My Dad was a conchie in WW II. It wasn't that he was religious -- he wasn't. His general feeling about the matter was that if God did exist, He wasn't doing a very good job. No, the real reason was that my Dad had to leave school early near the end of WW I, to earn enough cash to take care of the grandmother who had raised him. His first job was delivering telegrams. In those days everyone ripped open any telegram they got on the doorstep, which meant that this 14 year old kid had to spend his days watching a stream of women discovering that their menfolk had been killed in WW I. This had such an effect that when WW II came along (and he was still just young enough to be called up) he simply said no, I'm not going. As a carpenter, he could have claimed a "reserved occupation". But he preferred the only alternative on offer, which was to be incarcerated with all the other conchies in NZ for the duration. Thus he spent the war in a camp in the middle of the North Island, planting marram grass around the Desert Road. In winter the tents were so cold that false teeth froze in their water glasses every night, but as far as I can tell that was the extent of the difficulties. Fortunately my mum supported his decision (and was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, financially). And he didn't much care what anyone else thought.
Does that count as being a "freedom fighter"? I dunno. But I'm proud of him.
Definitely! Thanks for sharing that inspiring story. We all have a personal connection to the wars of our history, I wish we had talked about them more over the years, maybe without that self-censoring we wouldn’t be in this current tragedy?
My Dad was a conchie in WW II. It wasn't that he was religious -- he wasn't. His general feeling about the matter was that if God did exist, He wasn't doing a very good job. No, the real reason was that my Dad had to leave school early near the end of WW I, to earn enough cash to take care of the grandmother who had raised him. His first job was delivering telegrams. In those days everyone ripped open any telegram they got on the doorstep, which meant that this 14 year old kid had to spend his days watching a stream of women discovering that their menfolk had been killed in WW I. This had such an effect that when WW II came along (and he was still just young enough to be called up) he simply said no, I'm not going. As a carpenter, he could have claimed a "reserved occupation". But he preferred the only alternative on offer, which was to be incarcerated with all the other conchies in NZ for the duration. Thus he spent the war in a camp in the middle of the North Island, planting marram grass around the Desert Road. In winter the tents were so cold that false teeth froze in their water glasses every night, but as far as I can tell that was the extent of the difficulties. Fortunately my mum supported his decision (and was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, financially). And he didn't much care what anyone else thought.
Does that count as being a "freedom fighter"? I dunno. But I'm proud of him.
Definitely! Thanks for sharing that inspiring story. We all have a personal connection to the wars of our history, I wish we had talked about them more over the years, maybe without that self-censoring we wouldn’t be in this current tragedy?
I think so and they played a part
Muhammad Ali was pretty notable for his objection at the time too.