Pacifists in Chains: The Persecution of Hutterites during the Great War

Notes

Notes Preface 1. Michael Hofer to Maria Hofer, August 7, 1918. 2. David Hofer to Anna Hofer, August 18, 1918. 3. Joseph Hofer to Maria Hofer, August. 7, 1918. 4. Keim and Stoltzfus, Politics of Conscience, 40. 5. Joseph Hofer to Maria Hofer, November 17, 1918. 6. Michael Hofer to Maria Hofer, November 17, 1918. Chapter 1. Called to Duty 1. Biblical references are drawn from the King James Version, in this case, Luke 6:27. 2. Mike Kleinsasser, a minister at the Kingsbury Colony in Montana and a grandson of Michael Hofer, said of beards: “In the Hutterite custom, a beard means a lot. It’s basically your wedding ring. When you get married, you grow a beard.” Mike Kleinsasser, conversation with author, February 21, 2009. 3. Parkston Advance, May 3, 1918. 4. Alexandria Herald, April 19, 1918. 5. Ibid. 6. Daily Argus-Leader, May 25, 1918. 7. Freeman Courier, April 26, 1917. 8. The details and quotations in this paragraph and the subsequent two can be found in the Daily Argus-Leader, May 21, May 24, and May 25, 1918. 230 Notes to Pages 6–16 9. Joe Hofer, conversation with author, June 4, 2009. As a young man, in his twenties and thirties, he worked alongside Jacob Wipf, who recounted his experiences in the war. 10. Hutterite CO’s in World War I. 11. Kellogg, Conscientious Objector, 40–41. 12. Friesen, Peter Riedemann’s Hutterite Confession, 119–120. 13. Chronicle of the Hutterian Brethren, 139. 14. This doctrine is anchored in the New Testament, particularly Matthew 5:38– 44. 15. Parkston Advance, May 18, 1918. 16. Report of Selective Service Local Board, Elkhart County, Indiana, December 30, 1918. 17. Capozzola, Uncle Sam, 39. About fifty-four Hutterites, many of them married and with children, were drafted during the war. 18. Enoch H. Crowder to the Adjutant General of Michigan, July 30, 1918. 19. Unruh, “Century of Mennonites in Dakota,” 116; Homan, American Mennonites and the Great War, 50. The American Union Against Militarism also advised all conscientious objectors to register. 20. Alexandria Herald, May 31, 1918. 21. The Yankton quotations in this paragraph and the subsequent one are from the Yankton Press and Dakotan, May 9 and June 6, 1918. 22. Alexandria Herald, May 31, 1918. 23. Sioux Falls Argus Leader, March 22, 1918. 24. Richter, “Dakota-Germans and World War I.” 25. Sawyer, “Anti-German Sentiment,” 490. 26. McAdoo, Crowded Years, 278–279. 27. Fulton Advocate, April 25, 1918. 28. Sawyer, “Anti-German Sentiment,” 472–473. 29. N. Thomas, “The Hutterian Brethren.” 30. Sioux Falls Press, May 10, 1918. 31. “Hutterite Brethren and War,” 354–355. The petition was signed by David Hofer, Elias Walter, and Joseph Kleinsasser and sent to President Woodrow Wilson. 32. The sources for the historical overview include Hostetler, Hutterite Society; R. Janzen and Stanton, Hutterites in North America; Kraybill and Bowman, On the Backroad to Heaven; Packull, Hutterite Beginnings; Rhodes, Nightwatch: An Inquiry into Solitude; Roth, Stories; and Smith, Coming of the Russian Mennonites. 33. Chronicle of the Hutterian Brethren; The Bloody Theater or Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians. The Chronicle of the Hutterian Brethren consists of two volumes , the Grosse-Geschichtsbuch, or Great Chronicle, and the Kleine-Geschichtsbuch, Notes to Pages 16–21 231 or Small Chronicle. This edition of the Martyrs Mirror, a fixture in Mennonite homes, was translated from the 1660 work compiled by the Dutch chronicler Thieleman J. van Braght. The first English translation, in 1748–1749, was, at 1,500 pages, the largest book published in colonial America. 34. Chronicle, vol. 1, 360. 35. Mirror of the Martyrs, 53. 36. Castelli, Martyrdom and Memory, 4. 37. The start of the Anabaptist movement is commonly placed in Zurich in 1525, scene of the first adult baptisms. Anabaptism soon spread into the Austrian territory of Tyrol, which was ruled by Archduke Ferdinand I. Ferdinand set out to extinguish the movement, which he perceived as a threat to political and church structures. He objected to the rejection of infant baptism and also the practice, in some quarters, of holding all goods in common. On August 20, 1527, he issued a battle plan. All those who taught the community of goods, he said, should be beheaded. More decrees followed. The state could seize the property of Anabaptists, according to a decree dated April 1, 1528. Then on May 18, 1529, he decreed death by fire for Anabaptists...