Recollections of a World War II Conscientious Objector - Friends Journal

During World War II, 12,000 men from as many as 200 religious groups received the conscientious objector classification, “4-E,” under the Selective Service System, and served all over the United States in Civilian Public Service units administered by agencies of the three “historic peace churches”—the Brethren, Quakers, and Mennonites. In addition, there were 1,700 COs, some of them ministers who were exempt from the draft, who refused to cooperate with the conscription system and were imprisoned. There were 4,400 Jehovah’s Witnesses who regarded themselves as ministers, and were imprisoned because they were denied the ministerial exemption. The models for alternative service for conscientious objectors came from the late 19th century arrangement that Mennonites in Russia made with the government, the World War I experience of U.S. Quakers, and the workcamp idea of Swiss Quaker Pierre Ceresol. When Russia established universal military conscription in the 1870s, Mennonites were allowed

During World War II, 12,000 men from as many as 200 religious groups received the conscientious objector classification, “4-E,” under the Selective Service System, and served all over the United States in Civilian Public Service units administered by agencies of the three “historic peace churches”—the Brethren, Quakers, and Mennonites. In addition, there were 1,700 COs, some of them ministers who were exempt from the draft, who refused to cooperate with the conscription system and were imprisoned. There were 4,400 Jehovah’s Witnesses who regarded themselves as ministers, and were imprisoned be