Conscientious Objectors of the Second World War: Refusing to Fight

1st edition dust jacket New Book octavo vii + 199pp., b/w pls., bibliog., index, Even today, most histories of the world wars focus on those who fought. Those who refused to fight are usually overlooked, or just mentioned in passing, sometimes in a very dismissive manner. During the First World War, 16,000 men in Britain refused conscription: they believed it was wrong to take up arms and kill. Known as conscientious objectors they were humiliated, abused and imprisoned for their stand. More than 70 died as a result of brutal treatment. Twenty years later, during the Second World War, there were more than 60,000 conscientious objectors in Britain.