No Surrender

Starred review from September 30, 2019
In this page-turning memoir, Edmonds, a church pastor, and Century (Hunting El Chapo) chronicle the WWII experiences of Edmond’s late father, Army Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds of the 106th Infantry Division. After a lifetime of not knowing much about his father’s past, Edmonds determined to learn more (“I felt a growing responsibility to myself and my family to know what happened to Dad”). Through a fortuitous Google search, Edmunds tracked down Lester Tanner, his father’s war buddy and fellow POW from the Battle of the Bulge, who revealed a surprising story: while imprisoned in Germany’s Stalag IXA, Sgt. Edmonds refused an order to identify the Jewish servicemen among the prisoners, stating, “We are all Jews here.” Then, two months later, as the German army weakened, Edmonds refused a German officer’s command to lead 1,200 soldiers on a certain death march from the camp; the Germans fled as the Allies approached. The authors have skillfully transformed war records, interviews, and archival data into a dramatic account of Edmonds’s grueling experience as a prisoner, which culminates in the March 1945 liberation of Stalag IXA. More than a story of brothers in arms, this work is a son’s labor of love.