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The Soldier Who Refused to Hand Jews to the Nazis

JL;DR SUMMARY The article chronicles the heroism of U.S. Army Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds during World War II, highlighting his moral courage when he refused to identify Jewish-American prisoners to the Nazis, possibly saving 200 to 300 lives. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

HolocaustWorld War IiYad VashemHeroismCommunity SolidarityMedal Of HonorMoral CourageRoddie EdmondsJewish American Soldiers

Places mentioned

Hesse, Germany
"Edmonds was captured during the Battle of the Bulge and taken to Stalag IX-A, a German prisoner-of-war camp."
United States
"This month, the United States is set to posthumously award Americas highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, to U.S. Army Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds."
United Kingdom
"This is a guest essay by Andrew Fox, a former British Army paratrooper and lecturer in war studies and behavioural science at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst."
Israel
"In 2015, Yad Vashem (Israels official memorial institution to the victims of the Holocaust) recognised Edmonds as Righteous Among the Nations."
France
"In France, government data counted 1,320 antisemitic acts in 2025, accounting for 53 per cent of all anti-religious incidents, remaining at historically high levels for a third straight year."

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This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 75889
Cairo Source ID 36
Retrieved 2026-02-21 05:31:12 UTC
Curated 2026-02-21 08:30:40 UTC