A soldier who risked his life to protect hundreds of Jewish-American prisoners of war during World War II will posthumously receive the Medal of Honor more than 40 years after his death.
Master Sgt. Roderick “Roddie” Edmonds will be honored at a White House ceremony on Mar. 2, 2026. The recognition comes 80 years after Edmonds defied Nazi orders at a German POW camp to prevent the identification and potential execution of Jewish soldiers under his command.
Read: Israel honors US soldier who defied Nazi captors: ‘We are all Jews here’
Born in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1919, Edmonds enlisted in the Army in 1941 at age 22. He was captured by the Germans on Dec. 19, 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge and subsequently imprisoned at Stalag IX-A near Ziegenhain, Germany. There, he became the senior noncommissioned officer overseeing 1,292 American prisoners.
On Jan. 27, 1945, the camp commandant ordered Edmonds to identify which soldiers were Jewish for separate assembly. Edmonds refused. He ordered all his men, Jewish and non-Jewish, to stand outside their barracks.
When a German officer pointed a pistol at him and shouted, “They cannot all be Jews.”
“We are all Jews here,” Edmonds shot back.
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When a Black American fought a German in the late 1930s, sparks were sure to fly.
“Major, you can shoot me, you can shoot all of us, but we know who you are,” Lester Tannenbaum, a Jewish NCO who stood beside him during the confrontation, told Task & Purpose. “This war is almost over, and you’ll be a war criminal.”
The German officer backed down. The American NCO’s defiance saved around 200 to 300 Jewish-American soldiers. He never spoke of the incident after the war, instead taking the story to his grave. His family learned of his actions only in 2013, nearly three decades after his death.
“All we knew was that he fought in World War II, in the Battle of the Bulge, and came home,” said his son, Chris Edmonds. “He wouldn’t talk about it.”
In 2015, Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, recognized Edmonds as “Righteous Among the Nations,”an honor bestowed on non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. He became the first U.S. soldier and one of only five Americans to receive the distinction.
After the war, Edmonds continued his military service during the Korean War, serving with the 1st Cavalry Division and earning the Combat Infantryman Badge. He later worked in journalism, mobile homes, and cable television in Knoxville. He died in 1985 at age 65.
