DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE

May 1-8, 2016

DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE

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Each year, the United States Holocaust

Memorial Museum leads the nation in

commemorating Days of Remembrance.

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Days of Remembrance was

established by the U.S. Congress to

memorialize the six million Jews

murdered in the Holocaust—as well as

the millions of non-Jewish victims—of

Nazi persecution.

DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE

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Millions of ordinary people witnessed the crimes of the

Holocaust—in the countryside and city squares, in stores

and schools, in homes, and workplaces.

The banner reads: “The Jews are our misfortune.”

Across Europe, the Nazis

found countless helpers who

willingly collaborated or were

complicit in the crimes

through their inactions.

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The victims had no control over their fates.

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DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE

The rescuers, on the other hand, made choices. They chose

to risk their own lives, their families’ lives, and their homes to

help save thousands of innocents.

In 1953, the state of Israel established Yad Vashem, the

Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, in

order to document and record the history of the Jewish people

during the Holocaust as well as to acknowledge the countless

non-Jewish individuals who risked their lives to save Jews.

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DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE

Yad Vashem began to award the title “Righteous Among the

Nations” in 1963, and since that time—26,119 rescuers from

51 countries—have been acknowledged for their efforts.

This presentation commemorate the actions and stories of the

five Americans, ordinary people who through their actions

became extraordinary. Their acts of courage—to intervene

and help rescue—those being persecuted by the Nazis and

who have been awarded the title of “Righteous Among the

Nations.”

DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE

Varian Fry, a 32 year old Harvard-educated

classicist and journalist from New York City,

serving as a foreign correspondent who

saved thousands of endangered refugees

who were caught in the Vichy French zone

escape from Nazi terror during World War

II. This man, known as “the American

Schindler,” died in obscurity and without

recognition.

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DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE

Despite having had no training in underground work and no

knowledge of forgers, black marketeers, or secret passages,

within 24 hours after his arrival in France Fry committed

himself to a mission that saved prominent persons such as

artists Marc Chagall and Max Ernst, writer Hannah Arendt,

and sculptor Jacques Lipchitz.

Fry said, “I stayed because the refugees needed me. But it

took courage, and courage is a quality that I hadn't previously

been sure I possessed.”

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DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE

In 1991, 50 years after his courageous actions in France

saved thousands of innocent lives and 24 years after his

death, the United States Holocaust Memorial Council awarded

the Eisenhower Liberation Medal to Varian Fry.

In 1994, he was also honored by Yad Vashem as a “Righteous

Among the Nations” — the first American recipient of Israel’s

highest honor for rescuers during the Holocaust.

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DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE

Waitstill Sharp was a minister in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and

his wife Martha a noted social worker. In 1939, the Sharps

accepted an invitation by the Unitarian Service Committee to

help members of the Unitarian church in Czechoslovakia,

leaving their own children in the care of others.

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DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE

Arriving in Prague, the Sharps aided a number of Jews to

leave the country, which had come under Nazi control. They

continued their charitable work until August 1939, leaving

Prague when warned of their possible arrest by the Gestapo.

In June 1940, the Sharps landed in Lisbon, Portugal, to

continue helping refugees from war-torn France. Making their

way into Vichy-controlled France, they sought ways to help

fugitives from Nazi terror, Jews and non-Jews alike.

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DAYS OF REMEMBRANCEThe Sharps’ activities included registering refugees, bringing

applicants to the attention of embassies, finding the

scholarships or employment necessary for emigration,

securing releases from prisons, and arranging travel to safer

destinations in London, Paris, or Geneva. They faced

enormous bureaucratic hurdles at every step.

Martha Sharp was the first woman from the United States to

be so honored by the “Righteous Among the Nations.” The

Sharps were the second and third U.S. citizens, after Fry, to

receive this title in 2006.

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DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE

In 1941, twenty-six year old Lois Gunden,

an American French teacher from Goshen,

Indiana, came to work with the Mennonite

Central Committee in southern France. Far

from her home, she would become the

rescuer of children of a different nationality,

religion and background.

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DAYS OF REMEMBRANCEGunden went to France to serve with the Mennonite Central

Committee. She joined the Secours Mennonite aux Enfants in

Lyon and was sent to establish a children’s home in Canet

Plage, located on the Mediterranean Sea.

The children’s center became a safe haven for the children of

Spanish refugees as well as for Jewish children, many of

whom were smuggled out of the nearby internment camp of

Rivesaltes. She interceded to save Jewish children, including

reassuring parents that she would take care of them, and

shield them from the Nazis.

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DAYS OF REMEMBRANCEIn November 1942, the Germans occupied southern France.

Although she was considered an enemy alien after the United

States entered the war, she continued to run the children’s

center.

