Download or read book Conscientious Objectors of the Second World War written by Ann Kramer and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2013-08-19 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Drawing on extensive primary sources, Kramer describes the inter-war peace movement that gave birth to many conscientious objectors” (Military History Monthly). Even today, most histories of the world wars focus on those who fought. Those who refused to do so are often overlooked. It is perhaps only recently that their bravery and extraordinary principles are being recognized. In the First World War, 16,000 men in Britain became the first ever conscientious objectors, and were reviled and brutalized as a result. The conscientious objectors of the Second World War—both men and women—did not experience the same treatment as those earlier COs, but to some extent it was a harder stand to take. It was not easy to refuse to fight in the face of Nazism and Fascism, when large areas of Europe were occupied and when almost the entire British population was organized for total war. Conscientious Objectors of the Second World War: Refusing to Fight tells the stories of these remarkable men and women who bravely took a stand and refused to be conscripted. To bring this fascinating subject to life, Ann Kramer has used extensive prime sources, such as interviews, memoirs, contemporary newspaper accounts, letters, and diaries. Working from these and other sources, she asks who these men and women were who refused conscription and killing, what their reasons were for being conscientious objectors, and how they were treated. The book finishes by exploring their achievements and impact, suggesting that their principles and influence continue to this day. “[Kramer shows] conscientious objectors in all their infinite variety.” —Peace News

Download or read book World War II Conscientious Objectors written by Jane Kopecky and published by . This book was released on 2020-03-28 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Civilian Public Service Camp 135 at Germfask, Michigan was a bubbling cauldron whose story is finally exposed. Here Jane Kopecky reveals the nearly-forgotten story of Camp Germask, where some of the most ardent war-resisters among World War II conscientious objectors were held for 13 months in 1944 and 1945. Opponents of the war and conscription on a variety of religious, pacifist, or political grounds, these recalcitrant dissenters dared imprisonment as they refused to cooperate with rules of the Selective Service. Instead of jail, they ended up in what some of them called the Alcatraz of CO camps and their sympathizers elsewhere in the country called "America's Siberia." In interview transcripts, memoirs, and documents collected by Jane Kopecky, their lives and their relations with their Germfask and other Upper Peninsula neighbors come alive. This book is a great read and a great service to historical understanding."

Download or read book A Different Kind of War Story written by Edward M. Arnett and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2012-05-03 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Summary of A Different kind of War Story- a Quaker conscientious objector in WWII The book carries the writer through his experiences in WWII as a draftee into Civilian Public Service ( CPS ), the official structure for handling conscientious objectors ( COs ) . Among his various assignments to CPS camps and projects are that to the Forest Service Smokejumper unit where he parachuted into remote areas of the Rockies to put out small forest fires before they become big. Also , of special interest is his description of transferring 1, 200 wild horses on a cargo ship to Poland as aid for reestablishing Polish agriculture and some observations on Poland under the Soviet occupation during the early years of the cold war .

Download or read book Smokejumpers of the Civilian Public Service in World War II written by Robert C. Cottrell and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-12-24 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of Civilian Public Service smokejumpers, who battled against dangerous winds, searing heat, and devastating fires from 1943 until 1945. Fewer than 300 World War II conscientious objectors served their country in this fashion, operating out of CPS bases in Montana, Idaho, and Oregon. But that small band of men helped to keep alive Forest Service operations in the Pacific Northwest and thus sustained a program to fight potentially crippling fires. When the war ended, CPS smokejumpers, like millions of World War II combat soldiers, were "ushered out" of wartime service. Some, like many returning GIs, encountered difficulties in adjusting to civilian life. Nevertheless, the one-time smokejumpers often went on to make other remarkable contributions to their communities, their nation, and the world.

