I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 921
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Master Sergeant Roderick ‘‘Roddie’’
Edmonds in recognition of his heroic actions during World War II.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY4, 2025
Mr. B
URCHETT(for himself, Mr. MOSKOWITZ, Ms. WASSERMANSCHULTZ,
Mr. R
OSE, Ms. BROWNLEY, Mr. MRVAN, Mr. COSTA, Mr. LAWLER, Mr.
C
ARSON, Mr. WEBERof Texas, Mr. ZINKE, and Mr. NEAL) introduced
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Serv-
ices
A BILL
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Master Sergeant
Roderick ‘‘Roddie’’ Edmonds in recognition of his heroic
actions during World War II.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Master Sergeant 4
Roddie Edmonds Congressional Gold Medal Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress finds the following: 7
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:39 Mar 01, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H921.IH H921
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2
•HR 921 IH
(1) Roderick W. Edmonds (in this Act referred 1
to as ‘‘Roddie Edmonds’’ or ‘‘Edmonds’’) was born 2
in 1919 in South Knoxville, Tennessee, and grad-3
uated from Knoxville High School in 1938. 4
(2) Roddie Edmonds was a Master Sergeant in 5
the United States Army and a member of the 422nd 6
Infantry Regiment while serving during World War 7
II. 8
(3) Roddie Edmonds landed in Europe in 1944 9
and fought to the border between Belgium and Ger-10
many. In December of 1944, while fighting in the 11
Battle of the Bulge, Edmonds was captured by Nazi 12
forces and detained in Stalag IX–A, a prisoner of 13
war camp in Ziegenhain, Germany. 14
(4) Stalag IX–A was a site used to identify, 15
segregate, and remove Jewish soldiers from the gen-16
eral population of prisoners of war and many of the 17
Jewish soldiers who were so removed were sent to 18
labor camps or murdered. Members of the Armed 19
Forces were warned of this policy and aware that 20
their fellow servicemen could be at risk. 21
(5) As the senior noncommissioned officer in 22
Stalag IX–A, Master Sergeant Edmonds was re-23
sponsible for 1,292 members of the Armed Forces at 24
the camp. Approximately 1 month after the date on 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:39 Mar 01, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H921.IH H921
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 3
•HR 921 IH
which Edmonds was detained, Edmonds was di-1
rected to order the Jewish-American soldiers under 2
his command to fall out in order to separate the 3
Jewish-American soldiers from their fellow prisoners. 4
(6) Defying the orders of the Nazis, Roddie Ed-5
monds commanded all of his men to fall out and, the 6
following morning, all of the 1,292 members of the 7
Armed Forces under the command of Edmonds 8
stood outside of their prison barracks. 9
(7) Upon seeing the soldiers, a German officer 10
angrily shouted, ‘‘They cannot all be Jews!’’, to 11
which Edmonds replied, ‘‘We are all Jews here’’. 12
(8) The German officer took out his pistol and 13
pointed the gun at the head of Edmonds, but Ed-14
monds refused to identify the Jewish soldiers. In-15
stead, Edmonds responded, ‘‘According to the Gene-16
va Convention, we only have to give our name, rank, 17
and serial number. If you shoot me, you will have 18
to shoot all of us and, after the war, you will be 19
tried for war crimes’’. 20
(9) The German officer turned away from Ed-21
monds and the other soldiers and left the scene. The 22
actions taken by Edmonds saved the lives of ap-23
proximately 200 Jewish-American members of the 24
Armed Forces. 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:39 Mar 01, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H921.IH H921
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 4
•HR 921 IH
(10) Lester Tanner, a Jewish-American mem-1
ber of the Armed Forces also captured during the 2
Battle of the Bulge, witnessed the incident and stat-3
ed that, ‘‘There was no question in my mind, or that 4
of Master Sergeant Edmonds, that the Germans 5
were removing the Jewish prisoners from the general 6
population at great risk to their survival. The U.S. 7
Army’s standing command to its ranking officers in 8
POW camps is that you resist the enemy and care 9
for the safety of your men to the greatest extent 10
possible. Master Sergeant Edmonds, at the risk of 11
his immediate death, defied the Germans with the 12
unexpected consequences that the Jewish prisoners 13
were saved’’. 14
(11) Edmonds survived 100 days in captivity 15
and returned home after the war. Later, Edmonds 16
served the United States in Korea as a member of 17
the National Guard. Edmonds died in 1985, but 18
never told his family or anyone else of his brave ac-19
tions outside the barracks of Stalag IX–A during 20
World War II. 21
(12) Edmonds was posthumously recognized by 22
Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance 23
Center in Jerusalem, as ‘‘Righteous Among the Na-24
tions’’, the first member of the Armed Forces and 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:39 Mar 01, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H921.IH H921
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 5
•HR 921 IH
1 of only 5 people of the United States to be so rec-1
ognized. Avner Shalev, Chairman of Yad Vashem, 2
announced the selection of Edmonds by saying, 3
‘‘Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds seemed like an 4
ordinary American soldier, but he had an extraor-5
dinary sense of responsibility and dedication to his 6
fellow human beings. . . . The choices and actions 7
of Master Sergeant Edmonds set an example for his 8
fellow American soldiers as they stood united against 9
the barbaric evil of the Nazis’’. 10
(13) 2025 will mark the 80th anniversary of 11
the conclusion of WWII and the atrocities of the 12
Holocaust as well as the 40th anniversary of the 13
passing of Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds. 14
SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 15
(a) A
WARDAUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of the 16
House of Representatives and the President pro tempore 17
of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements for the 18
posthumous award, on behalf of Congress, of a gold medal 19
of appropriate design to Roddie Edmonds in recognition 20
of his achievements and heroic actions during World War 21
II. 22
(b) D
ESIGN ANDSTRIKING.—For the purpose of the 23
award referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the 24
Treasury (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:39 Mar 01, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H921.IH H921
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 6
•HR 921 IH
strike a gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and 1
inscriptions to be determined by the Secretary. 2
(c) P
RESENTATION AND AWARD OFMEDAL.—The 3
gold medal referred to in subsection (a) shall be presented, 4
and following the presentation awarded, to his son, Pastor 5
Christopher Waring Edmonds, or the next of kin of 6
Roddie Edmonds. 7
SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 8
The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 9
bronze of the gold medal struck under section 3 under 10
such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, at a price 11
sufficient to cover the cost thereof, including labor, mate-12
rials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses. 13
SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS. 14
(a) N
ATIONALMEDALS.—The medals struck under 15
this Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 16
of title 31, United States Code. 17
(b) N
UMISMATICITEMS.—For purposes of sections 18
5134 and 5136 of title 31, United States Code, all medals 19
struck under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic 20
items. 21
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:39 Mar 01, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H921.IH H921
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS