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That depended on the reasons why. Some important positions, such as certain medical doctors or “key” important bosses or special exemption type civil positions, might be exempted from having to do army service because their importance to the continued running of the country would have been a special case under the regulations.However, “other” cases of men who refused to put on the uniform because of Religious or reasons of conscience, likely would have faced hard times ahead.There were cases where people who were known to not go to fight, were “Tarred and Feathered”, painted with sticky black bitumen tar, (stuff like you use to fix leaky rooftops or holes in roads) and covered in white feathers (a sign of a cowardice person). Other houses of non-fighters were mailed or were sent white feathers, to “shame” them for cowardice.Death and disease were everywhere in the trenches, bodies of “long deceased” soldiers often never got buried. this was a dead German soldier killed outside his shelter, but months later, still there, rotting, un-buried. Skulls and skeletons of dead soldiers were seen everywhere on battlefields. it was just too risky and far too dangerous usually to climb up out the trenches to bury them.Freezing cold in winter was also another danger, from frostbite and hypothermia. Soldiers wrapped themselves sometimes in sheets, or old fallen comrades coats, or sheepskins to stay warmer and live longer.Some men actually who should NOT have gone to the war front and who had genuine reasons for serious military exemption, such as the son of famous writer Rudyard Kipling, decided come what may to go to fight….but he had terribly poor eyesight, and got killed leading his men in an attack. He was a very brave and courageous young man, it was a sad story. He should not have gone or died like that, but he refused to be left behind.A film was made about the story some years ago, featuring the star from the Harry Potter films, playing the role of Kipling's son, Jack.All soldiers were required to pass a Medical examination for fitness before joining the Army. Jack had very bad eyesight, and could not read unless he wore his optical corrective glasses. this left him in a very serious and extra dangerous situation in one which already was.Actor extraordinaire, Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) plays Jack Kipling in a world war one true story film about a young man with bad sightedness who went to fight in the trenches of world war one.The end for poor Jack….The Trenches were no place for someone who had really bad eyesight, but Jack wanted to fight….Cowardice or “Funk”The White Feather came to symbolize cowardice during the Great War and was sent to men who refused to fight. Others were mobbed, attacked and painted black with sticky tar and then “feathered” covered in these white feathers.Many soldiers who had fought for a long time, and suffered constant fatigue, lack of sleep, bad food and unsanitary conditions there were no proper toilets in trenches!!) and being sent over the “top” in attacks several times (if they survived this long which most did not) could suffer a condition known now as “shell shock”, and risk being accused of cowardice and desertion in the face of the enemy. Conditions were truly appalling in the trenches.At his utter wits and nerves “ending” this poor soldier has clearly “had enough”, but does this really honestly mean he had been a coward at all? he had been there for months already fighting but “cracked” under the endless strain.German soldiers faced the same terrible privations in their own trenches, these soldiers are trying to grab a few moments of precious sleep whilst others keep watch ahead of the trench in case the enemy attacks.Soldiers were cold, often wet through from the rains and very muddy. Food was often bad, and in short supply, and endless bombardments denied them basic sleep. rats and terrible flys were also everywhere….Sometimes, when shells exploded, “beefsteaks” would come splashing around the inside of the trench. “Beefsteaks” were the cynical name given to the various pieces of dead soldiers bodies, which, laying hundreds deep in front of trenches and no man's land, would get “hit” again and again and break up, flying through the air and splashing all over the still alive soldiers in their trenches.The disease was also, unsurprisingly, another massive killer of soldiers during the war.Quakers for example, refused for reasons of conscience to kill in battle or to fight, however, evidently from history, some found doing ambulance and casualty treatment as part of the medical or ambulance corps acceptable in uniform (carrying a rifle on the truck for self-defence purposes might have been seen as acceptable, whereas to go into direct killing actions as part of the front line army might not to these type of men. Certainly, there was a Quaker ambulance service or corps, so this must have been legally tolerated.Back home in England, the public mood was very much against those who refused to fight and much propaganda exists about this from the