Challenging Genocide

There are many unsung resisters and acts of resistance to oppressive power. The broader public may only learn of these defiant persons or moments perhaps decades after they took place. National Public Radio published a story about one such act of resistance confronting genocidal law late last year.

During World War Two, a United States non-commissioned officer named Roddie Edmonds (d.1985) was captured by the Nazis and incarcerated in a prisoner of war (POW) camp in Germany. During his imprisonment, the German camp commander demanded that all Jewish POWs identify themselves. Given the rather strong likelihood that death or serious harm would ensue to those identifying themselves as such, Edmonds ordered all the POWs to step forward. Angered, the German commander responded to this act of resistance by asserting: "They cannot all be Jews!"

Edmonds countered that all the POWs were Jews. He then referred to the Geneva Conventions on the protection of POWs. Edmonds then persisted in refusing to identify which soldiers were Jewish. The Nazi camp commander unholstered his firearm and pressed the muzzle against Edmonds' forehead. The commander threatened to shoot unless Edmonds ordered the Jewish soldiers to step forward and identify themselves. Despite the obvious threat to his life, Edmonds steadfastly continued to resist. The commander holstered his weapon and backed down. Edmonds' act of resistance worked. 

Edmonds' resistance was significant in at least a couple of ways. First, at a basic level, it affirmed the inherent right to life of the Jewish POWs in the camp. Second, it demonstrated a way to enforce and fortify international norms respecting the proper treatment and respect for prisoners of war - not to mention the right to be free from invidious discrimination. The connection between resistance and law harkens back to something rather important that Frédéric Mégret once observed with respect to challenging genocidal law (and regimes): 

[R]esistance is hardly a non-normative activity. It takes its inspiration in more than just the survival instinct and a knee-jerk biological reaction to the threat of destruction. It is, crucially, an attempt to visualize the danger that lies ahead and to organize, sometimes collectively, in an effort to fend it off. It is often inspired by an alternative vision of what the law is or should be.

Soldiers (and many others) have a role to play in advancing and enforcing international law. This and numerous other episodes of resistance demonstrate this proposition.   

Yad Vlashem's recognition of Edmonds as "Righteous Among The Nations" is an important statement of the value of such resistance. 

Sources:

Camila Domonoske, "US Soldier Honored Posthumously For Protecting Jewish POWs in 1945" National Public Radio (2 December 2015), online: NPR . 

Frédéric Mégret, "Not “Lambs to the Slaughter”: A Program for Resistance to Genocidal Law" in Réné Provost and Payam Akhavan, eds, Confronting Genocide, Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice (Springer, 2011) at 212.