
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