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In January 1945, a starving American sergeant stood in a German prison camp with a Luger pressed against his forehead. The commandant had ordered all Jewish prisoners to step forward. What happened next made the commandant holster his weapon and walk away.
Across nearly 100 German POW camps, 93,941 Americans did something their captors could never explain. They built secret radios hidden inside objects so ordinary that no guard ever thought to look. They published an underground newspaper the entire German security apparatus failed to shut down — not once. They organized themselves into functioning military units before their first week behind the wire was over. And when ordered to march in the final weeks of the war, more than one American officer looked at the man giving the order and simply said no.
The French endured captivity. The British maintained discipline. But the Americans acted like the barbed wire was someone else's problem. The answer to why starts 3,000 miles from the nearest prison camp, in a place the prisoners themselves didn't know existed.
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In January 1945, a starving American sergeant stood in a German prison camp with a Luger pressed against his forehead. The commandant had ordered all Jewish prisoners to step forward. What happened next made the commandant holster his weapon and walk away.
Across nearly 100 German POW camps, 93,941 Americans did something their captors could never explain. They built secret radios hidden inside objects so ordinary that no guard ever thought to look. They published an underground newspaper the entire German security apparatus failed to shut down — not once. They organized themselves into functioning military units before their first week behind the wire was over. And when ordered to march in the final weeks of the war, more than one American officer looked at the man giving the order and simply said no.
The French endured captivity. The British maintained discipline. But the Americans acted like the barbed wire was someone else's problem. The answer to why starts 3,000 miles from the nearest prison camp, in a place the prisoners themselves didn't know existed.
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00:00January 27, 1945. Stalag 9A, Ziegenhain, Germany.
00:066.15 in the morning, and the temperature has not climbed above zero.
00:11A 25-year-old master sergeant from Knoxville, Tennessee, is standing in front of a barracks door.
00:17His name is Roddy Edmonds. He has been a prisoner of war for 39 days.
00:23He has lost over 30 pounds. His uniform hangs off his shoulders like it belongs to someone else.
00:29And right now, a German officer is pressing a Luger pistol against his forehead.
00:34The night before, the camp commandant had issued an order.
00:38Tomorrow morning, all Jewish-American prisoners were to report separately for roll call.
00:43The implication was clear to every man in the camp. Separation was the first step.
00:49What came after separation? Forced labor, deportation. Worse, no one had to spell out.
00:58Edmonds was the highest-ranking American non-commissioned officer among 1,275 men captured during the Battle of the Bulge.
01:07He had no radio contact with Allied command, no weapons, no authority recognized by the German military.
01:15He had nothing except his rank and the men who chose to follow it.
01:20That night, he passed word through every barracks in the American compound.
01:25The order was simple. Tomorrow morning, everyone falls out.
01:30Every single man. Jews and non-Jews.
01:37When the German commandant walked out at dawn and saw the entire American population of Stalag 9A standing in formation,
01:46he turned to Edmonds.
01:48They cannot all be Jews.
01:51Edmonds did not move.
01:53We are all Jews here.
01:55The commandant pressed the pistol harder against his skin.
01:59I will shoot you.
02:01And here is the thing worth remembering about what happened next.
02:05Edmonds did not beg.
02:07He did not negotiate.
02:09He did not appeal to the commandant's mercy or humanity.
02:14He issued a warning.
02:15To the man holding the gun.
02:18According to the Geneva Convention, we only have to give our name, rank, and serial number.
02:23If you shoot me, you will have to shoot all of us.
02:27And after the war, you will be tried for war crimes.
02:31A starving prisoner.
02:33A loaded pistol against his skull.
02:36And the prisoner is the one making threats about what happens after the war.
02:40As if he already knows how it ends.
02:44As if the man with the gun is the one who should be afraid.
02:48The commandant holstered his weapon and walked away.
02:51He never tried to separate the Americans again.
02:54If you're watching this, and you find stories like this one worth preserving,
02:59a like and a subscribe help this channel find people who feel the same way.
03:04Now, what Roddy Edmonds did that morning was extraordinary.
03:09But here is what makes it more than a story about one brave man.
03:13He was not an anomaly.
03:15He was a pattern.
03:17Across nearly 100 prisoner of war camps spread from the Baltic coast to the Bavarian Alps,
03:2393,941 Americans spent part of the war behind German barbed wire.
03:30And something happened inside those camps that German officers, guards, and intelligence services
03:36could not explain and could not stop.
03:39American prisoners organized themselves into functioning military units
03:43with chains of command, staff officers, and formal protocols
03:48before their first week in captivity was over.
03:51They built secret radios and published underground newspapers
03:55with wider circulation than most German regional papers.
03:58They ran universities, orchestras, and theater companies.
04:02They tracked and logged the movements of every guard in their camp,
04:06every day, in books they did not bother to hide.
04:10They named their German captors goons,
04:13and convinced the Germans it was a compliment.
04:16They held their own courts.
04:18They ran their own economy.
04:20They played baseball on diamonds they carved from German mud.
04:24And when German commandants ordered them to march in the final weeks of the war,
04:28more than one American senior officer looked at the man giving the order and said,
04:33no, not with a plan, not with a weapon, just no.
04:40As if the very idea that a German could compel an American to do anything had become absurd.
04:47The Germans had held prisoners from a dozen nations.
04:50The French endured.
04:52The British maintained discipline with grim stoicism.
04:55The Soviets suffered and died in staggering numbers.
05:00But no one, no nationality, no army, behaved quite like the Americans.
05:06The Americans acted like men who had been temporarily inconvenienced.
05:11Like the barbed wire was a mistake someone would eventually correct.
05:15Like the war was already over, and the Germans simply had not been informed.
05:20Why?
05:21That is the question this story is going to answer.
05:25And the answer is not what you might expect.
05:28Because it is not really about courage, or optimism, or national character.
05:33It is about a system.
05:35A system that started 3,000 miles from the nearest prison camp.
05:39In a place the prisoners themselves did not know existed.
05:42And that system had already been sending them messages.
05:46Hidden inside objects so ordinary that the Germans never thought to look.
05:51Twelve miles south of Washington, D.C., on a bend of the Potomac River, there was a park.
05:57Grassy fields.
05:58Picnic areas.
05:59Families on weekends.
06:01The mailing address was Post Office Box 1142, Alexandria, Virginia.
06:06Nothing about it suggested that inside its perimeter sat one of the most classified operations of the entire war.
06:14The Army called it MIS-X.
06:19Military Intelligence Service.
06:21Section X.
06:23Its mission was simple to state and almost impossible to execute.
06:28Keep American prisoners of war fighting from inside German camps.
06:33Not metaphorically.
06:35Literally.
06:35The official doctrine was explicit.
06:39The duty of an American POW was to escape, or to cause enough chaos behind the wire to keep German
06:45soldiers occupied and off the front lines.
06:49But you cannot fight if you cannot see.
06:52And the first thing a prisoner loses is information.
06:56The Germans understood this.
06:58Every camp pumped propaganda through loudspeakers, broadcasts from the Wehrmacht High Command, carefully selected newspaper clippings, a publication called The
07:09Overseas Kid, designed to corrode morale.
07:12The message was always the same.
07:15Germany is winning.
07:17Your country has forgotten you.
07:20No one is coming.
07:30The FW Sickle Electronics Company, in Chicopee, Massachusetts, built miniature radio receivers small enough to fit inside an aluminum core.
07:40The Goldsmith Baseball Company, sealed them inside regulation baseballs.
07:47The parcels were shipped to German prison camps through fake charitable organizations.
07:52The War Prisoners Benefit Foundation.
07:55Names designed to survive German censors without raising suspicion.
08:00A baseball arrives.
08:02A guard picks it up, squeezes it, tosses it back.
08:07What could be inside a baseball?
08:09A radio.
08:11But that was only the beginning.
08:14The Scoville Company of Waterbury, Connecticut, manufactured uniform buttons with compasses hidden inside.
08:21The U.S. Playing Card Company printed decks whose cards, when steamed apart, revealed sections of silk escape maps.
08:29Cribbage boards arrived with radio components built into the wood.
08:32The cribbage pegs themselves were brass nails that served as contact points for receiving BBC transmissions in Morse code.
08:40Hold that detail about the BBC.
08:42It is going to matter.
08:44Now picture this.
08:46A camp of several thousand American officers, deep inside Germany, surrounded by guards and dogs and wire.
08:53The Germans control every source of information.
08:56The loudspeakers, the newspapers, the mail.
08:59And every evening, in a barracks with lookouts posted at every window,
09:03an American lieutenant sits cross-legged on the floor with a cribbage board in his lap,
09:08brass pegs touching copper contacts,
09:10and listens to the chimes of Big Ben.
09:13Then the news.
09:15Allied positions.
09:17Troop movements.
09:18Dates.
09:20Names.
09:21The truth.
09:23The information moved through a system the prisoners built themselves.
09:27In Stalag Luft III, the camp for captured airmen near Sagan,
09:31each barracks block had its own ex-committee,
09:34men responsible for verifying the block was clear of German agents before the news could be read aloud.
09:41Once the bulletin was delivered, the reader ate the paper it was written on.
09:46In Stalag Luft I, on the Baltic coast near Barth, the system grew into something larger.
09:53Something that would have been extraordinary for a newsroom in New York.
09:57For a prison camp in northern Germany, it was almost impossible to believe.
10:02They called it the POWWAW.
10:07Prisoners of War Waiting on Winning.
10:11It started in May of 1944,
10:13when an interned war correspondent named Lowell Bennett
10:16convinced the senior American officer that the prisoners needed their own newspaper.
10:22Not a bulletin, not a mimeographed sheet,
10:25but a daily paper with headlines, columns, and an editorial voice.
10:30Bennett was discovered by the Germans within weeks,
10:33so command of the paper passed to a 23-year-old pilot named Ray Parker,
10:38who had been a reporter for the Los Angeles Examiner before the war,
10:41and had been shot down and captured in April 1944.
10:45Parker became editor of the POWWAW within days of arriving at Stalag Luft I.
10:51Under Parker, the paper grew into a daily, two-page broadsheet with an eight-page Sunday supplement.
10:56Its circulation reached over 2,000 copies,
11:00produced by carbon paper and distributed one per barracks.
11:04It was translated into French and Russian for prisoners of other nationalities.
11:08Its motto was printed on every issue,
11:11the only truthful newspaper in Germany.
11:15And then came June 6, 1944.
11:18The secret radio inside Stalag Luft I picked up the BBC report of the Normandy landings
11:24before the German camp administration knew,
11:27before the guards knew,
11:28before the German regional newspapers knew.
11:32The POWWAW printed a special edition,
11:34headline,
11:35Invasion!
11:36Yanks and British Land in Europe.
11:39The instruction at the top read,
11:42This edition to be read silently, quickly, in groups of three.
11:48Bombardier Oscar Richard,
11:49who had been a prisoner since January 1944,
11:53later described what happened when the news spread beyond the paper.
11:57The German guards, not yet aware of the invasion,
12:00were mystified by our whooping and yelling.
12:03Think about that.
12:04Prisoners behind barbed wire,
12:07on starvation rations,
12:09knowing about the largest military operation in history
12:12before their own captors.
12:15And they could not contain their joy.
12:18But knowing the news and celebrating the news were only the surface.
12:22What the Germans could not see,
12:24what they never figured out,
12:26was what the Americans were doing with the information.
12:29Because the radios and the newspaper were not the system.
12:33They were inputs to the system.
12:35The system was something else entirely.
12:37And it had a name that sounded like it belonged to an air base,
12:41not a prison camp.
12:43In every prisoner of war camp in Germany that held American officers,
12:47there was a senior American officer,
12:50the SAO.
12:52In camps that held enlisted men,
12:54there was a man of confidence,
12:56an NCO,
12:58elected by the prisoners themselves.
13:00The Geneva Convention recognized both positions.
13:04The Germans tolerated them as administrative conveniences.
13:08Somebody had to relay orders.
13:10Somebody had to sign for Red Cross parcels.
13:13But the Americans did not treat these positions
13:16as administrative conveniences.
13:17They treated them as command.
13:20Within days of arriving at a new camp,
13:23American officers established chains of command,
13:26appointed staff sections,
13:28assigned responsibilities,
13:29and began issuing orders
13:31to each other,
13:33as if the barbed wire were a base perimeter
13:35and the guards outside it
13:37were someone else's problem.
13:39They organized housing assignments,
13:42meal distribution,
13:43sanitation rotations,
13:45dispute resolution.
13:47They appointed their own military police.
13:50And then they did something
13:52that made no practical sense
13:54for men who had no weapons,
13:56no territory,
13:57and no mission.
13:58They began to conduct intelligence operations
14:01against the people holding them prisoner.
14:05They called it the duty pilot system.
14:08Here's how it worked.
14:10At Stalag Luft III,
14:12the camp near Sagan
14:13that held thousands of American and British airmen,
14:16prisoners assigned to duty pilot
14:18sat near the compound gate with a logbook.
14:21Every German who entered the compound,
14:24guard, officer, ferret, administrator,
14:27was noted.
14:28Name or description.
14:30Time in.
14:32Time out.
14:33Direction of movement.
14:35Duration of stay.
14:36The logs were maintained around the clock
14:39and compiled into a master record.
14:41The ferrets,
14:42specialized German guards
14:44trained to detect tunnel digging,
14:46were tracked most closely.
14:48The prisoners created
14:50an elaborate signal system.
14:52Hand gestures passed
14:53from man to man
14:54across the compound
14:55so that every American in the camp
14:57knew where every German in the camp
15:00was at any given moment.
15:02The guards' own movements
15:04inside their own camp
15:06were being surveilled
15:07by the men they were guarding.
15:09The Germans knew
15:11about the duty pilot system.
15:12They could see the logbook
15:14and they could not stop it
15:16because the prisoners
15:18were not breaking any rule.
15:20They were simply watching.
15:24Eventually,
15:25the commandant of Stalag Luft III
15:26gave up trying to end it.
15:28And on at least one occasion,
15:30the Germans themselves
15:32used the POW logbook
15:33to locate one of their own missing guards.
15:36The prisoners were running surveillance
15:39on their captors.
15:40And the captors
15:41were consulting the prisoners' records.
15:43But even this
15:45was only one camp,
15:46one system,
15:48one set of improvised rules.
15:50To understand
15:51why the Americans
15:52acted the way they did
15:54across every camp in Germany,
15:56you need to see
15:57what happened
15:57at Stalag Luft I,
15:59the camp on the Baltic,
16:01near the town of Barth,
16:02when a very particular colonel
16:04arrived in December of 1944.
16:08His name was Hubert Zimka.
16:10He was 31 years old.
16:13The son of German immigrants
16:15from Montana
16:16who spoke fluent German.
16:18Before his capture,
16:19he had commanded
16:20the 56th Fighter Group,
16:22known to every pilot
16:23in the 8th Air Force
16:24as Zimki's Wolfpack.
16:26He had flown 154 combat missions.
16:30He had 17 and three-quarter
16:32confirmed aerial victories.
16:35On October 30, 1944,
16:38he was flying a P-51 Mustang
16:40when turbulence
16:41ripped a wing
16:42off his aircraft.
16:43He bailed out
16:44over enemy territory,
16:46evaded for several days,
16:48and was captured.
