This story was first published on March 26, 2019.



Frank Peters was beaten, starved and kept in solitary confinement during the Second World War because he refused to kill.

Peters — my great-uncle Frank — was among the Canadian Mennonites and other pacifists who were jailed in the 1940s because they refused to become soldiers when they were drafted.

"You know, he went into prison a really tall, strong guy who'd been working on a farm, and he was a vigorous man," said Robert Peters, his son.

"The torture that he received in the Canadian military created a permanent back condition he never recovered from."

'We were yelled at and beaten violently with sticks by the officers.'

Peters was jailed for more than two years, one of at least 40 Mennonite men imprisoned in Manitoba after their requests for conscientious objector status were rejected by a Winnipeg judge.

"We were yelled at and beaten violently with sticks by the officers," he wrote about his arrival at a military detention camp, in a 1950 article for a Mennonite magazine that was translated from German by the Mennonite Heritage Archives.

"My cell was six by eight feet with a small darkened window. On one side was a bed. An English Bible was also in the cell. Later I received a mattress and a blanket because of lumbago [severe back pain] which I contracted during my imprisonment."

Few Canadians know about these men who were jailed for their faith-based refusal to fight, and the government has never acknowledged what happened to them.

Peters's son feels it's a wrong that still needs to be righted.

The Peters family gathers in front of the family home on Pacific Avenue W. in Winnipeg. Frank, seated at the far left, was seven years old when the family fled Russia. His son Robert is standing, centre, wearing a bowtie. The author's father, Henry Schroeder, stands in the middle row (second from the right), and Henry's mother, Melita, stands nears the centre (sixth from the left), with one of her daughters in front of her. (Robert Peters) Post image on Pinterest: The Peters family gathers in front of the family home on Pacific Avenue W. in Winnipeg. Frank, seated at the far left, was seven years old when the family fled Russia. His son Robert is standing, centre, wearing a bowtie. The author's father, Henry Schroeder, stands in the middle row (second from the right), and Henry's mother, Melita, stands nears the centre (sixth from the left), with one of her daughters in front of her. (Robert Peters)