The Great War surges, Mennonites struggle
Exhibit shows how individuals saw First World War
WATERLOO REGION — Jesse Martin chose not to fight. Gordon Eby went to war and survived. Mary Wismer wondered if her pacifism would allow her to nurse wounded soldiers.
Three local Mennonites examined their consciences and chose differently when the First World War ramped up the bloodshed in 1917, killing 163 local soldiers. This surpassed the combined death toll of 1914 and 1915 and 1916, deeply hurting a community already reeling.
You can learn about a century ago and how Mennonites responded through archives freely exhibited at the University of Waterloo. You can pay tribute to 21,294 Canadians killed in 1917 when the names of war dead are displayed there and online starting Sept. 25.
The Great War greatly challenged pacifist Mennonites when Canada turned to conscription in 1917 and started ordering men to fill the trenches on the Western Front.
Religious Mennonites were exempt from
conscription as conscientious objectors. They faced public anger and backlash over this. Individual Mennonites weighed faith and consequences.
“Underlying it all, no matter what side you were on, what position you took, there was just overwhelming grief,” said librarian Laureen Harder-Gissing, who organized the wartime exhibit at Conrad Grebel University College.
Jesse Martin took to carrying his church-issued identity card wherever he went, to affirm his objector status and to fend off soldiers who roamed local streets looking for men to forcibly recruit. He was from St. Jacobs.
German-speaking Gordon Eby chose differently, enlisting in 1915 to serve as a signaller with an overseas battalion. He was 24 and from Berlin (now Kitchener). “He seemed to feel that as a third-generation Canadian he owed British Canada his loyalty,” Harder-Gissing said.
On the Western Front Eby saw death and danger but did not dwell on it in the daily diary he kept. On April 1, 1918, he wrote in his diary: “Severe enemy shell fire — Ford is killed. Dixie slight wounded — I and Elmslie are buried but not hurt badly.”
He wrote to his father on Aug. 11, 1918: “The Germans are retreating rapidly and losing many prisoners, hope it is the beginning of the end.” On a different postcard he wrote: “Here is hoping that God will soon grant the people of the world a lasting peace.”
By December 1918 the war was over. Eby marched into Germany which was filled with defeated soldiers. “They know they are beaten and never give us any trouble. I have spoken with many Germans, and what seems to be of most important to them is when they will be able to get more and better food,” he wrote.
The impact of the war nearly overwhelmed Mary Wismer. She grew up in Blair (now part of Cambridge) and in 1917 at the age of 30 she was studying at a women’s institute that’s now part of the University of Guelph.
‘Wizzie’ earned the affectionate respect of her classmates, developing her cooking and housekeeping skills and her sharp mind. She joined the student council and kept her classmates smiling, her yearbook reveals. This was not easy at an awful time.
“But the dreadful war goes on without Mercy, as casualty reports come in some girl’s Brother some lovers having been killed casts a gloom over the school to a more or less extent as it is the World over,” Wismer wrote.
As a pacifist, it troubled her to hear words of war in other churches. “Men with apparent spirituality in the pulpits urge the young men to go and even say “every shot you fire boys is for your God and your Country” and then pray God’s blessing on the same,” she wrote.
In 1917 Wismer sought guidance from her Mennonite bishop after learning that Canada planned to set up hospitals after the war for wounded soldiers. Would her faith allow her to care for them, she asked?
“She’s obviously thinking very deeply about this and what it means to be a participant in war,” librarian Harder-Gissing said.
Her bishop told her she had time to finish her studies and weigh options. “There will no doubt be many such requests for such service, but there may be other openings just as useful and as much needed in which you would not be restricted as far as your Christian faith is concerned,” he wrote.
“We believe in being both loyal and useful to our country, but there are different ways of being such and we should choose what will be useful and unquestionable as regards to our faith.”