16:50When Zimki walked
16:51through the gate
16:51of Stalag Luft I,
16:53he was the highest-ranking
16:54American officer
16:55in the camp.
16:56That made him
16:57the S-A-O.
16:59And what he did
17:00with that authority
17:01would have confused
17:02any German
17:03who still believed
17:04that a prisoner
17:04is a defeated man.
17:07Zimki reorganized
17:08the entire American population
17:10of Stalag Luft I,
17:12roughly 7,700 men,
17:14into a formation
17:16he called
17:16Provisional Wing X.
17:19It was not a metaphor.
17:22It was a functioning
17:22military wing,
17:23structured exactly
17:24as it would have been
17:25at an operational air base.
17:27Group commanders,
17:28staff officers,
17:29an executive officer,
17:30an intelligence section,
17:31a security section,
17:33an operations section,
17:34a communications section,
17:36formal briefings,
17:37formal reports,
17:39a chain of commands
17:40so complete
17:41that if the wire
17:42had vanished overnight,
17:43Provisional Wing X
17:44could have begun
17:45conducting operations
17:46the next morning.
17:48Remember,
17:49these men had no aircraft,
17:51no fuel,
17:52no bombs,
17:53no runways.
17:54They had bunks,
17:56a starvation ration
17:57of black bread,
17:58and whatever
17:58the Red Cross parcels brought.
18:00And they organized themselves
18:02as if they were
18:02about to fly a mission.
18:04The Germans watched this
18:06with something between
18:07irritation and bewilderment.
18:09They had held
18:10French prisoners
18:11who waited quietly,
18:12British prisoners
18:13who maintained discipline
18:14through gritted teeth
18:15and dry humor,
18:17Soviet prisoners
18:18who had been
18:19so systematically starved
18:21and brutalized
18:22that resistance
18:23was measured
18:24in whether a man
18:25could stand
18:26for roll call.
18:27But the Americans
18:28were not enduring captivity.
18:30They were administering it.
18:33They held classes,
18:34mathematics,
18:35engineering,
18:36law,
18:37foreign languages,
18:38taught by prisoners
18:39who had been professors,
18:41engineers,
18:42lawyers,
18:43before the war.
18:44They built a theater
18:45and staged performances
18:47twice a week.
18:48They formed an orchestra.
18:50They built a radio station
18:51they called K-R-G-Y,
18:54Kriegsgefangener,
18:55prisoner of war,
18:57and broadcast news
18:58and music
18:59across the compound
19:00through a public address system.
19:03They played organized baseball,
19:05football,
19:06basketball,
19:07volleyball,
19:08and kept standings.
19:09They published
19:11not one,
19:12but several,
19:13newspapers.
19:14They ran a barter economy
19:16they called
19:16foodaco,
19:17food and tobacco,
19:19with rates of exchange
19:20that fluctuated
19:22based on supply.
19:23And at the center
19:24of it all
19:25was Zemke,
19:26speaking to the German
19:28commandant
19:28in fluent German,
19:31citing the Geneva
19:32Convention from memory,
19:34filing formal protests
19:35about food quality,
19:37heating,
19:37and sanitation,
19:38not as requests,
19:40but as legal demands
19:41with specific article numbers
19:43attached.
19:44The Germans
19:45had captured
19:46a fighter pilot.
19:47What they got
19:48was a commanding officer
19:49who happened to be
19:50behind their wire
19:51instead of his own.
19:53And he was not alone.
19:54In nearly every camp,
19:56the senior American,
19:57whether a full colonel
19:59or a 25-year-old
20:00master sergeant
20:01from Knoxville,
20:02stepped into the role
20:03as if it had been
20:04waiting for him.
20:05But where did it come from?
20:07How does a country
20:08produce men
20:09who,
20:10when stripped
20:11of every instrument
20:12of power,
20:13rebuild
20:13the structure
20:14of power
20:14from nothing?
20:15That question
20:16has an answer.
20:17And the answer
20:18begins not in a prison camp,
20:20but in a training camp,
20:2213 months before D-Day,
20:24in a place
20:25most of these men
20:26would rather forget.
20:27Here is something
20:28the German military
20:29never understood
20:30about the American
20:31enlisted man,
20:32because it did not exist
20:34in their own system.
20:35In the Wehrmacht,
20:36authority flowed
20:37in one direction,
20:39downward.
20:40An order originated
20:41with an officer,
20:42passed through the chain,
20:44and was executed.
20:45If the officer was killed,
20:47the chain broke.
20:48If the unit was captured,
20:50the chain dissolved.
20:52A German soldier
20:53without an officer
20:54was a man
20:55without instructions.
20:56He waited.
20:57He endured.
20:58He obeyed whoever
20:59was in charge of the camp.
21:01This was not weakness.
21:03It was doctrine.
21:04The German system
21:05was built on obedience
21:06to the structure above,
21:08and when that structure
21:09vanished,
21:10obedience had nowhere to go.
21:12The American system
21:14worked differently,
21:15and the difference
21:17began in places
21:18like Camp Atterbury, Indiana,
21:20and Fort Benning, Georgia,
21:22and a hundred other
21:23training installations,
21:24where 16 million Americans
21:26were fed into a machine
21:28that by 1943
21:29was producing soldiers
21:31at a rate
21:32no nation in history
21:33had ever attempted.
21:35What came out
21:36of that machine
21:37was not what the Germans
21:39expected to meet
21:40across a battlefield
21:42or across a prison compound.
21:45The American NCO,
21:47the sergeant,
21:48the corporal,
21:49the master sergeant,
21:50was trained to lead
21:51in the absence of officers,
21:53not as a temporary measure,
21:55as doctrine.
21:57If your lieutenant falls,
21:59you take command.
22:00If your captain is captured,
22:03the senior sergeant
22:04runs the company.
22:05If you are the last man standing,
22:08you are the chain of command.
22:11There is no gap.
22:12There is no waiting
22:14for instructions.
22:15The authority does not come
22:17from the man above you.
22:19It comes from the training
22:20inside you.
22:22This is why Roddy Edmonds,
22:24a master sergeant
22:25with no officer above him
22:26and no weapon in his hand,
22:28could stand in front
22:29of 1,275 men
22:31and give an order
22:32that every one of them obeyed.
22:35Even though obeying it
22:36meant standing next to a man
22:37with a target on his back.
22:40But it went further
22:41than battlefield leadership.
22:43Starting in 1943,
22:45as the number of American prisoners
22:46in German hands
22:47began to climb,
22:48the War Department
22:49added something new
22:51to the training pipeline.
22:53Captured airmen and soldiers
22:54who were repatriated
22:55through prisoner exchanges
22:56brought back intelligence
22:58about conditions in the camps.
23:00Their debriefings
23:01went straight to military intelligence.
23:04And what the intelligence officers learned
23:06changed what every American soldier
23:08was told before he shipped overseas.
23:11You may be captured.
23:12If you are,
23:14you are still a soldier.
23:15You are still under orders.
23:17Your commanding officer
23:18is the senior American in your camp.
23:21You will maintain military discipline.
23:24You will organize.
23:25You will resist.
23:27You will give only your name,
23:29rank,
23:30and serial number.
23:32This was not a suggestion.
23:34It was a standing order.
23:36And it planted something
23:37in the mind of every private,
23:39every bombardier,
23:40every infantryman
23:41who crossed the Atlantic.
23:43The idea that capture
23:45was not the end of duty.
23:47It was a different theater
23:48of the same war.
23:51That idea is what the Germans ran into.
23:53And they had no framework for it.
23:56At Stalag Luft III,
23:57when Colonel Delmar Spivey
23:59arrived in the summer of 1945,
24:01he was a full colonel
24:03and twice the age
24:04of most of the men
24:05in center compound.
