Photo courtesy Bethel College / Mennonite Library and Archives
Timmy Fritzler / Special to the Times
Photo courtesy Bethel College / Mennonite Library and Archives
The desire to do something of import to help this country was further exemplified by the large number of conscientious objectors (CO’s) who volunteered to be human guinea pigs.
There was never a shortage of volunteers, even though these medical experiments were both uncomfortable and extremely dangerous. Some experiments were conducted in order to come up with cheaper ways to control typhus. Others were used to find out the cause of hepatitis, how it spread, and how to treat it. In one experiment they discovered that the common cold is spread by a virus rather than bacteria. CO’s also tried out new drugs to treat malaria and participated in testing the physiological effects of malaria.
Many experiments were conducted in order to test various nutrition problems. The U.S. Surgeon General’s Office wanted to find the most effective food relief for areas devastated by the war. They used the results of these tests in order to plan and apply post-war relief efforts. Of course, none of these kinds of experiments would have been conducted in the Buckingham Side Camp, yet it is very possible that CO’s from this camp could have been transferred to a city where these tests were being conducted if they so chose to do so. On an average, men serving in the Civilian Public Service (CPS) transferred three to four times during the war.
Middle of nowhere
The remoteness of the camps was another common complaint of the conscientious objectors. They could only live in camps that were at least 50 miles from their homes so that they’d be far away from any local interest or sympathy. Certainly, the men who lived in the Buckingham Side Camp would have felt like they had been exiled to the far side of the moon.
The men living in this camp west of New Raymer came from all over the United States. Few of them would have been from Colorado. And of course, the camp itself was at least 50 miles away from any sizable town.
The head of the Selective Service, General Lewis B. Hershey said, “…the conscientious objector, by my memory, is best handled if no one hears him.”
And therein lay the painful truth that so bothered men who had taken the totally unpopular route of pacifism during a popular and “good” war. They were making a statement of their beliefs, but no one heard them.
Some of the CO’s were so bothered by their inability to express their pacifism that they broke the camp rules or went AWOL. It wasn’t enough for these men to just say “no” to the war. They wanted to resist war in a more overt way. They believed that the peace churches were supporting the military by being in partnership with the government and they didn’t want to be complicit.
Men who didn’t adapt to camp life or were uncooperative were sent to one of three special Selective Service camps, including the one located in Mancos. If that failed and they were still making “trouble,” such as work slow-downs and hunger strikes, they were sent to prison.
One can only guess at what kind of “trouble” Mrs. Fuqua was referring to when she told her visitors from Fort Morgan and Weldona that the men in the Buckingham camp were hard to handle and compared them to Doukhobors.
She described the Mennonite men as having long beards. That, alone, would have been breaking Selective Service and Civilian Public Service (CPS) rules, since service men were not allowed to grow beards during World War II or to wear their hair long.
However, long beards would have probably been considered a minor difficulty for these people living so far away from others. More likely the “trouble” had to do with the men’s rebellion due to lack of pay, the inability to express one’s deeply held beliefs, the desolation of the camp, and the men’s feelings that they weren’t doing work of “national importance.”
Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, thus ending the war. By October 1945, the long process of the demobilization of the CPS program began. It lagged far behind the demobilization of the armed services. By December 1945, 60 percent of service personnel had been released in contrast to only 10 percent of CO’s. Some of the last camps to close were in Virginia, Maryland and Colorado. CPS Camp No. 33S closed its doors in October 1946.
By the time the last camp closed in March 1947, a total of 12,000 draftees had performed work of “national importance” in the United States. A total of 6,000 CO’s had been held in prison, most of whom were Jehovah Witnesses, who refused to go to war because they claimed ministerial exemption. By the time the last camp closed, there were still 300 CO’s being held in prison and there were protests held calling for their release. On Christmas Eve, 1947, President Harry Truman signed a proclamation of “selective amnesty,” pardoning all but the few prisoners who were considered political objectors.
Find out more…
Resources used in researching and creating this series:
• “The CPS Story: An Illustrated History of Civilian Public Service” by Albert N. Keim
• “CPS Unit Number 033-01” from civilianpublicservice.org
• Fort Morgan Times, March 24, 1947
• Greeley Daily Tribune, February 8, 1944
• “Land Utilization Headquarters” from coloradopreservation.org
• “Women Against the Good War: Conscientious Objection and Gender on the American Home Front 1941-1947” by Rachel Waltner Goossen
By the early 1950s, the I-W service was implemented by the Selective Service. This new program eliminated the use of work camps and provided wages for conscientious objectors.
While the 12 million service men returning home from the war were greeted with fanfare and celebration, the returning CO’s were often met with disdain. Some were told they were not welcome and had to move. Many were denied employment and were discriminated against in subtle ways. Although they may have been shamed and shunned by their communities for the stance they had taken, most, in retrospect, felt that they’d done the right thing. They had followed their religious convictions and chosen peace over violence.
After the war many CO’s volunteered to do relief work in Europe. They helped deliver cattle and other supplies and they helped to rebuild bombed out cities. Many of the men who had spent the war in the CPS camps became important leaders in the Mennonite church.
Finally, these conscientious objectors had the opportunity to do something they found meaningful. They felt, at last, that they were doing something of national importance that aligned with their religious beliefs.