alexpgp | An inspiring story...

Today, I ran across the story of a U.S. Army Master Sergeant who, late in January 1945, while a recently captured German prisoner-of-war at Stalag IX-A, ordered all of the nearly 1,300 prisoners-of-war under his command to fall out when the Germans ordered only Jewish POWs to do so on the prisoners' first morning at the POW camp.

From the article:

"We're not going to do that," Edmonds told his men, some of them still remember 70 years later. "Geneva Convention affords only name, rank and serial number, and so that's what we're going to do. All of us are falling out."

[...]

Edmonds, a Christian, was true to his word. The next morning, all 1,275 soldiers stood at attention in front of their barracks. The commander of the camp was furious, storming up to Edmonds and shouting, "All of you can't be Jewish?!"

"We are all Jews here," Edmonds responded.

[...]

"I'm commanding you to have your Jewish men step forward," the camp commander barked at Edmonds. Edmonds reminded the commander of the Geneva Conventions, telling him that he was entitled only to his prisoners' names, ranks and serial numbers.

The commander pulled out his gun and pressed it into Edmonds' forehead [...] "You will have your Jewish men step forward or I will shoot you on the spot."

[...] Edmonds' reply: "If you shoot, you'll have to kill all of us, and you will have to stand for war crimes after we win this war."

The major turned red, furious that a POW was challenging him, but he put his gun in his holster and walked away.

And wouldn't you know it, after the war, Roddie Edmonds never shared his story, not even with his family.

A very inspiring story, indeed.

Cheers...