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The Nazi soldiers made their orders very clear: Jewish American prisoners of war were to be separated from their fellow brothers in arms and sent to an uncertain fate. But Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds would have none of that. As the highest-ranking noncommissioned officer held in the German POW camp, he ordered more than 1,000 Americans captives to step forward with him and brazenly pronounced: "We are all Jews here." He would not waver, even with a pistol to his head, and his captors eventually backed down.
Seventy years later, the Knoxville, Tennessee, native is being posthumously recognized with Israel's highest honour for non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during World War II. He's the first American serviceman to earn the honor. "Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds seemed like an ordinary American soldier, but he had an extraordinary sense of responsibility and dedication to his fellow human beings," said Avner Shalev, chairman of the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and memorial. "The choices and actions of Master Sgt. Edmonds set an example for his fellow American soldiers as they stood united against the barbaric evil of the Nazis." It's a story that remained untold for decades and one that his son, the Rev. Chris Edmonds, only discovered long after his father's death in 1985.
Sgt. Roddie Edmonds, who refused to designate Jewish soldiers in German POW camp
Edmonds was captured with thousands of others in the Battle of the Bulge in late 1944 and spent 100 days in captivity. His son vaguely knew about his father's past from a pair of diaries Edmonds kept in captivity that included the names and addresses of his men and some of his daily thoughts. But it was only while scouring the Internet a few years ago that he began to unravel the true drama that had unfolded — oddly enough, when he read a newspaper article about Richard Nixon's post-presidency search for a New York home. As it happened, Nixon purchased his exclusive upper East Side town house from Lester Tanner, a prominent New York lawyer who mentioned in passing how Edmonds had saved him and dozens of other Jews during the war.
That sparked a search for Tanner, who along with another Jewish POW, Paul Stern, told the younger Edmonds what they witnessed on 27 January, 1945, at the Stalag IXA POW camp near Ziegenhain, Germany. The Wehrmacht had a strict anti-Jew policy and segregated Jewish POWs from non-Jews. On the eastern front, captured Jewish soldiers in the Russian army had been sent to extermination camps. At the time of Edmonds' capture, the most infamous Nazi death camps were no longer fully operational, so Jewish American POWs were instead sent to slave labour camps where their chances of survival were low. US soldiers had been warned that Jewish fighters among them would be in danger if captured and were told to destroy dog tags or any other evidence identifying them as Jewish.
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It was shortly before Rosh Hashanah when I first learned of Simon Herling’s miraculous and triumphant story. Simon came to me by way of Joseph Berger, the recently retired New York Times columnist and author, who is a childhood friend of his. All I knew at that point was that there was an article in Der Tog (The Day), a Yiddish newspaper published in New York from 1914-1971 (that also merged with other Yidish newspapers during its nearly 60-year-long run, becoming Der Tog-Morgen Zshurnal/The Day-Jewish Journal by the 1950s), which related the story of his friend’s birth in a World War II, Nazi concentration camp, all the way up to his Bar Mitzvah.
Fela and Shmuel (later, Sam) Herling at a festive occasion, Poland, c. 1930s
When I heard the part about being born in a concentration camp, I was particularly eager to learn more of Simon’s story and agreed, shortly thereafter, to translate the article. After all, how many children were born in concentration camps and actually lived to see the light of day?! My curiosity was altogether piqued. The article, “Jewish Boy, Born in a Nazi Camp, Becomes Bar Mitzvah in New York” (Wed., June 18, 1958) written by Asher Penn, relates how Simon’s mother, Fela Herling (Warsaw, Poland, c. 1915-New York, 1961) managed to carry him to full-term and deliver him in peace while spending most of those 9 months in the Leipzig-Schönefeld labor camp. Not only that, but Mrs. Herling herself clearly lived to tell of this miraculous feat, as did her husband, Sam or Shmuel (Suchedniów, Poland, c. 1910-New York, 1991).
Fela Herling and her infant son, Simcha, Landsberg D.P. Camp, Germany, c. 1945.
Up until mid-1944, husband and wife were in the same camp, known as Skarżysko-Kamienna. They had been deported there in September 1942 from the town of Suchedniów, next to Kielce. At that time, the town was made “Judenrein,” and a large percentage of the Jewish community was deported to Treblinka. Among those deported – never to be seen again – were Simon’s four-year-old sister and grandmother. In mid-1944, the Herling couple was separated, with Sam being sent to Buchenwald, and Fela to Leipzig-Schönefeld, a sub-camp of Buchenwald. Shortly before this separation, Fela revealed to her husband that she was pregnant – something that was considered the “kiss of death” for Jewish women incarcerated under the Third Reich. At their parting, the two had no idea whether they would ever see one another again.
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During an intimate award ceremony Dec. 2 with family and friends at the Schriever Space Complex of the Space and Missile Systems Center, the brothers were honored by Maj. Gen. Robert D. McMurry, Jr., the SMC vice commander, and Christophe Lemoine, the French consul general in Los Angeles. "On behalf of Los Angeles Air Force Base, I'm particularly proud for our ability to host this event," McMurry said. "The Legion of Honor has been bestowed upon quite a number of World War II veterans. It's a reminder of the service that they performed and a reminder of the ties that we have between our countries that go back to the Revolutionary War with our first ally. "We have here two identical twins who married twins. At times, piloted the same aircraft, 'Flak-Bait,' which currently is being restored by the Smithsonian, and today, over 70 years later, they are getting identical medals ... which seems appropriate to me," McMurry said. "We're proud to be a part of the ceremony."
The Clanin brothers flew the Martin B-26 Marauder named Flak-Bait on several missions with the 449th Bombardment Squadron, 322nd Bomb Group, known as "The Annihilators," while stationed in Beauvais, France. Glenn completed 26 missions while Lynn completed 21 missions in the twin-engine medium bomber. Flak-Bait completed 207 operational missions: 202 bombing runs and five decoy runs, representing the largest number of operational missions of any American aircraft during WWII. The aircraft is on display in the Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hangar at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.
Retired Air Force Reserve Majs. Raymond “Glenn” Clanin and Russell “Lynn” Clanin during training in the Aviation Cadet program, prior to receiving their pilot wings in August 1944.
"Attending a ceremony for the Legion of Honor is always a very special moment and always a very touching moment. It's even more special and even more touching today because we honor two brothers that have been tied together all their lives and that are with us together today," Lemoine said. "It is also a special moment because of the times after the attacks in Paris makes us think that we should really not forget the achievement of these men for democracy, which is still something we have to fight for. "So it's a very special day for me as the consul general of France in Los Angeles, because I'm here to express the gratitude of the people of France to all Americans and allied veterans of the Second World War and especially, two exceptional people, Raymond 'Glenn' Clanin and Russell 'Lynn' Clanin. As young men, they left their homes to fight and liberate not only France, but the whole European continent and defend democracy and human rights," Lemoine said.
After the war, Lynn moved to California and in 1948 married his wife Elyn in a joint ceremony with his brother Glenn who married Elyn's sister, Carolyn. In their civilian lives, the brothers lived next to each other for 10 years in Manhattan Beach, California, working in their dry cleaning business until the Korean War. At that point, Lynn transitioned into aircraft manufacturing and in 1960 moved to Concord, California, where he worked in real estate before eventually retiring in 1978 as a service representative from the local water district. He remained in the Air Force Reserve, retiring as a major in 1983. Lynn and his late wife Elyn's family include two sons, two grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
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