24:07He became the senior American officer
24:09immediately.
24:10Within weeks,
24:11he had established a formal staff,
24:13organized educational programs,
24:15and,
24:16at considerable personal risk,
24:18ordered three junior officers
24:20to begin secretly compiling
24:21a complete written history
24:23of the camp.
24:24Every incident.
24:25Every abuse.
24:27Every violation
24:28of the Geneva Convention.
24:30documented,
24:31dated,
24:32hidden,
24:33and carried through
24:34the forced march
24:35of January 1945,
24:37when the camp was evacuated
24:39ahead of the advancing Russians.
24:41That document survived the war.
24:43It became the foundation
24:45for official investigations afterward.
24:48Spivey was not documenting
24:49for historians.
24:50He was building a legal case.
24:53A colonel behind barbed wire
24:55with no courtroom
24:56and no jurisdiction,
24:57assembling evidence
24:59for a trial
24:59that had not yet been scheduled
25:01in a country
25:02that had not yet been defeated.
25:04Because he assumed,
25:06with absolute certainty,
25:08that it would be.
25:09Now hold that in your mind
25:11and look at it
25:12from the other side
25:13of the wire.
25:14You are a German guard
25:16at Stalag Luft III.
25:17You have been assigned
25:19to watch American officers.
25:21You were told,
25:22these are defeated men.
25:24Prisoners.
25:25They lost.
25:26They should be grateful
25:27they are alive.
25:29The eastern front guards
25:30tell stories
25:31about Soviet prisoners
25:32who die standing up,
25:34who eat bark,
25:35who disappear
25:36into the cold.
25:38These Americans
25:39get Red Cross parcels.
25:41They get chocolate
25:41and cigarettes.
25:43They should be docile.
25:45Instead,
25:45you walk into the compound
25:47and they are tracking
25:48your movements
25:48in a logbook.
25:50They have named you,
25:51not by your rank,
25:52but by a nickname
25:53they gave you.
25:54One ferret
25:55is called Rubberneck.
25:57Another is called
25:58Charlie Pfeffermans
25:59because he always smells
26:01of peppermint schnapps.
26:02A particularly clumsy guard
26:04has been christened Adolf.
26:07They call all of you
26:08goons,
26:09and when you ask
26:10what it means,
26:11they smile
26:12and tell you
26:13it stands for
26:14German officer
26:15or non-com.
26:17You accept this.
26:19You even feel
26:20a small pride in it.
26:21You do not know
26:22that in American slang,
26:24a goon
26:24is a fool.
26:25They are laughing at you,
26:27to your face,
26:28and you are thanking
26:30them for it.
26:31They have built
26:32a system
26:33to detect
26:33your presence
26:34anywhere in the compound
26:35at any time.
26:37They have posted men
26:38whose only job
26:39is to watch you.
26:40And they are so confident
26:42in this system
26:43that they do not hide it.
26:45The logbook
26:46sits in plain sight.
26:47You could take it.
26:49But what would you
26:50charge them with?
26:51Paying attention?
26:53This is goon baiting,
26:55the deliberate,
26:56systematic,
26:57daily humiliation
26:58of the captor
26:59by the captive.
27:00It served a tactical purpose.
27:02Every hour
27:03a German guard
27:04spent chasing a prank,
27:05tracking a false lead,
27:07or filing a report
27:08about a mocking nickname
27:09was an hour
27:11not spent
27:11discovering a tunnel,
27:12a radio,
27:13or a newspaper press.
27:15But it served
27:16something deeper, too.
27:18It maintained
27:19the psychological architecture
27:20that every American camp
27:22depended on.
27:23The architecture
27:24was this.
27:25We are not
27:26your prisoners.
27:27You are our inconvenience.
27:30And the Germans,
27:31methodical,
27:32hierarchical,
27:33doctrine-bound,
27:34could not dismantle it.
27:37Because the thing
27:38they needed to destroy
27:38was not a structure
27:39they could see.
27:40It was not a building
27:42or a tunnel.
27:43It was an assumption.
27:45An assumption
27:46that lived inside
27:46every American in the camp,
27:48from the full colonel
27:49to the private first class
27:51who had been a grocery clerk
27:52in Topeka
27:53eight months ago.
27:54The assumption was,
27:56this ends with us
27:58walking out.
27:59But that assumption
28:01was about to be tested
28:02in a way
28:03that Roddy Edmonds
28:04and Hubert Zemke
28:05and Delmar Spivey
28:07could not have predicted.
28:08Because in the winter
28:10of 1945,
28:11in a camp
28:1250 miles north
28:13of Frankfurt,
28:14the Germans decided
28:15to stop playing
28:16by the rules.
28:18And what happened there
28:19revealed what the American system
28:21was truly built
28:23to protect.
28:24And what it cost
28:25when the system failed.
28:27Stalag 9B
28:28sat on a hilltop
28:29above the small city
28:30of Bad Orb,
28:3250 miles north
28:32of Frankfurt.
28:34It was a transit camp,
28:35built to classify prisoners
28:37and send them
28:38to permanent facilities.
28:40Officers went one way,
28:41NCOs another.
28:43Enlisted men stayed.
28:45By Christmas Day 1944,
28:47the first Americans
28:48captured in the Battle
28:49of the Bulge
28:50began arriving.
28:52Within weeks,
28:53over 2,000 men
28:54were packed into barracks
28:55built for a fraction
28:56of that number.
28:58The Red Cross parcels
29:00that sustained life
29:01in other camps
29:01arrived sporadically,
29:03sometimes not at all.
29:05The ration was one loaf
29:07of black bread
29:08for every ten men.
29:10Stalag 9B
29:11was not Stalag Luft I.
29:13It was not
29:14Stalag Luft III.
29:16It had no Zemka,
29:17no Spivey,
29:19no time to build
29:20the elaborate structures
29:21of self-governance
29:22that the air officer camps
29:23had perfected
29:24over months and years.
29:26These were ground troops,
29:28infantrymen,
29:29artillerymen,
29:30medics,
29:31captured in the chaos
29:32of the Ardennes.
29:34Many had been in the army
29:35for less than a year.
29:37Their officers
29:38were separated
29:39and shipped elsewhere
29:40within two weeks.
29:41Their NCOs
29:42were removed
29:43in late January.
29:45And then,
29:46in mid-January 1945,
29:48the German administration
29:49did something
29:50that no system
29:51of goon baiting
29:52or duty pilot logs
29:53could prevent.
29:54They ordered
29:55the Jewish-American prisoners
29:57to identify themselves
29:58and move
29:59to separate barracks.
30:00Remember Roddy Edmonds
30:02at Stalag 9A
30:0360 miles
30:04to the southeast?
30:06Same month.
30:07Same order.
30:09Same war.
30:11Edmonds had the rank,
30:12the will,
30:13and the time
30:14to organize a response.
30:16At Bat Orb,
30:17the enlisted men,
30:18privates and PFCs,
30:20many of them teenagers,
30:21had none of those things.
30:23There was resistance.
30:25Some men refused.
30:26Some non-Jewish prisoners
30:28tried to shield
30:29Jewish friends.
30:29But without a senior NCO
30:32who could unify the compound
30:33with a single command,
30:35the resistance was scattered.
30:37Under pressure,
30:38many Jewish soldiers
30:39self-identified.
30:40Others were selected
30:41by the Germans
30:42based on names,
30:43appearance,
30:44or suspicion.
30:45A medic named
30:47William Shapiro,
30:48captured on December 17th,
30:50the day after the battle began,
30:52later described
30:53his interrogation.
30:54With a name like Shapiro,
30:56it was quite evident
30:57I was Jewish.
30:58I was then pushed
30:59into a particular barracks,
31:01mostly for Jews
31:02and other undesirables.
