II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 262
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Master Sergeant Roderick ‘‘Roddie’’
Edmonds in recognition of his heroic actions during World War II.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY27, 2025
Mrs. B
LACKBURN(for herself and Mr. SCHATZ) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Hous-
ing, and Urban Affairs
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
(1) Roderick W. Edmonds (in this Act referred 8
to as ‘‘Roddie Edmonds’’ or ‘‘Edmonds’’) was born 9
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in 1919 in South Knoxville, Tennessee, and grad-1
uated from Knoxville High School in 1938. 2
(2) Roddie Edmonds was a Master Sergeant in 3
the United States Army and a member of the 422nd 4
Infantry Regiment while serving during World War 5
II. 6
(3) Roddie Edmonds landed in Europe in 1944 7
and fought to the border between Belgium and Ger-8
many. In December of 1944, while fighting in the 9
Battle of the Bulge, Edmonds was captured by Nazi 10
forces and detained in Stalag IX–A, a prisoner of 11
war camp in Ziegenhain, Germany. 12
(4) Stalag IX–A was a site used to identify, 13
segregate, and remove Jewish soldiers from the gen-14
eral population of prisoners of war and many of the 15
Jewish soldiers who were so removed were sent to 16
labor camps or murdered. Members of the Armed 17
Forces were warned of this policy and aware that 18
their fellow servicemen could be at risk. 19
(5) As the senior noncommissioned officer in 20
Stalag IX–A, Master Sergeant Edmonds was re-21
sponsible for 1,292 members of the Armed Forces at 22
the camp. Approximately 1 month after the date on 23
which Edmonds was detained, Edmonds was di-24
rected to order the Jewish-American soldiers under 25
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his command to fall out in order to separate the 1
Jewish-American soldiers from their fellow prisoners. 2
(6) Defying the orders of the Nazis, Roddie Ed-3
monds commanded all of his men to fall out and, the 4
following morning, all of the 1,292 members of the 5
Armed Forces under the command of Edmonds 6
stood outside of their prison barracks. 7
(7) Upon seeing the soldiers, a German officer 8
angrily shouted, ‘‘They cannot all be Jews!’’, to 9
which Edmonds replied, ‘‘We are all Jews here’’. 10
(8) The German officer took out his pistol and 11
pointed the gun at the head of Edmonds, but Ed-12
monds refused to identify the Jewish soldiers. In-13
stead, Edmonds responded, ‘‘According to the Gene-14
va Convention, we only have to give our name, rank, 15
and serial number. If you shoot me, you will have 16
to shoot all of us and, after the war, you will be 17
tried for war crimes’’. 18
(9) The German officer turned away from Ed-19
monds and the other soldiers and left the scene. The 20
actions taken by Edmonds saved the lives of ap-21
proximately 200 Jewish-American members of the 22
Armed Forces. 23
(10) Lester Tanner, a Jewish-American mem-24
ber of the Armed Forces also captured during the 25
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Battle of the Bulge, witnessed the incident and stat-1
ed that, ‘‘There was no question in my mind, or that 2
of Master Sergeant Edmonds, that the Germans 3
were removing the Jewish prisoners from the general 4
population at great risk to their survival. The U.S. 5
Army’s standing command to its ranking officers in 6
POW camps is that you resist the enemy and care 7
for the safety of your men to the greatest extent 8
possible. Master Sergeant Edmonds, at the risk of 9
his immediate death, defied the Germans with the 10
unexpected consequences that the Jewish prisoners 11
were saved’’. 12
(11) Edmonds survived 100 days in captivity 13
and returned home after the war. Later, Edmonds 14
served the United States in Korea as a member of 15
the National Guard. Edmonds died in 1985, but 16
never told his family or anyone else of his brave ac-17
tions outside the barracks of Stalag IX–A during 18
World War II. 19
(12) Edmonds was posthumously recognized by 20
Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance 21
Center in Jerusalem, as ‘‘Righteous Among the Na-22
tions’’, the first member of the Armed Forces and 23
1 of only 5 people of the United States to be so rec-24
ognized. Avner Shalev, Chairman of Yad Vashem, 25
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announced the selection of Edmonds by saying, 1
‘‘Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds seemed like an 2
ordinary American soldier, but he had an extraor-3
dinary sense of responsibility and dedication to his 4
fellow human beings. . . . The choices and actions 5
of Master Sergeant Edmonds set an example for his 6
fellow American soldiers as they stood united against 7
the barbaric evil of the Nazis’’. 8
(13) 2025 will mark the 80th anniversary of 9
the conclusion of World War II and the atrocities of 10
the Holocaust as well as the 40th anniversary of the 11
passing of Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds. 12
SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 13
(a) P
RESENTATIONAUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of 14
the House of Representatives and the President pro tem-15
pore of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements 16
for the posthumous presentation, on behalf of Congress, 17
of a gold medal of appropriate design to Roddie Edmonds 18
in recognition of his achievements and heroic actions dur-19
ing World War II. 20
(b) D
ESIGN ANDSTRIKING.—For purposes of the 21
presentation described in subsection (a), the Secretary of 22
the Treasury (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Secretary’’) 23
shall strike a gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, 24
and inscriptions to be determined by the Secretary. 25
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(c) DISPOSITION OFMEDAL.—Following the presen-1
tation described in subsection (a), the gold medal shall be 2
given to Pastor Christopher Waring Edmonds, or the next 3
of kin of Roddie Edmonds. 4
SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 5
The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 6
bronze of the gold medal struck at a price sufficient to 7
cover the costs thereof, including labor, materials, dies, 8
use of machinery, and overhead expenses. 9
SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS. 10
(a) N
ATIONALMEDALS.—Medals struck under this 11
Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 12
31, United States Code. 13
(b) N
UMISMATICITEMS.—For purposes of sections 14
5134 and 5136 of title 31, United States Code, all medals 15
struck under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic 16
items. 17
SEC. 6. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF 18
SALE. 19
(a) A
UTHORITYTOUSEFUNDAMOUNTS.—There is 20
authorized to be charged against the United States Mint 21
Public Enterprise Fund such amounts as may be nec-22
essary to pay for the costs of the medals struck under 23
this Act. 24
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(b) PROCEEDS OFSALE.—Amounts received from the 1
sale of duplicate bronze medals authorized under section 2
4 shall be deposited into the United States Mint Public 3
Enterprise Fund. 4
Æ
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