time.You would NOT be remotely popular if other men gave their lives and you stayed at home or hid yourself.Some, however, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses refused to fight per see, and faced considerably rather more serious trouble as well as shame and disgrace.The Watchtower Organization did not exist back then as the same legal entity that it now is as it does today, but it is known war is an issue of “conscience” and of Religious faith or loyalty to God” and they believed rightly or wrongly, that to go to fight in armed service was wrong. I could not trace records of them from World War One but I did find this from the Second World War.Jehovah's Witnesses are conscientiously opposed to war and to their participation in such in any form whatsoever. ... during World War II in Europe, at least 260 Witnesses, according to incomplete reports, were executed because of their stand. it is strange given the large size of their numbers that so few are registered, but it is also known that the Nazis sent most to concentration or death camps. Purple trianglePurple triangleThe purple triangle was a concentration camp badge used by the Nazis to identify Bibelforscher (or "Bible Student") in Nazi Germany. The purple triangle was introduced in July 1936 with other concentration camps such as those of Dachau and Buchenwald following in 1937 and 1938.In the winter of 1935-36, before the onset of the war, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been reported to make up 20-40% of the prisoners in concentration camps.The purple triangle was originally introduced to identify Jehovah’s Witnesses. As the number and diversity of prisoners accelerated, the category represented by the purple triangle expanded to include other prisoners held due of their religious convictions, including clergy of various denominations, Adventists, Baptists, Bible Student splinter groups and pacifists.Jehovah’s Witnesses, however, did continue to make up the majority of prisoners in this category."In the Feeding Queue": The Force-Feeding of Conscientious Objectors in First World War EnglandIn July 1917, conscientious objector Clarence Henry Norman prosecuted Lt. Reginald Brooke for unlawful assault. Norman alleged that he had been spat on, placed in a strait-jacket, verbally abused and forcibly fed at Wandsworth Detention Barracks. Initially, Norman had been detained for refusing to submit to a medical examination and declining to put on a military uniform. Brooke defended his belligerent actions by claiming that he had been forced to place Norman in a strait-jacket as the prisoner was suicidal and determined to starve to death on a hunger and thirst strike. During his multiple feedings, Brooke aggressively accused Norman of being a “coward”, a “swine”, a “beast” and a “sham conscientious objector”. Verbal abuse had been necessary, Brooke claimed, as Norman was a coward, not a conscientious objector. In Brooke's view, Norman fully deserved every word of the strong language uttered to him.Too not put on any uniform at all was asking for serious trouble.Welsh Objectors of Conscience.It is very important not to judge these people in light of what we know today.The Society and “world view” back in 1914 when the “Great War” began, was not the same as it is now today in our “modern” world. Many volunteered in a rush to “be the first”. No one knew the appaling conditions and mortality that awaited these daring young men, at the hands of incompetent generals such as Douglas “Butcher” Hague who got 57,000 men killed at the battle of the Somme in France, in just ONE day…..Not “funny” is it?!Image copyright Getty IMAGES/HULTON ARCHIVEConscientious objectors stone, Tavistock Square, London, England, UK.It took just as much courage to refuse to put on the uniform than it did to put on the uniform and fight. Jehovahs witnesses and Quakers and others refused, and many were sent to prison, and severely chastised by Army guards for cowardice.A Quaker objector from World War One.It took undoubted bravery to fight in World War One, however, a research project is now shedding new light on the courage it also required not to fight.As part of the Heritage Lottery-funded Wales For Peace project, academics have produced a database of about 900 Welsh conscientious objectors, as well as new details on the reasons they would not take up arms.The online resource for Wales - part of the wider UK Pearce Register of conscientious objectors - is being launched at the National Eisteddfod in Abergavenny.Upon the introduction of conscription in 1916, 16,000 men across Britain refused to serve in combat roles on grounds of personal, political or religious conscience.Most agreed to work as stretcher-bearers or labourers at the front, or otherwise undertake tasks deemed vital to the war effort at home, such as farming or mining.However, for a small minority their opposition to the war was so implacable their consciences would not allow them to perform any task which could conceivably have been seen as supporting or furthering the conflict.Image captionAled Eirug is completing a PHD into Welsh conscientious