WASHINGTON D.C., DC — A World War II veteran from East Tennessee may soon get a Congressional Gold Medal posthumously for his actions during World War II.
Representative Tim Burchett (R - TN) introduced a bill to award Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds the medal after he fought in the Battle of the Bulge, where he was captured and detained by Nazi forces.
He was one of the 1,200 American soldiers captured by the Nazis and he was a prisoner of war for 100 days, according to a release about the bill. He was 25 years old and by that point of the war, the Nazis had already killed millions of Jewish people.
While he was detained, Nazi soldiers ordered Jewish soldiers to identify themselves so they could be separated into labor and concentration camps. They then held Edmonds at gunpoint and demanded he told them who the Jewish soldiers were in his company.
However, he refused and said, "We are all Jews here."
The identities of Jewish soldiers were never given, according to the release. Edmonds died in 1985, and since then the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem designated him "Righteous Among the Nations." He is only one of five Americans to get this award, according to the release.