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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
the lid, she gasped in horror. “You would insulthim by dressing him in death in the military uniformhe refused to wear in life.”Later, David was permitted to the bedside of hisdying brother Michael and was unexpectedlyreleased, after which he made his way back to thecolony on foot. Jacob Wipf was not released untilApril 12, 1919, long after the Armistice had beensigned. In a letter to his community, Wipf wrote,“Sometimes I can’t help envying my three brotherswho are already released from this torture. Then Iwonder why is the hand of the Lord so heavy uponme? I, who tried to remain faithful to God and tomy community. Why must I continue my solitarysuffering? But then an incredible joy comes overme, such that I could weep for joy, when I considerthat Our Lord considers me worthy to suffer forHis Name’s sake. And I must confess, comparedwith our confinement thus far (in Alcatraz) this lifehere (in Fort Leavenworth military prison) is likeliving in a palace!”It was a huge funeral. The Hutterites had lost faithwith the American government and decided toimmigrate to Canada.“Here we lie upon the barren earth, as God wills,without harm to anyone. We do not wish to doharm or evil to any man, yea, not even our worstenemy. And all of our life and deeds, words andworks are open to all. Yea, before we would strikeour greatest enemy with the hand, to say nothingof with the gun or sword, as the world does, wewould rather die, and let our own lives be taken.We have no material weapons, neither spear norgun, as anyone can see.” — Jacob Hutter in TheChronicle of the Hutterian Brethren, Vol I, p. 112.*At this time the quartet sang “Wie ein Hirsch inMattigkeit,” one of our German church hymns,which is based on Psalm 42 of which the verses 1to 4, as well as 6, 9 and 11 are particularly appropriate:As the hart panteth after the water brooks,so panteth my soul after thee, o God.My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God:when shall I come and appear before God?My tears have been my meat day and night, whilethey continuously say unto me, Where is thy God?When I remember these things, I pour out my soulin me: for I had gone with the multitude, I wentwith them to the house of God, with the voice ofjoy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.O my God, my soul is cast down within me: thereforewill I remember thee...I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgottenme? Why go I mourning because of theoppression of the enemy?Why art thou cast down, o my soul? and why artthou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God: forI shall yet praise him, Who is the health of mycountenance, and my God.47
Page 1 and 2: Cultivating Peace:Courage, Conscien
Page 5 and 6: Cultivating Peace:Courage, Conscien
Page 8 and 9: FridayA different way of lifePut yo
Page 10 and 11: On becoming a COHow does one learn
Page 12 and 13: swords into ploughshares. Is.2:4Str
Page 14 and 15: Committed even unto death:the story
Page 16 and 17: Public witness for peaceToday there
Page 18 and 19: Objecting to paying for warCanadian
Page 20 and 21: Our task is not only to keep our so
Page 22 and 23: Litany of ResistanceJim Loney, who
Page 24 and 25: Mennonite Church ManitobaTo listen
Page 26 and 27: Love your enemies. Mt 5:44More Old
Page 28 and 29: Digging deeperThese reflections on
Page 30 and 31: inevitable, the last and often firs
Page 32 and 33: Learning in ActionCO RegistryA numb
Page 34 and 35: Peacemakerswho sow inpeace raise ah
Page 36 and 37: The Powers That Be: Theology for a
Page 38 and 39: AppendixSample sermonBlessed Are th
Page 40 and 41: Readers’ theatreO Bind Us in That
Page 42 and 43: Voice 3: Blessed are those who trus
Page 44 and 45: How did the church/family react to
Page 46 and 47: pious answers, and sitting back to
Page 50: Peacemakerswho sow inpeace raise ah

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