S2: E4: World War II Conscientious Objectors: Germfask, Michigan — The Alcatraz Camp by Jane Kopecky

U.P. Notable Books Club

Jane Kopecky reveals the nearly-forgotten story of Camp Germfask, 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 Selective Service. Instead of jail, they ended up in what some men called the Alcatraz of CO camps and their sympathizers elsewhere in the country called "American's Siberia." In interview transcripts, memoirs, and documents collected by Jane Kopecky, their lives and their relationships with their Germfask and other Upper Peninsula neighbors come alive. This book is a great read and a great service to historical understanding." Howard Brick, Louis Evans Professor of History, University of Michigan