31:04Our job was to
31:05clean the latrines.
31:07We were guarded
31:08by the SS
31:08with dogs,
31:10rather than
31:10the Wehrmacht.
31:12In late January,
31:13the camp administration
31:14received an order
31:15to supply
31:16350 prisoners
31:18for a labor detail.
31:19They went after
31:20the Jewish Americans first.
31:22There were only
31:23about 130.
31:25To fill the quota,
31:26they added men
31:27they labeled
31:28troublemakers.
31:29Anyone who had resisted,
31:31anyone who had talked back,
31:33anyone who looked wrong.
31:35Some were chosen at random.
31:37On February 9th,
31:39the 350 were marched
31:40down the hill
31:41to the train station
31:42and loaded into boxcars.
31:4560 to 80 men per car.
31:47One bucket for a toilet.
31:51One slice of bread
31:52and a drink of water
31:53for a journey
31:54that lasted five days.
31:57Some men were crushed
31:58to death inside the cars.
32:00The train passed
32:01within sight of Buchenwald.
32:03It stopped at a small town
32:05near the Czech border
32:06called Berger an der Elster.
32:09Berger was not
32:10a prisoner of war camp.
32:12It was a sub-camp
32:13of Buchenwald,
32:14a slave labor facility
32:16designated Schwalb 5.
32:19The 350 Americans
32:21were put to work
32:22alongside concentration camp prisoners,
32:25digging tunnels
32:26through solid rock
32:27for an underground
32:27munitions factory.
32:2912-hour shifts,
32:31starvation rations,
32:33beatings.
32:34Men who collapsed
32:35were dragged back
32:36to the barracks
32:37and left on the floor.
32:3886 of the 350
32:40did not survive.
32:43Now,
32:44hold Berger in one hand
32:46and hold
32:46Stalag 9a in the other.
32:48Same army,
32:50same month,
32:51same German order
32:52to separate Jewish soldiers.
32:55In one camp,
32:56a master sergeant
32:57with no weapon
32:58stood between his men
32:59and the commandant's pistol,
33:01and every single man
33:02went home.
33:04In the other,
33:05without that leadership,
33:0686 Americans died
33:08in tunnels
33:08built for the Reich
33:09they were supposed
33:10to have defeated.
33:12This is not a story
33:13about one man's heroism.
33:15This is a story
33:16about what a system produces,
33:18and what happens
33:19in the vacuum
33:20when that system
33:21is absent.
33:22Because the Americans
33:24who acted
33:24like they had already won
33:25were not performing
33:27confidence.
33:27They were executing
33:29a doctrine.
33:31A doctrine that said,
33:32you are still a unit.
33:34Your senior man
33:35is still your commander.
33:37And your commander's job
33:38is to stand between you
33:40and anything
33:41that tries to break you apart.
33:43The Germans understood units.
33:46They understood officers.
33:48They understood command
33:49from above.
33:50What they did not understand,
33:52what no guard
33:54at Stalag Luft 1
33:55or Stalag Luft 3
33:56or Stalag 9a
33:58ever fully grasped
34:00was that the American
34:01version of command
34:02did not require
34:04the things
34:04the German version required.
34:06It did not need
34:07Berlin's approval.
34:09It did not need
34:10written orders.
34:12It did not need
34:13weapons or territory
34:14or rank insignia.
34:16It needed one man
34:17willing to say we
34:18and a thousand men
34:20willing to stand behind him.
34:23And now we come
34:24to the part of this
34:25story where that idea,
34:27the idea that captivity
34:28was just another assignment,
34:30faced its strangest
34:32and most revealing test.
34:34Not from the Germans.
34:36From the Americans
34:37themselves.
34:39In the autumn of 1944,
34:41a group of black fighter pilots
34:42arrived at Stalag Luft 3.
34:44They were members
34:45of the 332nd fighter group,
34:48the Tuskegee Airmen,
34:49the Red Tails.
34:51They had been shot down
34:52over southern France,
34:53over Italy,
34:55over the Balkans,
34:56while flying escort
34:57for the same white bomber crews
34:59who now sat behind
35:00the same barbed wire.
35:02Among them
35:03was a second lieutenant
35:04from Detroit
35:04named Alexander Jefferson.
35:06He was 23 years old.
35:09He had been shot down
35:10on his 18th mission.
35:12Jefferson knew exactly
35:13what to expect
35:14from white Americans.
35:15He had grown up
35:17in a segregated country.
35:18He had trained
35:19at a segregated airfield.
35:21He had sailed to Europe
35:22on a segregated ship.
35:24The army that sent him
35:25to fight fascism
35:26would not let him eat
35:28at the same table
35:28as the men he was protecting.
35:30So when the truck
35:31pulled up to the gate
35:32of Stalag Luft 3
35:33and he saw a compound
35:35full of white officers,
35:37he braced himself.
35:39Here is the question
35:40that was about to be answered,
35:41though no one in the camp
35:43would have phrased it this way.
35:45Was the system
35:46the Americans had built
35:47inside these camps,
35:48the self-governance,
35:50the unity,
35:50the assumption
35:51that every American
35:52was part of the same unit,
35:54strong enough
35:55to survive
35:56America's deepest fault line?
35:59Jefferson walked
36:00through the gate.
36:01A white officer
36:02from Mississippi,
36:04deep drawl,
36:05the kind of accent
36:06Jefferson associated
36:07with the worst
36:07of what the South
36:08had taught him to expect,
36:10pointed at him.
36:11We will take that boy
36:12in our barracks.
36:15Jefferson refused.
36:17He assumed
36:18this was the beginning
36:19of something familiar.
36:20A setup.
36:21A trick.
36:23A cage inside a cage.
36:25He was told
36:26it was a direct order
36:28from a superior officer.
36:29He had no choice.
36:31He went.
36:34And then something happened
36:35that Jefferson
36:36would spend the rest
36:37of his life
36:38trying to reconcile
36:39with everything he knew
36:41about his own country.
36:43The white officers
36:44of Stalag Luft III
36:46treated him
36:46as what he was.
36:48A fellow American officer.
36:49A fellow prisoner.
36:51A fellow pilot
36:52who had been shot down
36:53doing the same job
36:55they had been doing.
36:56No separate barracks.
36:58No separate mess.
36:59No separate anything.
37:01Behind German wire,
37:03the Tuskegee airmen
37:04lived with the men
37:05they had escorted
37:06through flak-blackened skies.
37:07And the barriers
37:09that the United States Army
37:10had spent years constructing
37:12dissolved as if
37:13they had never existed.
37:15This was not tolerance.
37:17This was not enlightenment.
37:19It was something
37:20more mechanical
37:21and more profound.
37:23The system the Americans
37:25had built inside the camps
37:26ran on a single
37:27operating principle.
37:29Every American
37:30is us.
37:32The senior officer
37:33speaks for all.
37:35The chain of command
37:36includes all.
37:38The man next to you
37:39at roll call
37:40is your man.
37:42The principle
37:43had been designed
37:44for survival.
37:45It had been designed
37:46to stop the Germans
37:47from picking the group
37:48apart by separating
37:50individuals.
37:51And it turned out
37:52that a principle
37:53designed to resist
37:54German division
37:55could also override
37:57American division,
37:58at least inside the wire.
38:00Hold that,
38:01because you need it
38:02for what came after.
38:04Now move forward
38:05to April 1945.
38:07The war is collapsing
38:08in on Germany
38:09from both sides.
38:10The Soviets are
38:11a hundred miles
38:12from Berlin.
38:13Patton's 3rd Army
38:14is tearing
38:15through central Germany.
38:16And inside
38:17every prison camp
38:18in the Reich,
38:19the Americans know.
38:21They know
38:22because the secret radios
38:23are still working.
