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Book jacket
Pacifists in chains : the persecution of Hutterites during the Great War
—Stoltzfus, Duane C. S., 1959-
2013

Book

To Hutterites and members of other pacifist sects, serving the military in any way goes against the biblical commandment "thou shalt not kill" and Jesusђ́ةs admonition to turn the other cheek when confronted with violence. Pacifists in Chains tells the story of four young menђ́ؤJoseph Hofer, Michael Hofer, David Hofer, and Jacob Wipfђ́ؤwho followed these beliefs and refused to perform military service in World War I. The men paid a steep price for their resistance, imprisoned in Alcatraz and Fort Leavenworth, where the two youngest died. The Hutterites buried the men as martyrs, citing mistreatment. Using archival material, letters from the four men and others imprisoned during the war, and interviews with their descendants, Duane C. S. Stoltzfus explores the tension between a country preparing to enter into a world war and a people whose history of martyrdom for their pacifist beliefs goes back to their sixteenth-century Reformation beginnings.

Item Details

ISBN:

  • 9781421411279
  • 142141127X

Description: xxi, 268 pages ; 23 cm.

Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 249-259) and index.

Contents:

  • Called to duty
  • Forced migrations
  • A nation rises up
  • Standing trial
  • The dungeons of Alcatraz
  • Enemy on the home front
  • Midnight at Leavenworth
  • Outside advocates
  • Official misjudgment.

LCCN: 2013006918

Control Number: 1190124

Publisher: Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013.
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