We are all Jews here': U.S. soldier honored after leading revolt against Nazi prison guard
Edmonds was one of around 1,000 soldiers taken to the Stalag IXA camp Ziegenhain, Germany, after the Battle of the Bulge.
Inside the camp, Nazi soldiers tried to sort the Jewish prisoners from everyone else, which would almost certainly end in their death.
But rather than comply, Edmonds ordered his men to refuse their instructions, declaring: 'We are all Jews here'.
In recognition of his bravery, he has been awarded the highest honor by Israel's Holocaust memorial.
Nazi leaders had told the Jewish soldiers to assemble outside their barracks one morning, to be taken to labor camps where they would almost certainly die.
But Edmonds, of Knoxville, Tennessee, ordered the entire contingent of 1,000 U.S. servicemen to join them, saying the Nazis had to kill all of them or none.
Even when threatened at gunpoint, Edmonds didn't budge, and his gambit worked. The Nazi official backed down and around 200 Jewish soldiers stayed in captivity with the others until they were liberated.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3342274/Late-WWII-US-veteran-1st-soldier-honored-saving-Jews.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490
May G-d bless Mr. Edmond's memory. He was the very definition of hero.
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