Conscientious Objectors

Hi there,

I'm writing a short novel about a fictional concentration camp for my university dissertation—creative writing—about the struggles between a commandant and a conscientious objector who somehow manages to persuade a battalion to desert. I wondered if anybody knew of a derogatory word the Nazis would use for a conscientious objector. One of the characters is telling the story of the objector, and at the moment I've got him calling a 'conchie', which just seems a bit too British.

Cheers

Kerakae

 

Did they have conscientious objectors in Nazi Germany?

 

Did they have conscientious objectors in Nazi Germany?

I should imagine not live ones

 

Perhaps you can invent your own from the German: "Kriegsdienstverweigerer"

 

It's only Wiki but it says conscription resisters (not necessarily conscientious objectors) were classified as 'workshy' - arbeitsscheu.

 

I'm workshy, didnt know I could tell my boss I was a conscientous objector.

Will try it Monday morning, let you know how I get on....

 

"persuade a battalion to desert" I hope not to the east if you want to be taken as credible.

 

I'm writing a short novel about a fictional concentration camp for my university dissertation—creative writing—about the struggles between a commandant and a conscientious objector who somehow manages to persuade a battalion to desert. I wondered if anybody knew of a derogatory word the Nazis would use for a conscientious objector. One of the characters is telling the story of the objector, and at the moment I've got him calling a 'conchie', which just seems a bit too British.



Some clarification is needed here. Are you positing a conscientious objector to conscription to the German Army? If so, why and how is he in a concentration camp?' Concentration camps were a means of indefinite detention for a variety of "undesirables" - left-wing politicos, gays, Jews, gypsies etc. Refusing conscription was a civil or military capital offence, resulting in summary trial by a 'People's Court' or court-martial, followed by execution, initially by firing squad, later by beheading (guillotine). The classic case was Franz Jaegerstaetter, beheaded in Brandenburg Prison in Berlin on 9 August 1943, but there were more than 250 others, beginning with August Dickmann, shot on 15 September 1939.

So, where does the character in your story fit into this scenario, and what was the battalion that he 'persuaded' and how did he make contact in order to the persuading?

 

The only Battalion that he would possibly be in contact with would be a 'penal Battalion' I would think , but even then he would have been probably turned in by one of prisoners for 'brownie points'