The power of defiance and solidarity

His moral stance could easily have gotten him killed, and a thousand other US soldiers with him.

Reverend Chris Edmonds knew his late father, US Army Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds, had been captured by Wehrmacht soldiers at the Battle of the Bulge. He'd been taken to a German POW camp and held there for 100 days. Sure, there were a couple diaries his father had kept during his time in the camp, but they held few details. His father, who died in 1985, spoke little of it.

As chance would have it, some years later Rev. Edmonds read an article online which mentioned his father. In it, a prominent New York attorney credited Sgt. Edmonds with saving his life and that of about 200 other Jewish American POWs. Rev. Edmonds dug deeper, and what he learned amazed him.

U.S. soldiers knew that Jewish soldiers among them would be in danger if captured by the Nazis. Many had already destroyed their dog tags so they would not be singled out as Jewish. So when the POW camp commander ordered Jewish American soldiers to identify themselves, Edmonds and everyone else knew what was at stake.

As the ranking officer, Edmonds told the other POWs, "We are not doing that, we are all falling out." The other men complied. So Edmonds and 1000 other American POWs stood in front of their barracks to face the commander.

"They cannot all be Jews," the commander said to Edmonds, to which he replied: "We are all Jews here." The officer held a pistol to Edmonds' head and repeated his demands. Edmonds refused to give anything but his name, rank and serial number. The officer backed down. The camp was liberated several weeks later. 

Yad Vashem has added US Army Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds to its list of Righteous Among the Nations for his role in protecting over 200 Jewish soldiers that day. His fellow POWs who turned out in defiance of the Nazis and solidarity with their comrades remain anonymous. 

Teen raises funds to send Holocaust survivor to Israel for his bar mitzvah, finally

When Holocaust survivor, 89-year-old Henry Oster spoke at Viewpoint High School in Calabasas, California, 17-year-old Drew Principe was fascinated.  He spoke with the elderly Jewish man after the assembly and presented him with a gift - a bracelet inscribed with a Jewish prayer he himself had bought on a trip to Israel several years earlier. Oster was overwhelmed with the gift, and admitted that he had never been to Israel.

The two kept in touch. Principe learned that Oster was detained by the Nazis just a few weeks before his bar mitzvah and spent time in Auschwitz. After the camp was liberated in 1945, he tracked down one of his few remaining relatives, an uncle in California. At 17, he was adopted by that uncle and began a new life in America. He never did get his bar mitzvah.

The man's story bothered Principe, and he decided to act. He wrote a letter explaining his dream of sending Oster to Israel and sent it to family and friends. They in turn spread the word. Over $15,000 was raised to cover Oster's travel expenses.

Principe didn't stop there. He learned that Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Israel, had listed Oster as a victim of the Holocaust, not as a survivor. He contacted them and set the record straight.

When Oster travels to Israel this summer, Yad Vashem will conduct an official ceremony to change his status to that of a survivor. Plus, he will finally celebrate his bar mitzvah, attended by his last living relative in Israel.

Holocaust Remembrance Day

Today, I'm taking a break from my usual blog in which I highlight one right thing done by an individual. The reason? Today, April 24 2017, is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Because of its origin on the Hebrew calendar, the day falls on a different Gregorian calendar date every year. Unesco has set January 27th as Holocaust Remembrance Day, so I suppose that makes two dates each year in which we are to remember. Either way, the date's purpose is to give us pause so we can remember victims of the Holocaust and to refocus on the pledge: Never Again.

Twenty years ago, Holocaust survivors talked with school students and civic groups, putting a personal face and story to the greater horror. Fewer and fewer Holocaust survivors are alive now to share their stories in person. Thankfully, many documented their truths via the archives at US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yad Vashem, and numerous books, articles, and videos. There is great wisdom there, free for the asking.

And so here we are, a third generation away from those horrible events, and the question is as relevant as ever - have we learned the lessons of history so we can, with confidence, say 'Never Again'?

Prejudice and racial/religious profiling still exist worldwide, including right in our own country, our own towns. People are still lumped into categories and weighed against a popular standard in an assessment of worth. Genocide, wiping out entire populations based on some defining feature, still happens around the world.

In addition to the prevalence of anti-semitism in today's world, the 'other' victims of the Nazi regime also continue to be viewed as lesser human beings, still fighting for basic rights and basic dignities. This includes people who are homosexual, disabled, Roma Gypsies, or anyone who resists their government's status quo.

So no, even with two recognized dates in which to examine our prejudices and our actions toward one another, we haven't learned. The possibility of another holocaust is quite real.

God help us.

And that's why I continue to read and write about those years. I can't change history, and I can't fix the world. But I must do what I can to share what I've learned with subsequent generations. Anyone who reads Risking Exposure and its sequel (my work-in-progress) will hopefully see how dreadfully simple it is to move from feeling prejudices to verbalizing them to acting upon them (or turning a blind eye while others do so.) Only awareness of the historical cost will prevent us from going down that road again.