Two months later, she was detained by the Germans until she

was released in 1944 in a prisoner exchange, later returning

to her home in Indiana.

In 2013, she was recognized by Yad Vashem as “Righteous

Among the Nations.”

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DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE

In 2015, Yad Vashem posthumously

recognized Master Sergeant Roddie

Edmonds as Righteous Among the

Nations. He is the first American

soldier to be so recognized.

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Edmonds shipped out in December 1944 with the 106th

Infantry Division. He was captured with thousands of other

soldiers in the Battle of the Bulge.

On Christmas Day, he and the others arrived in Stalag IX-B,

a Prisoner of War (POW) camp known as “Bad Orb” that

housed more than 25,000 soldiers at a time.

Thirty days later, Edmonds and the other noncommissioned

officers were moved to Stalag IX-A with 1,275 other soldiers.

As a Master Sergeant, he was the senior noncommissioned

officer among the men.

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DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE

The Wehrmacht (German armed forces) 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 labor camps

where their chances of survival were low.

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U.S. 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.

On the prisoners’ first day at the camp, the Nazi soldiers

made their order very clear. Jewish American POWs were

to be separated from their fellow brothers in arms and report

to morning roll call.

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Edmonds knew what was at stake. Turning to the rest of the

POWs, he said: “We are not doing that, we are all falling out.

Geneva Convention affords only name, rank and serial

number, and so that's what we're going to do. All of us are

falling out.”

The next morning, all 1,275 soldiers stood at attention in

front of their barracks. The German commander turned to

Edmonds and said: “They cannot all be Jews.”

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Then the Nazi officer barked at Edmonds, “I'm commanding

you to have your Jewish men step forward.” Edmonds

refused, and gave him his name, rank, and serial number.

The commander pulled out his pistol and pressed it into

Edmonds' forehead. “You will have your Jewish men step

forward or I will shoot you on the spot.”

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Edmonds replied: “We are all

Jews here. If you are going to

shoot, you are going to have to

shoot all of us because we know

who you are and you’ll be tried

for war crimes when we win this

war.”

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Edmonds’ choice and action set an example for 1,275 soldiers

as they stood united against the barbaric evil of the Nazis.

Over 200 Jewish American soldiers were saved that day.

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Our modern military was forged

in the fight against Nazi tyranny.

To defeat Hitler we mobilized all

of the strength that we could

muster, and in that effort we

witnessed many of our finest

hours as a military and indeed,

as a country.

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DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE

Today we carry forward the proud

legacy of men and women of the United

States Army who played a

vital role in liberating the camps at

Buchenwald, Dora-Mittelbau,

Flossenbürg, Dachau, and Mauthausen.

American forces not only brought freedom to the survivors of

Nazi horrors, they also made sure that in its aftermath the

world would know what had happened.

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DAYS OF REMEMBRANCEIn the days after Allied forces captured the first concentration

camps, Generals Dwight Eisenhower, George Patton, and

Omar Bradley themselves inspected the camps, and saw the

horrors that had occurred.

They were, in Eisenhower’s

words, atrocities “beyond the

American mind to comprehend.”

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DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE

Eisenhower ordered every American soldier in the area who

was not on the front lines to tour these camps, so that they

could themselves see what they were fighting against, and

why they were fighting. These soldiers became not only

liberators, but witnesses to one of the greatest massacres in

history.

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DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE

The commitment of our forces to the

survivors of Nazi atrocities did not

end with liberation.

In the aftermath of war, we cared for

survivors and we helped reunite

families. We provided both physical

and spiritual nourishment to the

survivors of the Holocaust.

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DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE

Days of Remembrance raises awareness that democratic

institutions and values are not simply sustained,

but need to be appreciated, nurtured, and protected. It also

clearly illustrates the roots and ramifications of prejudice,

racism, and stereotyping in any society.

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DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE

More importantly, silence and indifference to the suffering of

others, or to the infringement of civil rights in any society,

can—however unintentionally—perpetuate these problems.

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“Let us not forget, after all, there

is always a moment when moral

choice is made…. And so we

must know these good people

who helped Jews during the

Holocaust. We must learn from

them, and in gratitude and hope,

we must remember them.”

—Elie WieselSurvivor of the Auschwitz, Buna,

Buchenwald, and Gleiwitz

concentration camps

SOURCES

http://www.ushmm.org/

http://virtualjerusalem.com/

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/veteran-

honored-saving-jewish-pow.html

http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/righteous/index.asp

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Defense Equal Opportunity

Management Institute,

Patrick Air Force Base, Florida

May 2016

Dawn W. Smith

DEOMI Research Directorate

All photographs are public domain and are from various sources, as

cited.

The findings in this report are not to be construed as an official

DEOMI, U.S. military services, or Department of Defense position,

unless designated by other authorized documents.

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