38:25They know
38:25because the Wow Wow,
38:27which has not missed
38:28a single issue
38:29in 11 months,
38:30is reporting
38:31Patton's advance
38:32in real time.
38:34They know
38:34because new prisoners
38:35are arriving
38:36with details
38:37from the front
38:37that the German guards
38:38have stopped
38:39trying to deny.
38:41The April 14th edition
38:43of the Pow Wow
38:44reported that
38:44Patton's army
38:45was driving east.
38:47The Russians
38:48had taken Vienna.
38:49The prisoners
38:50at Stalag Luft 1
38:51set up situation rooms.
38:53Maps pinned
38:54to barracks walls
38:55with colored string
38:56tracing the front lines.
38:58They updated
38:59the maps daily.
39:01Guards walked past
39:02and looked.
39:03Some stopped looking.
39:05Some began asking
39:06the Americans
39:07where the front was.
39:09The captors
39:10were asking
39:10the captives
39:11for news of the war.
39:13And then came
39:14the order
39:15that every senior
39:16American officer
39:17in Germany
39:17had been preparing for.
39:19The German commandants,
39:21under instructions
39:21from Berlin,
39:23ordered the camps
39:23evacuated.
39:24The prisoners
39:25were to march
39:26west,
39:28south,
39:29away from the advancing armies,
39:30into the shrinking
39:31corps of the Reich.
39:33These were
39:34the death marches.
39:36Weakened men,
39:37some weighing
39:38less than 100 pounds,
39:39forced to walk
39:4030, 40, 50 miles
39:43through snow and mud
39:44with no food
39:45and no destination.
39:47Thousands of Soviet prisoners
39:49had already died
39:50on such marches.
39:51British and French prisoners
39:53were beginning to move.
39:54At Stalag Luft 1
39:56in late April,
39:57Commandant Oberst
39:59Gustav von Warnstedt
40:00called Colonel Zimka
40:01to his office
40:02and ordered the evacuation
40:04of the entire camp.
40:05nearly 9,000 men
40:07into the road,
40:08away from the
40:09approaching Russians.
40:11Zimka said no.
40:12Not a negotiation.
40:14Not a delay.
40:15No.
40:16He told von Warnstedt
40:18that his men
40:18were too weak,
40:19that a march
40:20would kill them,
40:21that the Geneva Convention
40:22prohibited it.
40:23And then
40:24he told the Commandant
40:25something that
40:26no prisoner of war
40:27is supposed to be
40:28in a position to say.
40:29He told the Commandant
40:30that the war was over,
40:32that von Warnstedt
40:33knew it,
40:34that the only question
40:35left was whether
40:36the Commandant
40:37would be remembered
40:38as a man who
40:39followed illegal orders
40:40or a man who
40:41did the rational thing.
40:43Zimka was a prisoner
40:44in a camp surrounded
40:45by armed guards,
40:47speaking fluent German
40:48to the man who held
40:49his life in his hands.
40:50And he was offering
40:52the Commandant
40:52terms of surrender.
40:55What von Warnstedt
40:56said next
40:57would determine
40:57whether 9,000 men
40:59lived or died.
41:00And the answer
41:02came not from
41:03military logic,
41:04but from something
41:05the Commandant
41:06could see with his own eyes
41:07every day
41:08for the past five months,
41:09the unmistakable certainty
41:11of the men
41:12behind the wire
41:13that this story
41:14had only one ending.
41:16Von Warnstedt agreed.
41:17The terms
41:18were these.
41:19The German garrison
41:21would leave
41:21Stalag Luft 1
41:22under cover of darkness.
41:24They would march west
41:25toward the American lines
41:27and surrender there.
41:28The prisoners
41:29would remain in the camp.
41:32Zimka would assume
41:33full command.
41:34There would be
41:35no forced march,
41:36no final act of violence,
41:38no last order
41:39from Berlin
41:40carried out
41:41against men
41:42who had already
41:42outlasted the regime
41:44that caged them.
41:46On the night
41:46of April 30, 1945,
41:49the German guards
41:49of Stalag Luft 1
41:51filed out
41:52through the gates
41:52and disappeared
41:53down the road.
41:54In the guard towers,
41:56Americans climbed
41:57the ladders
41:58and took their posts.
42:00Former prisoners of war,
42:01unarmed,
42:03starving,
42:04wearing uniforms
42:04that had not been
42:05replaced in months,
42:07manned the perimeter
42:08of their own camp.
42:10Not because they feared attack,
42:12but because Zimka
42:13insisted on order.
42:15Provisional Wing X
42:16was now the sole authority
42:18in Barth, Germany,
42:19and it would behave
42:20accordingly.
42:22A POW named
42:24Richard Terrell
42:25wrote in his diary
42:26that night.
42:28Jerry pulled out
42:29tonight.
42:30Americans manned
42:31the towers
42:31at 0110.
42:33Fifteen words.
42:35No exclamation marks.
42:37No celebration.
42:39A pilot
42:40recording a change
42:41of shift.
42:43The next morning,
42:44May 1, 1945,
42:46the men of
42:48Stalag Luft 1
42:49woke up
42:49and looked at
42:50the flagpole
42:50in the center
42:51of the compound.
42:52The swastika
42:53was gone.
42:55In its place,
42:56someone had raised
42:58a hand-sewn
42:59American flag.
43:00Stars cut
43:01from white cloth.
43:03Stripes
43:04stitched
43:04from whatever
43:05red and blue
43:05fabric 9,000 men
43:07could find
43:07inside a prison camp.
43:09Nobody recorded
43:10who made it.
43:12Nobody recorded
43:13who ran it up
43:13the pole.
43:14It was simply
43:16there,
43:17as if it had
43:17always been waiting
43:18for the right morning.
43:21Zemke organized
43:22scouts
43:22and sent them
43:23out beyond
43:23the wire
43:24to intercept
43:25the approaching
43:25Soviet forces.
43:27They found
43:28the Russians
43:28five miles
43:29from the camp.
43:30The Red Army
43:31arrived the
43:32following day.
43:34The Soviet
43:35soldiers
43:35replaced the
43:36Germans
43:36as guards,
43:37locked the
43:38gates,
43:38posted sentries,
43:40and made it
43:40clear that the
43:41Americans were
43:42not leaving yet.
43:43The Russians
43:44wanted to route
43:45them east,
43:46through Odessa,
43:47across the Black
43:47Sea.
43:48Zemke
43:49suspected they
43:50planned to
43:50keep the
43:51prisoners
43:51as leverage
43:52or labor.
43:53He refused
43:54again.
43:55He sent
43:56his British
43:56counterpart,
43:57RAF Group
43:58Captain Cecil
43:59Weir,
44:00to reach
44:00Field Marshal
44:01Montgomery.
44:02Montgomery
44:03contacted
44:04Soviet Marshal
44:05Rokossovsky.
44:06Negotiations
44:07began.
44:09And on
44:09May 12,
44:101945,
44:12Mother's Day
44:12weekend,
44:13B-17 bombers
44:15from the
44:158th Air Force
44:16began landing
44:17on a grass
44:17strip near
44:18the camp.
44:19The same
44:20planes these
44:21men had
44:21crewed,
44:22navigated,
44:23and defended.
44:24The same
44:25engines they
44:25had listened
44:26to from the
44:26ground as
44:27formations
44:27passed over
44:28the camp
44:28month after
44:29month,
44:30headed for
44:31targets they
44:31could not
44:32see.
44:33Now the
44:34bombers were
44:34coming for
44:35them.
44:35The evacuation
44:36took two
44:37days.
44:38The men
44:39were flown to
44:40France,
44:40to Camp
44:41Lucky Strike,
44:42and from
44:42there began the
44:43long process of
44:44going home.