Download or read book Here on the Edge written by Steve McQuiddy and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here on the Edge answers the growing interest in a long-neglected element of World War II history: the role of pacifism in what is often called “The Good War.” Steve McQuiddy shares the fascinating story of one conscientious objector camp located on the rain-soaked Oregon Coast, Civilian Public Service (CPS) Camp #56. As home to the Fine Arts Group at Waldport, the camp became a center of activity where artists and writers from across the country focused their work not so much on the current war, but on what kind of society might be possible when the shooting finally stopped. They worked six days a week—planting trees, crushing rock, building roads, and fighting forest fires—in exchange for only room and board. At night, they published books under the imprint of the Untide Press. They produced plays, art, and music—all during their limited non-work hours, with little money and few resources. This influential group included poet William Everson, later known as Brother Antoninus, “the Beat Friar”; violinist Broadus Erle, founder of the New Music Quartet; fine arts printer Adrian Wilson; Kermit Sheets, co-founder of San Francisco's Interplayers theater group; architect Kemper Nomland, Jr.; and internationally renowned sculptor Clayton James. After the war, camp members went on to participate in the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance of the 1950s, which heavily influenced the Beat Generation of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Gary Snyder—who in turn inspired Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters, leading the way to the 1960s upheavals epitomized by San Francisco's Summer of Love. As camp members engaged in creative acts, they were plowing ground for the next generation, when a new set of young people, facing a war of their own in Vietnam, would populate the massive peace movements of the 1960s. Twenty years in the making and packed with original research, Here on the Edge is the definitive history of the Fine Arts Group at Waldport, documenting how their actions resonated far beyond the borders of the camp. It will appeal to readers interested in peace studies, World War II history, influences on the 1960s generation, and in the rich social and cultural history of the West Coast.

Download or read book Peace was in Their Hearts written by Richard C. Anderson and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book General Lewis B Hershey and Conscientious Objection during World War II written by Nicholas A. Krehbiel and published by University of Missouri. This book was released on 2012-02-24 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During World War II, the United States drafted 10.1 million men to serve in the military. Of that number, 52,000 were conscientious objectors, and 12,000 objected to noncombatant military service. Those 12,000 men served the country in Civilian Public Service, the program initiated by General Lewis Blaine Hershey, the director of Selective Service from 1941 to1970. Despite his success with this program, much of Hershey’s work on behalf of conscientious objectors has been overlooked due to his later role in the draft during the Vietnam War. Seeking to correct these omissions in history, Nicholas A. Krehbiel provides the most comprehensive and well-rounded examination to date of General Hershey’s work as the developer and protector of alternative service programs for conscientious objectors. Hershey, whose Selective Service career spanned three major wars and six presidential administrations, came from a background with a tolerance for pacifism. He served in the National Guard and later served in both World War I and the interwar army. A lifelong military professional, he believed in the concept of the citizen soldier—the civilian who responded to the duty of service when called upon. Yet embedded in that idea was his intrinsic belief in the American right to religious freedom and his notion that religious minorities must be protected. What to do with conscientious objectors has puzzled the United States throughout its history, and prior to World War II, there was no unified system for conscientious objectors. The Selective Service Act of 1917 only allowed conscientious objection from specific peace sects, and it had no provisions for public service. In action, this translated to poor treatment of conscientious objectors in military prisons and camps during World War I. In response to demands by the Historic Peace Churches (the Brethren, Mennonites, and the Society of Friends) and other pacifist groups, the government altered language in the Selective Service Act of 1940, stating that conscientious objectors should be assigned to noncombatant service in the military but, if opposed to that, would be assigned to “work of national importance under civilian direction.” Under the direction of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and with the cooperation of the Historic Peace Churches, Hershey helped to develop Civilian Public Service in 1941, a program that placed conscientious objectors in soil conservation and forestry work camps, with the option of moving into detached services as farm laborers, scientific test subjects, and caregivers, janitors, and cooks at mental hospitals. Although the Civilian Public Service program only lasted until 1947, alternative service was required for all conscientious objectors until the end of the draft in 1973. Krehbiel delves into the issues of minority rights versus mandatory military service and presents General Hershey’s pivotal role in the history of conscientious objection and conscription in American history. Archival research from both Historic Peace Churches and the Selective Service makes General Lewis B. Hershey and Conscientious Objection during World War II the definitive book on this subject.

