The world is still reeling, set back on its heels by the horrific attacks perpetrated last week by Hamas terrorists against Israeli men, women, and children — many of them civilians.
During those attacks, Hamas terrorists murdered more than 1,300 people and wounded thousands more — and then proceeded to rape, torture, and kidnap Israeli civilians, taking them into Gaza and holding them there.
As the reports flooded in, each one sharing in more horrific detail the brutality with which Hamas had carried out the systematic slaughter — even going door to door in Jewish neighborhoods and killing everyone in sight — observers began to make the obvious comparison: this attack was a clear attempt at a second Holocaust.
Daily Wire editor emeritus Ben Shapiro minced no words when he said, “Understand, this is the worst disaster for the Jews since the Holocaust. It is worse than the 1973 Yom Kippur War. That was a military operation designed at eviscerating Israel, but at least it was a territorial military attempting to take on another territorial military. These are terrorists who have no actual military agenda. Their only agenda is to murder as many Jews as possible because anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, because the destruction of the state of Israel is coincident with the murder of as many Jews as possible, with more Jewish blood spilled.”
Author J.K. Rowling responded to reports that Jewish children in the United Kingdom were being warned by school officials to hide indicators of their faith, saying, “We said ‘never again.’ The UK was a safe haven. Now, after the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, British Jewish children are being advised to hide their identities as they walk to school, for their own safety. There should be mass outrage that this is necessary.”
We said ‘never again.’ The UK was a safe haven. Now, after the biggest massacre of Jews since the holocaust, British Jewish children are being advised to hide their identities as they walk to school, for their own safety. There should be mass outrage that this is necessary. pic.twitter.com/T8J4B6MSGe
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 12, 2023
And as this new tragedy unfolds, it is important to remember those who stood up for the Jewish people even before their homeland was restored in 1948 — like Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds, whose actions saved some 200 Jewish prisoners of war and earned him the designation of Righteous Gentile from Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem.
Edmonds was a member of the 422nd Regiment of the 106th Infantry Division, and he arrived in France along with his men — and the division’s 423rd and 424th regiments — and traveled by truck across France and into Belgium, arriving in the Ardennes Forest in early December of 1944. Less than a week after he and his men had taken up a position near the German border, they were attacked and quickly surrounded by a German tank division in the beginning of what would become known as the Battle of the Bulge.
Despite being cut off from supplies and reinforcements, Edmonds’ unit held out for six days until they were finally captured on December 21st. They were then forced to march 50 kilometers (about 30 miles) to a train in Gerolstein, Germany. They spent four days on the train — where they were given nothing to eat or drink until they reached their final destination: Bad Orb, Germany.
The prisoners were separated in Bad Orb, divided into groups of enlisted men, officers, and non-commissioned officers (NCOs). The NCOs were sent to a POW camp known as Stalag IXA in Ziegenhain. As a Master Sergeant, Edmonds — at just 25 years old — was the highest ranking NCO in the group of just under 1,300 men, so the Nazi guards placed him in charge of the prisoners.
German military policy was to identify the Jewish POWs and send them to concentration camps — where they would be forced into slave labor or exterminated — so the order came down in Stalag IXA on January 27, 1945, for all of the Jewish prisoners to assemble.
“Tomorrow morning, at roll call, all Jewish Americans must assemble — only the Jews — no one else. All who disobey will be shot,” the voice came over the loudspeaker.
Edmonds, who had a fair idea of what was likely to happen to any Jewish prisoner who obeyed that order, gathered his senior NCOs together and told them, “We’re not doing that.”
Instead, Edmonds reminded them that the Geneva Convention only required prisoners to give captors their names, ranks, and serial numbers – not their religious affiliations. His plan was simple: when the Nazi guards called for the Jewish prisoners to report, every one of the American prisoners would report together. To a man, they would all swear that they were Jewish.
Edmonds and his men knew that they were taking a huge risk — and that the Nazis could simply choose to execute them all on the spot. He passed the night alternately checking on his men and praying for the courage to carry out his plan, reflecting on Proverbs 28:1: “The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.”
When all 1,275 prisoners reported the following morning, a German Major named Siegmann voiced his frustration to Edmonds: “What is this, a joke?”
“Under Article Seventeen of the Geneva Convention, prisoners-of-war are only required to provide name, rank, and serial number,” Edmonds replied.
“Were my orders not clear, Sergeant? Only the Jews were to fall out,” the Major protested.
Edmonds did not budge: “Major, we’ll give you name, rank, and serial number. That’s all.”
“They cannot all be Jews,” Siegmann complained.
But Edmonds defiantly declared, “We are all Jews here.”
“Sergeant, one last chance,” the angry Major pointed his sidearm at Edmonds. “You will order the Jews to step forward or I will shoot you right now.”
Neither Edmonds nor his men moved. Edmonds stared straight ahead as he replied, “Major, you can shoot me, but you’ll have to kill all of us — because we know who you are — and you will be tried for war crimes when we win this war. And you will pay.”
Siegmann eventually lowered his weapon, stalking away in frustration.
It is estimated that Edmonds’ actions saved more than 200 Jewish prisoners that day.
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