44:45The last
44:46man to
44:46board a
44:47plane out
44:47of Stalag
44:48Luft 1 was
44:49Colonel Hubert
44:50Zemke.
44:51Sixty miles to
44:52the southeast,
44:53the story had
44:54already ended
44:55differently.
44:56At Stalag
44:579A,
44:58Roddy Edmonds
44:59had faced the
44:59same end
45:00game,
45:01a German
45:02order to
45:02evacuate,
45:03a forced
45:04march into
45:05the collapsing
45:05Reich.
45:06The British,
45:08French,
45:08and Russian
45:09prisoners of
45:091X-A
45:11complied.
45:13They packed
45:13up and
45:14began walking.
45:16The Americans
45:17did not.
45:18Edmonds
45:19ordered his
45:19men to
45:20fall out
45:20for the
45:20march.
45:21They formed
45:22up.
45:22The Germans
45:23gave the
45:24order to
45:24move.
45:25And then
45:26Edmonds
45:27told his
45:27men to
45:27break ranks
45:28and run
45:29back inside
45:29the barracks.
45:31The Germans
45:32ordered them
45:32out again.
45:33They came
45:34out.
45:35Edmonds
45:35told them
45:36to run
45:36back in.
45:37Out.
45:39In.
45:39Out.
45:41In.
45:43For hours.
45:44Back and
45:45forth.
45:46Like a
45:47drill that
45:47had lost
45:48its purpose.
45:49It was
45:50absurd.
45:50It was
45:51unmilitary.
45:52It made
45:53no tactical
45:54sense.
45:55But it
45:56worked.
45:56Because the
45:57Germans,
45:58exhausted
45:58and demoralized
45:59and watching
46:00their own
46:01world collapse,
46:02eventually
46:02stopped
46:03trying.
46:04The
46:04commandant
46:05told Edmonds
46:06the camp
46:06was his.
46:07The Germans
46:08left.
46:08On March
46:1030th,
46:101945,
46:11the 6th
46:12Armored
46:12Division
46:13rolled
46:13through
46:13the gate
46:14and liberated
46:15Stalag 9A.
46:16The men
46:17who had
46:17been running
46:18in and out
46:18of barracks
46:19like children
46:19playing a
46:20game
46:20walked out
46:21as soldiers.
46:23Now,
46:24step back
46:25and see
46:25all of it
46:26at once.
46:27Zemke
46:28negotiating
46:28terms of
46:29surrender
46:29with his
46:30own
46:30captor.
46:31Edmonds
46:32running men
46:32in and out
46:33of barracks
46:34until the
46:34guards gave
46:34up.
46:35Parker
46:36printing
46:37a daily
46:37newspaper
46:38that the
46:38entire
46:38German
46:39security
46:39apparatus
46:40could
46:40not
46:41shut
46:41down.
46:42Anonymous
46:43hands
46:43building
46:44a radio
46:44from a
46:45cribbage
46:45board.
46:46Anonymous
46:46hands
46:47stitching
46:47a flag
46:48from
46:48scraps
46:48of
46:49cloth.
46:50A
46:50medic
46:50named
46:51Shapiro
46:51being
46:52shoved
46:52into
46:52a
46:53barracks
46:53for
46:53Jews
46:54while
46:5460
46:55miles
46:55away
46:56another
46:56sergeant
46:57made
46:57sure
46:57that
46:57would
46:58never
46:58happen
46:58on
46:59his
46:59watch.
47:00A
47:01black
47:01pilot
47:01from
47:01Detroit
47:02being
47:02told
47:03by a
47:03white
47:03officer
47:04from
47:04Mississippi
47:04we
47:06will
47:06take
47:06that
47:06boy
47:06in
47:07our
47:07barracks.
47:08All
47:08of it.
47:09The
47:09theater,
47:10the
47:10baseball,
47:11the
47:11orchestra,
47:12the
47:12university,
47:13the
47:13newspaper,
47:14the
47:14duty
47:14pilot
47:15logs,
47:15the
47:16goon
47:16baiting,
47:16the
47:17flags,
47:17the
47:18refusals,
47:18was the
47:19same
47:19thing.
47:21It
47:21was an
47:21answer
47:22to
47:22the
47:22same
47:22question.
47:23The
47:24question
47:24was not
47:25how
47:25do we
47:25survive?
47:26Survival
47:27is
47:27passive.
47:28Survival
47:28is
47:28waiting.
47:30The
47:30question
47:30was how
47:31do we
47:32remain
47:32who
47:32we
47:33are?
47:33And
47:34the
47:34answer
47:35was
47:35by
47:36acting
47:36as if
47:36the
47:37wire
47:37is
47:37not
47:37there.
47:39That
47:39is
47:39what
47:40the
47:40Germans
47:40could
47:40never
47:41explain.
47:42Not
47:42the
47:42courage.
47:43Every
47:43army
47:44has
47:44brave
47:44men.
47:45Not
47:45the
47:46organization.
47:46The
47:47British
47:47organize
47:48brilliantly.
47:49What
47:50baffled
47:50them
47:50was
47:50the
47:50attitude.
47:51The
47:52unshakable,
47:53irrational,
47:54maddening
47:55American
47:55certainty
47:56that
47:56captivity
47:57was
47:57temporary
47:58and victory
47:59was
47:59permanent.
48:00That the
48:01guards were
48:01the ones
48:02trapped,
48:03trapped on
48:03the wrong
48:04side of
48:04history,
48:05in a
48:05war they
48:06had already
48:06lost,
48:07guarding
48:07men who
48:08already
48:08knew it.
48:09The Germans
48:10had a word
48:11for prisoner
48:11of war.
48:13Kriegsgefangene.
48:15Warcaught.
48:16Seized by
48:16war.
48:17The Americans
48:18shortened it to
48:19Kriege and
48:20wore it like a
48:21unit patch.
48:22They were not
48:23caught,
48:24they were
48:24waiting.
48:25And they
48:26named
48:26themselves
48:26accordingly.
48:28Prisoners
48:28of war.
48:30Waiting
48:30on
48:31winning.
48:31Roddy
48:31Edmonds
48:32came home
48:32to
48:32Knoxville,
48:33Tennessee
48:33in the
48:34spring
48:34of
48:341945.
48:36He
48:37never
48:37told his
48:37family what
48:38had happened
48:38at
48:38Stalag 9A.
48:39Not his
48:40wife,
48:41not his
48:41son.
48:42He put
48:43his uniform
48:43away,
48:44went back
48:45to work,
48:45and lived
48:46the next
48:4640 years
48:47as a man
48:48whose
48:48neighbors
48:48had no
48:49idea what
48:50he had
48:50done with
48:51a pistol
48:51against his
48:52forehead on
48:53a frozen
48:53morning in
48:54Germany.
48:55He died
48:56in 1985.
48:58He was
48:5865 years
48:59old.
49:00His son,
49:01Chris,
49:02found a
49:02small leather
49:03diary among
49:04his father's
49:04belongings.
49:05It had been
49:06kept in
49:06the camp.
49:07Names,
49:08dates,
49:09fragments.
49:10Chris'
49:11daughter used
49:12it for a
49:12school project
49:13and began
49:14contacting the
49:14men listed
49:15inside.
49:16One of
49:17them was
49:17Lester Tanner,
49:18who had
49:19become a
49:19prominent
49:20attorney in
49:20New York.
49:21In an
49:22old article,
49:23Tanner said
49:24something that
49:24stopped Chris
49:25Edmonds cold.
49:26He said
49:27that he
49:28and many
49:28other Jewish
49:29soldiers owed
49:30their lives
49:31to a sergeant
49:31named Roddy
49:32Edmonds.
49:34Chris began
49:35traveling across
49:36the country,
49:37finding the
49:37men his
49:38father had
49:38never
49:38mentioned.