Download or read book The United States and the Second World War written by G. Kurt Piehler and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this text, Piehler and Pash bring together a collection of essays offering an examination of American participation in the Second World War, including a long overdue reconsideration of such seminal topics as the forces leading the US to enter World War II, the role of the American military in the Allied victory and more

Download or read book Conscientious Objectors and the Second World War written by Cynthia Eller and published by Praeger Publishers. This book was released on 1991 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Was pacifism an acceptable response to Hitler's military and moral assault? This volume analyzes the moral and religious arguments justifying an individual's opposition to war while answering this question. Drawing largely on interviews with sixty World War II conscientious objectors, including those who served in military non-combatant or civilian roles and those who were jailed as violators of the Selective Service law, this study provides an oral history of the difficulties encountered as a conscientious objector in the Last Good War, and uses World War II as a case study for examining how people arrive at the moral decisions they act upon. Faced with the moral certainty of the Allied position in World War II, pacifism was clearly an unpopular position at that time. This work provides a thorough description of the political and social history of pacifism prior to and including World War II and describes the wide variety of theological, political, and moral beliefs on which pacifism is grounded. The discussion focuses on the factors that defining the pacifist attitude and actions, and also considers the consequences of those actions. Contrary to generally accepted views, the pacifist's concern with the future ramifications of his or her decisions is affirmed. Careful documentation and an interdisciplinary scope offer oral historians, historians of World War II, World War II conscientious objectors, pacifists, and the general public a solid and scholarly look at pacifism.

Download or read book We Will Not Fight written by Will Ellsworth-Jones and published by . This book was released on 2013-05-16 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘Vividly reconstructs the dramatic story of these men whose fortitude kept alive the principle of conscientious objection we now take for granted’ Spectator ‘A fascinating story, thoroughly researched and clearly told’ Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday Book of the Week In June 1916, as his brother Philip was on the way to the Somme, Bert Brocklesby was in prison under sentence of death. He had refused to fight in the First World War. In this thoughtful, compelling and poignant book, Will Ellsworth-Jones tells the remarkable and little-known story of courageous men like Bert Brocklesby, who defied both brutal incomprehension from the military, and white feathers waved at them in the street, to leave a lasting legacy: the freedom to voice unpopular beliefs and to challenge those who decide to take us to war. ‘A fascinating and frightening story of an army very nearly out of control of its political masters’ Francis Beckett, Guardian ‘A moving and grippingly readable book’ Sunday Telegraph

Download or read book Smoke Jumping on the Western Fire Line written by Mark Matthews and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the World War II conscientious objectors who volunteered for Civilian Public Service as U.S. Forest Service smoke jumpers is told in this history that reveals a little-known dimension of American pacifism.

Download or read book Women Against the Good War written by Rachel Waltner Goossen and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During World War II, more than 12,000 male conscientious objectors seeking alternatives to military service entered Civilian Public Service to do forestry, soil conservation, or other 'work of national importance.' But this government-sponsored, church-su

Download or read book The Courage of Cowards written by Karyn Burnham and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2014-04-30 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To many they were nothing more than cowards, but the 'conchies' of the First World War had the courage to stand by their principles when the nation was against them... An innovative new history of conscientious objectors during the First World War. Drawing on previously unpublished archive material, Karyn Burnham reconstructs the personal stories of several men who refused to fight, bringing the reader face-to-face with their varied, often brutal, experiences.Charles Dingle: Defying his father's wishes by objecting to military service, Charles joins the Friends Ambulance Unit and finds himself in the midst of some of the fiercest fighting of the war.Jack Foister: Jack, a young student, cannot support the war in any way. Imprisoned and shipped secretly out to France, Jack has no idea what lengths the military will go to in order to break him.James Landers: A Christian and pacifist, James faces a dilemma: if he sticks to his principles, he faces imprisonment but if he joins the Non Combatant Corps he can financially support his family. Gripping accounts reveal the traumatic and sometimes terrifying events these men went through and help readers to discover what it was really like to be a conscientious objector.As seen in the Northern Echo, Ilkley Gazette, Ripon Gazette, Wetherby News, Kent & Sussex Courier and Bradford Telegraph & Argus. Also seen in Essence and Discover Your History magazines.

