Directed by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Tejada-Flores • Documentary • With Ed Asner • 2002 • 57 minutes
Millions of people from Allied countries fought to liberate Europe from Hitler’s grip during World War II . Yet 40,000 Americans refused to shoulder weapons in “the good war.”
Narrated by Ed Asner, this important film tells the story of a previously ignored chapter of WWII – the American conscientious objectors who refused to fight. It is a story of personal courage, idealism and nonconformity based on both ethical and religious beliefs – about men whose love of country could not extend to killing their fellow man.
Many were Quakers or others whose religious beliefs interpreted the commandment “Thou Shalt Not Kill” to include war; others were passionate pacifists who felt morally incapable of cooperating with a violent conflict, no matter how worthy the cause.
All lived with the scorn of a nation, and often family and friends as well. While it has been more than half a century since WWII , this particular war story has been almost entirely lost to history until now.
"'A fascinating compelling look at WWII conscientious objectors...Highly Recommended. Editor's Choice." * * * * Video Librarian
Up Next in World War II
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Diplomacy
Directed by Volker Schlöndorff • Drama • With André Dussollier, Niels Arestrup, Burghart Klaußner • 2014 • 85 minutes
As the Allies march toward Paris in the summer of 1944, Hitler gives orders that the French capital should not fall into enemy hands, or if it does, then ‘only as a field of rubb...
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As If It Were Yesterday
Directed by Myriam Abramovicz and Esther Hoffenberg • Documentary • 1980 • 84 minutes
Belgium, 1940. Amidst escalating terror and raids on Jewish residents by the occupying Nazi forces, a resistance movement emerges to shelter Jewish children from deportation and extermination. Myriam Abramowicz...
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Memoir of War
Directed by Emmanuel Finkiel • Drama • With Mélanie Thierry • 2018 • 127 minutes
In Emmanuel Finkiel’s haunting adaptation of Marguerite Duras’s semi- autobiographical novel, The War: A Memoir, the famed author (Mélanie Thierry) recounts an emotionally complex story of love, loss, and perseveran...
