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12 reviews for:
No Surrender: A Father, a Son, and an Extraordinary Act of Heroism That Continues to Live on Today
Christopher Edmonds
4.28 AVERAGE
12 reviews for:
No Surrender: A Father, a Son, and an Extraordinary Act of Heroism That Continues to Live on Today
Christopher Edmonds
4.28 AVERAGE
I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased opinion.
Chris Edmonds knew that his father, Roddie, had been a soldier in World War II and was held as a prisoner of war, but his dad never said much about his experiences in the war, so Chris never really knew the details. When Chris's daughter wanted to write a school project about her grandpa, he began to research his father's World War II experience and was astonished to learn that other soldiers credited Roddie with saving their lives. Chris spent years interviewing the surviving soldiers who served under his dad's command and put together this book about what his dad and those soldiers went through. This book also talks about the faith that helped Roddie get through the experience.
There are so many remarkable stories of those impacted in World War II, and I am thankful that Chris Edmonds was able to discover his dad's story before those who served with his dad all died. It is a story that deserves to be told, although I think the book could have been more cohesive. Still, I recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading true stories from World War II.
Chris Edmonds knew that his father, Roddie, had been a soldier in World War II and was held as a prisoner of war, but his dad never said much about his experiences in the war, so Chris never really knew the details. When Chris's daughter wanted to write a school project about her grandpa, he began to research his father's World War II experience and was astonished to learn that other soldiers credited Roddie with saving their lives. Chris spent years interviewing the surviving soldiers who served under his dad's command and put together this book about what his dad and those soldiers went through. This book also talks about the faith that helped Roddie get through the experience.
There are so many remarkable stories of those impacted in World War II, and I am thankful that Chris Edmonds was able to discover his dad's story before those who served with his dad all died. It is a story that deserves to be told, although I think the book could have been more cohesive. Still, I recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading true stories from World War II.
This was a great read about a son that found out about his father's heroism after he had already passed. This book walks you through his journey of finding out the story and also tells his father's story of an incredible act of bravery that saved around 200 American Jewish soldiers and another act that saved around 1200 soldiers all in a POW camp. It was such an inspiring story! And to top it off the soldier was from Knoxville. So he was a fellow Tennessean.
No Surrender by Christopher Edmonds and Douglas Century is a gripping historical memoir like no other I have read before. Books about World War II are available everywhere you turn right now but this is one you should really pick up and read. After his passing, Edmonds goes on a journey to find out all he can about his father, who was a prisoner of war of the Nazis during World War II. This is a look into the experiences of not only Edmond's father but also those who he served with and whose lives he saved. He grants us a look into the life of a remarkable man, a hero, that lived his life not only for himself, but in the service of others without looking for recognition for doing so. I highly recommend this read!
Chris Edmonds discovers, in serendipitous fashion, that his father was a war hero during his time in a Nazi POW camp. He sets out to discover the role his father played in saving the lives of Jewish POWs and it’s last impact years later. Roddie’s story was fascinating, and there were quite a few historical facts mentioned in this book about other areas of the war that were new to me.
The first tow or three chapters were fairly clumsily written and I felt like they were disjointed. But then the story picks up, the writing improves, and I was riveted, especially for the last half. I do wish there had been more follow up for certain characters. I felt like Roddie’s actions were incredibly impressive and this book is so sincere in how it handles the story.
I enjoyed the scope of the book, it’s point of view, and the story. Thank you Netgalley for a free digital advanced copy!
The first tow or three chapters were fairly clumsily written and I felt like they were disjointed. But then the story picks up, the writing improves, and I was riveted, especially for the last half. I do wish there had been more follow up for certain characters. I felt like Roddie’s actions were incredibly impressive and this book is so sincere in how it handles the story.
I enjoyed the scope of the book, it’s point of view, and the story. Thank you Netgalley for a free digital advanced copy!
Listened to this with the kids as part of our WWII unit study. We all enjoyed it and learned a lot.
This book is part biography, part detective story, part history, and part a story of heroism and of faith.
I was a kid during the fifties, born six years after the war ended. The economic and cultural aftermath of WW II surrounded me as I was growing up--kids regularly played good guys vs. "Nazis" (not differentiating them from Germans) and "Japs" as parents looked on in approval. And yet those older male relatives who had survived being soldiers or sailors in the war talked little about it, or didn't say anything at all. One friend's father drank himself to death, after being one of the first in at a death camp, an experience that shattered him, his family pieced together later. My grandfather, who signed up as a kid in his middle teens, using his older brother's ID so he could get away with it, had a hidden cache of extremely gruesome Kodak black and whites, taken after his naval units retook Iwo Jima and a couple of other blood-drenched islands.
