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Paul Stern, an American GI who was Jewish, told Yad Vashem that even 70 years later he could still remember every detail of that day and the five words that would save his life — “We are all Jews here.”
Why did Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds keep a story like that a secret? Why didn’t he tell anyone, even his son?
“He wasn’t one to brag, he wasn’t one to go around and share stuff like that. 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 am glad that it worked out.’ He just would not think it was a big deal, but I think it’s a big deal and I am so grateful that he did it,” said Edmonds.
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Why did his father risk his life the way he did?
“I think he just had a good sense of right and wrong,” said Chris Edmonds, who serves as the minister of Piney Grove Baptist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. “He just lived by the Golden Rule and tried to be a Good Samaritan.”
His dad’s faith was nurtured at the small Vestal Methodist Church, now Vestal United Methodist, in South Knoxville, where Chris Edmonds said his father gave his life to Jesus Christ as a young man before joining the service.
“My dad was the real deal. He lived by his faith in God and it’s even mentioned in his diary. He brought back two diaries from his time as a POW, and in those it’s mentioned. He talked about how bad war is and how he wants to get back and serve God.”
His father went out of his way to make certain that even in the POW camp, the spiritual needs of his men were met, his son added.
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“He had a list of religious services that he tried to conduct during their time of imprisonment. He had Catholic, Protestant and Jewish written in his diary, so he tried to have some kind of religious services for all of his men, not just some.”
One thing Chris Edmonds doesn’t overlook is the contribution of all of those other American GIs in the prison camp. “I am so proud of what my dad did, but it’s about all of the men who stepped forward as well, every one of those 1,200 men who stepped out. They all had the choice, and they made the right choice as well.”
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 make a quick, clear, moral decision.
“It’s a matter of five minutes and that’s it. When he tells the German, ‘No,’ that’s something that can kill him,” she explained, according to the Times of Israel. “It’s something very dangerous that is happening in one moment. And it’s very heroic.”
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Master Sergeant Roderick “Roddie” Edmonds was born humbly in 1919 in Knoxville, Tennessee. His mother died when he was three, and his father was a wallpaper hangar for local businesses.
Roddie Edmonds died humbly in August of 1985 and is buried at Berry Highland Memorial Gardens in Bearden, a neighborhood in Knoxville, Tennessee. The cause of his death was congestive heart failure.
But his heart for people — and his heart for his God — lives on forever.
And the lesson that ordinary men and women do extraordinary things each and every day because of their faith.
Their faith changes lives. And saves them, too.
(photo credit, homepage image: Chris Edmonds; photo credit, article image: Bundesarchiv Bild)
Lee Habeeb is VP of content for Salem Radio Network and host of “Our American Stories.” He lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with his wife, Valerie, and his daughter, Reagan.
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