49:40Paul Stern,
49:41one of four
49:42Jewish senior
49:43NCOs at
49:44Stalag 9A,
49:45said it
49:45plainly,
49:47Roddy was
49:47incredible.
49:49He never
49:50really got his
49:50recognition,
49:51except among
49:52us.
49:54In 2015,
49:55Yad Vashem,
49:56Israel's
49:57Holocaust
49:57Memorial,
49:58recognized Roddy
49:59Edmonds as
50:00righteous among
50:01the nations.
50:02He was the
50:03first American
50:04soldier ever to
50:05receive the
50:05honor.
50:06On March 2nd,
50:082026,
50:0981 years after
50:11that morning in
50:11Ziegenhain,
50:12the President of
50:14the United States
50:14awarded him the
50:15Medal of Honor.
50:17200 men came home
50:19home because a
50:19sergeant from
50:20Knoxville decided
50:21they were all
50:22the same.
50:23Hubert Zemke
50:24stayed in the
50:25Air Force after
50:25the war.
50:26He flew during
50:27the Berlin
50:28Airlift,
50:28served at the
50:29Pentagon,
50:30and became
50:30president of the
50:31Air War College.
50:33He retired in
50:341966 as a
50:35colonel.
50:36The 9,000 men
50:38of Provisional
50:39Wing 10,
50:40the unit that
50:41existed only
50:41behind barbed
50:42wire, that
50:43had no aircraft
50:44and no mission
50:45except to remain
50:46an army,
50:47scattered back
50:48into a country
50:49that barely
50:49understood where
50:50they had been.
50:52Ray Parker,
50:53the 23-year-old
50:54pilot who edited
50:55the only truthful
50:56newspaper in
50:57Germany from a
50:58prison barracks
50:59with carbon
50:59paper and
51:00smuggled ink,
51:01went home to
51:02California.
51:03The powwow
51:04ceased publication
51:05on the day the
51:06camp was
51:07liberated.
51:08Not one issue
51:09had been stopped
51:10by the Germans.
51:11Not one.
51:13Alexander Jefferson
51:14returned to the
51:15United States
51:16on a troop ship.
51:17When the
51:18gangplank lowered,
51:19a white army
51:20sergeant stood
51:20on the dock
51:21and directed
51:22traffic.
51:23Whites to the
51:24right, the
51:25other word to
51:25the left.
51:27Jefferson,
51:28who had flown
51:2918 combat
51:30missions, been
51:31shot down over
51:32France, and spent
51:33nine months in a
51:34German prison
51:35camp where white
51:36officers shared
51:37their barracks with
51:38him without
51:39hesitation, walked
51:40down that gangplank
51:42and back into the
51:43country he had
51:43fought for.
51:45He later wrote
51:46that the Nazis had
51:47treated him better as
51:48a prisoner of war
51:49than his own country
51:50treated him as a
51:51free man.
51:52He became a
51:54schoolteacher in
51:54Detroit.
51:55He taught for
51:5631 years.
51:57In 2007, Jefferson
51:59and the surviving
52:00Tuskegee Airmen
52:01received the
52:02Congressional Gold
52:03Medal.
52:04He lived to be
52:05100 years old.
52:08At Berge, the
52:0986 Americans who
52:10died in the
52:11tunnels were
52:11buried in shallow
52:12graves.
52:14After liberation,
52:15the army
52:15prosecuted two
52:16German guards,
52:18Erwin Metz and
52:19Ludwig Merz.
52:20Both were
52:21convicted and
52:21sentenced to
52:22death.
52:23Both sentences
52:24were commuted.
52:26Merz served
52:27three years.
52:28Metz served
52:29nine.
52:30The families of
52:31the dead
52:31were not
52:32consulted.
52:33The men who
52:34survived Berge
52:35carried it for
52:36the rest of
52:37their lives.
52:38So did the
52:39men who had
52:39tried and
52:40failed to
52:40prevent the
52:41separation at
52:42Bad Orb.
52:43They had seen
52:44what happened
52:45when the
52:45system broke,
52:46when there was
52:47no senior man
52:48to stand in
52:48front of the
52:49formation and
52:50say,
52:50we are all
52:51the same.
52:53The difference
52:54between Stalag
52:559a and
52:56Stalag 9b
52:57was not
52:57geography.
52:58It was not
52:59luck.
53:00It was one
53:01man who
53:02believed the
53:02system more
53:03than he feared
53:04the gun.
53:06So, why
53:07did Americans
53:08in German
53:08prison camps
53:09act like
53:10they had
53:10already won?
53:11Not because
53:12they were
53:12brave,
53:13though they
53:14were.
53:15Not because
53:15they were
53:16arrogant,
53:16though the
53:17Germans
53:17sometimes
53:18thought so.
53:19They acted
53:20like they
53:20had already
53:21won because
53:22the country
53:22that built
53:23them had
53:23planted
53:24something
53:24inside them
53:25before they
53:25ever left
53:26home.
53:27The conviction
53:28that authority
53:28does not
53:29belong to
53:30the man
53:30with the
53:30gun.
53:31It belongs
53:32to the
53:32man who
53:33is right.
53:34And if
53:35you are
53:35right,
53:36you do
53:37not need
53:37permission
53:38to act
53:38like it.
53:39You do
53:40not need
53:40weapons.
53:42You do
53:42not need
53:43walls.
53:44You need
53:45a sergeant
53:46who will
53:46stand up
53:47and a
53:47thousand men
53:48who will
53:49stand with
53:49him and
53:50the certain
53:50knowledge that
53:51the man
53:52pointing the
53:52pistol is
53:53the one
53:54who should
53:54be afraid.
53:56The
53:56Germans
53:57had a
53:57word for
53:57it.
53:59Kriegsgefangene.
54:00Caught
54:00by war.
54:02The
54:02Americans
54:03made it
54:03their
54:03own.
54:04Kriege.
54:05And
54:06then they
54:06added
54:07three
54:07words
54:07that
54:07turned
54:08captivity
54:08into
54:09a
54:09statement
54:09of
54:10intent.
54:11Waiting
54:11on
54:12winning.
54:14Thank
54:15you for
54:15watching
54:15this one
54:16all the
54:16way
54:16to
54:16the
54:16end.
54:17If
54:17this
54:18story
54:18meant
54:18something
54:18to
54:19you,
54:19a
54:19like
54:19is
54:20the
54:20single
54:20best
54:20way
54:21to
54:21help
54:21it
54:21reach
54:21other
54:22people
54:22who
54:22care
54:22about
54:23these
54:23histories.
54:23The
54:24algorithm
54:24needs
54:25that
54:25signal
54:25to
54:26know
54:26this
54:26is
54:26worth
54:26sharing.
54:28If you
54:28are not
54:28subscribed
54:29yet,
54:29now is
54:30the time.
54:30And hit
54:31the bell
54:31so you
54:32do not
54:32miss
54:32what
54:32comes
54:33next,
54:33because
54:34there
54:34are
54:34more
54:34of
54:34these
54:34stories
54:35waiting
54:35to
54:35be
54:36told.
54:37I
54:37would
54:37love
54:37to
54:37know,
54:38where
54:38are
54:39you
54:39watching
54:39from
54:39today?
54:40And
54:41if
54:41someone
54:41in
54:41your
54:41family
54:42served
54:42in
54:42the
54:42Second
54:42World
54:43War,
54:43a
54:44father,
54:44a
54:45grandfather,
54:45a
54:46great
54:46uncle,
54:46tell me
54:47about
54:47them
54:48in
54:48the
54:48comments.
54:49Every
54:49one of
54:50these
54:50stories
54:50began
54:51with
54:51someone's
54:51family.
54:52Maybe
54:53yours
54:53is
54:54next.
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