Roddie Edmonds will become the latest recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor in about a week. What did he do? Well, I’m stealing this from an X post by Jews Fight Back…
…If you’ve never heard of Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds, it’s time you did.
Captured during WWII. Thrown into a Nazi POW camp with over 1,200 fellow Americans, 200 of them Jewish.
One day, the Nazis gave an order: “All Jewish soldiers, step forward.”
Edmonds gave a different order: “Everyone fall out.”
All 1,200 stood shoulder to shoulder.
The Nazi commandant lost it.
Stormed over. Pulled a pistol. Pressed it to Edmonds’ forehead. “Identify the Jews or I’ll shoot you.”
Edmonds didn’t blink. “We are all Jews here. If you shoot me, you’ll have to shoot us all. And when we win this war, you’ll be tried for war crimes.”
The Nazi backed down.
Two hundred Jewish-American lives were saved.
Edmonds never told a soul.
Not for credit.
Not for medals.
Not even to his own son.
He didn’t want to be a hero.
He just wanted to do what was right.
Let the world never forget his courage.
Let his words echo forever. We are all Jews here.
Tomorrow is Holocaust Remembrance Day.
And if you’ve never heard of Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds, it’s time you did.
Captured during WWII. Thrown into a Nazi POW camp with over 1,200 fellow Americans, 200 of them Jewish.
One day, the Nazis gave an order:
“All Jewish… pic.twitter.com/0KVfUnfKax— Jews Fight Back (@JewsFightBack) January 26, 2026
In 2015, he was awarded Israel’s highest honor for non-Jews. CBS has that story:
JERUSALEM — The Nazi soldiers made their orders very clear: Jewish American prisoners of war were to be separated from their fellow brothers in arms and sent to an uncertain fate.
But Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds would have none of that. As the highest-ranking noncommissioned officer held in the German POW camp, he ordered more than 1,000 Americans captives to step forward with him and brazenly pronounced: “We are all Jews here.”
He would not waver, even with a pistol to his head, and his captors eventually backed down.
Seventy years later, the Knoxville, Tennessee, native is being posthumously recognized with Israel’s highest honor for non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during World War II. He’s the first American serviceman to earn the honor.
Read the rest for additional details.
And now he’s going to posthumously receive America’s highest honor for military members, the Congressional Medal of Honor.
From Legal Insurrection:
His Medal of Honor is not just a decoration for valor in war; it is a national acknowledgment that in humanity’s darkest hours, one ordinary American sergeant chose conscience over survival and, in doing so, saved nearly 200 lives. Edmond’s son discovered the incident while seeking more information about his father.
An announcement…
An American soldier who is credited with saving the lives of 200 Jewish comrades in a prisoner of war camp in Germany during World War II will receive the U.S. military’s highest decoration, the Medal of Honor.
The award to Roddie Edmonds, who died in 1985, was announced last… pic.twitter.com/Lj0OabY55U
— Rita Rosenfeld (@rheytah) February 23, 2026
More from Legal Insurrection:
The Medal of Honor is traditionally associated with visible acts of battlefield gallantry—charging enemy positions, rescuing wounded comrades under fire, or holding a line against overwhelming odds. Edmonds’ award is different: it honors a moment when the only weapon he carried was moral authority, and the only “attack” he launched was a refusal to cooperate with evil.
The award will be presented during a ceremony on March 2, and three other servicemembers will also be honored.
Edmonds will be one of four service members to receive the Medal of Honor at a White House ceremony on March 2, his son said.
Army Staff Sgt. Michael Ollis and retired Navy Capt. Royce Williams will also receive the nation’s highest award for courage under fire. Ollis died saving the life of a Polish counterpart in Afghanistan in 2013, and Williams was involved in a secretive dogfight with seven Soviet fighter planes more than 70 years ago.
The White House did not respond to questions about the ceremony and the fourth person to receive the Medal of Honor.