Edmonds' father was another of these, staying silent and stoic through the remainder of his life. According to his son, pretty much all he'd say was that he and his fellow prisoners of war were humiliated.
But after his father's death, Edmonds took a look at what little was left, mainly an extremely cryptic diary, decided for his children's sake to uncover the whole story, and so began the detective work.
The account is colorful and gripping as he tracks down surviving members of his father's fellow prisoners, and men of his unit. Their stories are woven into his father's biography, creating a thought-provoking picture of ordinary American men swept into the meat-grinder of war. Those who survived did not come back the same as they had been.
Edmonds sometimes dips into fictionalizing, putting in dialogue and thoughts behind Nazi leaders, but he's not writing an academic text, so these dramatic additions can be forgiven when set against the fascinating whole. There are plentiful snapshots included, which add to the overall canvas.
Fight, capture, and then the grim reality of POW life in disintegrating Germany as men tried to hang onto their humanity through the few small acts and decisions they were permitted to make. One of the grimmest moments was when the Germans forced the prisoners to out the Jews among them, knowing what was going to happen to them, leading to Edmonds' act of heroism.
After liberation, which was another exercise in agonizing tension, they would discover stockpiled Red Cross packages never given to them--and their letters home never sent. There was no debriefing in those days, or offers of counseling. They were shipped home to pick up their lives again, including those like Edmonds, who had gotten "Dear John" letters before, or during their service. (When the writer found out he had a half-sister by his father's first marriage, he was able to connect with her.
Edmonds brings everything up to the present, including emotional evolution as well as recovery. It's an absorbing book, depicting both the best and the worst of the human spirit.
A content warning: it's written about a man of deep faith by another equally faithful, so if readers are offended or upset by Bible quotes and Christian thought, they probably should take a pass.
Copy provided by NetGalley
I was a kid during the fifties, born six years after the war ended. The economic and cultural aftermath of WW II surrounded me as I was growing up--kids regularly played good guys vs. "Nazis" (not differentiating them from Germans) and "Japs" as parents looked on in approval. And yet those older male relatives who had survived being soldiers or sailors in the war talked little about it, or didn't say anything at all. One friend's father drank himself to death, after being one of the first in at a death camp, an experience that shattered him, his family pieced together later. My grandfather, who signed up as a kid in his middle teens, using his older brother's ID so he could get away with it, had a hidden cache of extremely gruesome Kodak black and whites, taken after his naval units retook Iwo Jima and a couple of other blood-drenched islands.
Edmonds' father was another of these, staying silent and stoic through the remainder of his life. According to his son, pretty much all he'd say was that he and his fellow prisoners of war were humiliated.
But after his father's death, Edmonds took a look at what little was left, mainly an extremely cryptic diary, decided for his children's sake to uncover the whole story, and so began the detective work.
The account is colorful and gripping as he tracks down surviving members of his father's fellow prisoners, and men of his unit. Their stories are woven into his father's biography, creating a thought-provoking picture of ordinary American men swept into the meat-grinder of war. Those who survived did not come back the same as they had been.
Edmonds sometimes dips into fictionalizing, putting in dialogue and thoughts behind Nazi leaders, but he's not writing an academic text, so these dramatic additions can be forgiven when set against the fascinating whole. There are plentiful snapshots included, which add to the overall canvas.
Fight, capture, and then the grim reality of POW life in disintegrating Germany as men tried to hang onto their humanity through the few small acts and decisions they were permitted to make. One of the grimmest moments was when the Germans forced the prisoners to out the Jews among them, knowing what was going to happen to them, leading to Edmonds' act of heroism.
After liberation, which was another exercise in agonizing tension, they would discover stockpiled Red Cross packages never given to them--and their letters home never sent. There was no debriefing in those days, or offers of counseling. They were shipped home to pick up their lives again, including those like Edmonds, who had gotten "Dear John" letters before, or during their service. (When the writer found out he had a half-sister by his father's first marriage, he was able to connect with her.
Edmonds brings everything up to the present, including emotional evolution as well as recovery. It's an absorbing book, depicting both the best and the worst of the human spirit.
A content warning: it's written about a man of deep faith by another equally faithful, so if readers are offended or upset by Bible quotes and Christian thought, they probably should take a pass.
Copy provided by NetGalley
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Excellent read and awe inspiring story behind Roddie! Thank you for your service.
Very powerful true story. WWII while a POW he made a decision as a Christian to lose no one Jew or Gentile. I hadn't really thought about Jews serving in the military during that war.