Download or read book We Have Just Begun to Not Fight written by Heather T. Frazer and published by Macmillan Reference USA. This book was released on 1996 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using the method of oral history, this work presents a sample of the insights and reflections of the diverse group of Americans who entered the Civilian Public Service.

Download or read book Facing the Mountain written by Daniel James Brown and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-05-10 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER One of NPR's "Books We Love" of 2021 Longlisted for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography Winner of the Christopher Award “Masterly. An epic story of four Japanese-American families and their sons who volunteered for military service and displayed uncommon heroism… Propulsive and gripping, in part because of Mr. Brown’s ability to make us care deeply about the fates of these individual soldiers...a page-turner.” – Wall Street Journal From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat, a gripping World War II saga of patriotism and resistance, focusing on four Japanese American men and their families, and the contributions and sacrifices that they made for the sake of the nation. In the days and months after Pearl Harbor, the lives of Japanese Americans across the continent and Hawaii were changed forever. In this unforgettable chronicle of war-time America and the battlefields of Europe, Daniel James Brown portrays the journey of Rudy Tokiwa, Fred Shiosaki, and Kats Miho, who volunteered for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and were deployed to France, Germany, and Italy, where they were asked to do the near impossible. Brown also tells the story of these soldiers' parents, immigrants who were forced to submit to life in concentration camps on U.S. soil. Woven throughout is the chronicle of Gordon Hirabayashi, one of a cadre of patriotic resisters who stood up against their government in defense of their own rights. Whether fighting on battlefields or in courtrooms, these were Americans under unprecedented strain, doing what Americans do best—striving, resisting, pushing back, rising up, standing on principle, laying down their lives, and enduring.

Download or read book Acts of Conscience written by Steven J. Taylor and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-10 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the mid- to late 1940s, a group of young men rattled the psychiatric establishment by beaming a public spotlight on the squalid conditions and brutality in our nation’s mental hospitals and training schools for people with psychiatric and intellectual disabilities. Bringing the abuses to the attention of newspapers and magazines across the country, they led a reform effort to change public attitudes and to improve the training and status of institutional staff. Prominent Americans, such as Eleanor Roosevelt, ACLU founder Roger Baldwin, author Pearl S. Buck, actress Helen Hayes, and African-American activist Mary McLeod Bethune, supported the efforts of the young men. These young men were among the 12,000 World War II conscientious objectors who chose to perform civilian public service as an alternative to fighting in what is widely regarded as America’s "good war." Three thousand of these men volunteered to work at state institutions where they discovered appalling conditions. Acting on conscience a second time, they challenged America’s treatment of its citizens with severe disabilities. Acts of Conscience brings to light the extra-ordinary efforts of these courageous men, drawing upon extensive archival research, interviews, and personal correspondence. The World War II conscientious objectors were not the first to expose public institutions, and they would not be the last. What distinguishes them from reformers of other eras is that their activities have faded from the professional and popular memory. Taylor’s moving account is an indispensable contribution to the historical record.

Download or read book Park Prisoners written by W. A. Waiser and published by Saskatoon : Fifth House Publishers. This book was released on 1995 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: COVERS : Banff National Park, Elk Island National Park, Glacier National Park, Jasper National Park, Kootenay National Park, Mount Revelstoke National Park, Point Pelee National Park, Prince Albert National Park, Riding Mountain National Park, Waterton Lakes National Park, Yoho National Park.