would come to his jewish comrades, roddy immediately said, we re not doing that. he sent orders to have every american step out of line with their jewish brothers in arms. the next morning, 1,292 americans stepped forward. the german commander stormed over to roddy and said, they cannot all be jews. roddy stared right back. he said, we are all jews here. at that point, the german put a gun to roddy s head and demanded, you will order the jews to step forward immediately or i will shoot you right now through the head. roddy responded, major, you can shoot me, but you ll have to kill us all.
he sent orders to have every american step out of line with their jewish brothers in arms. the next morning, 1,292 americans stepped forward. the german commander stormed over to roddy and said they cannot all be jews. roddy stared right back and he said we are all jews here. at that point the german put a gun to roddy s head and demanded you will order the jews to step forward immediately or i will shoot you right now through the head. roddy responded major, you can shoot me but you will have to kill us all. [applause]
lauren matthews. the granddaughter of oh veteran who passed away. roddy never talked about the war, lauren never knew her grandfather s story until she did a school project 10 years ago. roddy was in the 422nd regiment which was overwhelmed when the nazis launched their surprise assault. he and his men fought for three treacherous days before being taken as prisoners of war. after they arrived at a prison camp, the german commander sent an order over the loudspeaker, the jewish american soldiers were all told to step out of line during roll call the next day. knowing the terrible fate that would come to his jewish comrades, roddy immediately said we re not doing that.