Roddie Edmonds

For this week's story of courage, I want to tell you about a fellow Tennessean and a soldier whose name probably ought to be a lot better known than it is.

His name was Master Sergeant Roderick Edmonds.

Edmonds was from Knoxville, Tennessee, and during World War II, he served with the 106th Infantry Division.

Toward the end of the war, in December of 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, Edmunds was captured by the Germans.

Eventually, he was sent to a German prisoner of war camp called Stalag IX A.

And because he was a senior American non-commissioned officer there, Edmunds found himself responsible for more than 1,200 American prisoners.

Later, in January of 1945, the Germans gave an order to the American prisoners.

They wanted every Jewish American prisoner to identify himself and report separately at morning formation.