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“Our beards,” Joseph interjects, “Are also a sign ofmembership in the Brotherhood Council.”“Well! We’ll council you when not to wear them!”Another shouts belligerently. Rough hands seize thefour and amid a barrage of profanity, their beardsare shaven and their hair cut. Tearful and demoralizedthey arrive in Fort Lewis, dreading whatawaits them.*At this juncture the quartet sings three verses of“Mein Eifer tut mich dringen.” It expresses believers’devotion for Christian Community, and sorrowthat the ideals of peace, love and brotherhood continueto be so foreign to humankind.At the military camp, David Hofer asks to speak tothe Lieutenant Commander and shows him a documentstating their membership in the HutterianBrethren Church. He explains the church’s standagainst taking an oath, violence and wearing a militaryuniform. The commander insists that theymust obey orders, just like all the others. Whenthey refuse to don the uniforms and appear fordrill practice, they are placed under arrest. Threeweeks later, they are brought before a court martial,where they are permitted to affirm to speakthe truth.“Do you ever fight with your fists?” The prosecutordemands. “What would you do if a manattacked your sister?”Their sentence of thirty-seven years is reduced totwenty. Chained hand and feet to each other, twoby-two,they are taken even farther west to theprison at Alcatraz in the Bay of San Francisco,escorted by four armed officers.This is where they spent the next four months, thehottest of the year. The first twenty-four hours theywere given half a glass of water. Because theyrefused to wear the military uniform, they woreonly very light clothes. Alcatraz lies below sea levelso they slept without bedding chained by the anklesto each other on the cold, wet cement floor. Fornine hours each day, their hands were forciblyraised above their heads and chained crosswise tothe iron bars of their cells. This meant that theycouldn’t even defend themselves against the mosquitoesand other insects.When they still refused to don the uniform, theywere placed in solitary confinement. On Sundaythey were brought to the upper level and permittedto walk around the enclosed compound with theother prisoners, one of whom exclaimed with tearfuleyes, “Is this the way to treat human beings?”The brothers’ arms were terribly swollen and theywere covered with a ghastly rash.Several weeks of regular meals alternated withbread and water. They were beaten so severely withiron rods that Michael once fell down, unconscious.There were many tears, sighs and brokenprayers. One brother once overheard anotherpleading, “O Almighty God of heaven and earth!”*At this juncture the Buben, young men sing Verses1 and 9 of “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden” (OSacred Head Now wounded).On November, the four Hutterian brothers aretransferred to a military prison in FortLeavenworth, Kansas. Again, under the militaryescort of six armed officers, they are chained toeach other hands and feet for the long train ride offour nights and five days. Arriving at the camp inthe evening, the officers compel them up the inclineto the military prison, goading them with bayonetprods amid loud shouts, “As if they were chasinghogs.” Their arms chained together, each brothercarried a bag in the other hand; their Bible and apair of shoes under one arm.Arriving at the top, they were ordered to wait outsidefor their prison attire to arrive. Several hourslater, at one o’clock in the morning, they werealmost too stiff with cold to put them on. At five inthe morning, they had to be up waiting at theoffice door in an icy wind.By this time Joseph and Michael suffered suchsevere pains that they had to be hospitalized. JacobWipf and David Hofer were taken to solitary confinementcells where, again for nine hours daily,their hands were chained together through the ironbars of their cells. This continued for two weeksduring which their diet was bread and water.When a guard arrived to tell them that a telegramshould be sent home, telling the community aboutJoseph and Michael’s illness, David fainted, soJacob Wipf sent it. Their wives, accompanied bythe minister and another brother, arrived severaldays later, having been sent in the wrong directionby a station agent.Maria, Joseph’s wife insisted that she wanted to seeher husband, but the officer at the desk told herthat he’d died two hours previously. Distraught andgrief stricken, she stood before his coffin. Raising46