objectionAs academic Aled Eirug - who is completing a PHD into Welsh conscientious objection - explained, for these men the war could be every bit as tough as it was for those at the front."I think there was some willingness by the government to compromise - especially on grounds of religion - but only with those conscientious objectors who were willing to co-operate with an alternative, non-combat service."For the absolutists, who refused to have any part of the war whatsoever, David Lloyd George had stated that he would make it a very tough war indeed."They were repeatedly imprisoned - because as soon as they'd served one sentence they'd be immediately called up again - and some died from the conditions in which they were held.'Intimidation and ridicule'"Of those who survived, they'd face intimidation and ridicule back home, and there were even attempts to deny them the vote."Mr Eirug was moved to research the topic as his own grandfather and father were conscientious objectors, in World War One and World War Two respectively.It soon became clear there were many different factors motivating conscientious objection in Wales.Traditionally Welsh nonconformist beliefs have been cited as the primary motivation, with theologians at Bala-Bangor College heading a vocal opposition to conscription.But Mr Eirug believes this was not the whole story."Whilst it's true to say Welsh nonconformists played a leading role, there were many other religious groups involved: Quakers, Jehovah's Witnesses and Christadelphians to name just a few."For others, their objection was political rather than religious. In south Wales where the Independent Labour Party was gaining traction, many socialists felt that they couldn't take part in a capitalist war between two imperial powers."There was also a sense that the British Army didn't represent Welsh people; something which Lloyd George was at pains to address in his recruitment speeches."Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionDavid Lloyd George'A timely reminder'Much of Mr Eirug's research has been made possible by Cyril Pearce, a retired senior lecturer and honorary research fellow at the University of Leeds.He has spent his career recreating the Pearce Register of UK conscientious objectors, as the original tribunal records were destroyed after World War One on government orders.Using newspaper cuttings, diaries, letters and personal recollections, Wales For Peace team have now collated the Welsh entries into a database.It enables users to search names, beliefs and motivations for objecting, some family details, and to search groups of conscientious objectors from specific towns or counties.The database will be officially launched at 13:00 BST in the Eisteddfod's Peace Tent, and will go live online from 1 September - in time for use by schools and colleges in the new academic year.Mr Eirug added: "The register serves as a catalyst for further in-depth research into the lives of individual objectors across Wales, and serves as a timely reminder that carrying a gun was not the only way to become a hero."Some men tried to tell lies to the board to escape the draft for Military service.And as for any soldier who deserted his post or ran away or suffering we know now from shell shock who refused to fight, would probably be executed for desertion in ac of the enemy. However, we now know from history, that many shots for so-called cowardice were mentally imbalanced and not in act cowards (many had been t the front facing bombs and shells and bullets for months and had quite honestly “cracked up”. This cast a poor record on good men who were wrongly accused of “funk”. If this happened his family faced shame and the small allowance sometimes paid to widows from the army was “refused”.There seem to have been some of the men sent instead, as alternative service, to the Royal Army Medical Corps (or R.A.M.C).Proper and rightful reason had to be proved and shown to not do military service. Sometimes, a certificate of exemption was issued to some genuine men, for various reasons, such as physical handicap or infirmity or something like that.Men with these were not cowards, they were officially not allowed to do armed service.A typical court-martial trial in the Army. This one is actually from India,(I could not find any world war one photos taken of court martials). but gives the general atmosphere and feel of such a trial and what it would be like to experience.Below. It was obligatory to at once present yourself, along with your excuses and story, to the authority, for them to then decide whether or not you could for one reason or another be exempted.Bad enough to lose your son, husband or brother, but to face shame and blame or disgrace and no financial aid was frankly “not on”.“William Percival Boon it is the finding of this Tribunal that you are guilty of cowardice and of desertion in the face of the enemy. You abandoned your weapon and ran away. You are therefore a coward and a funk. The sentence of this Tribunal is that you are guilty, and the sentence is death. You shall be executed at dawn tomorrow for cowardice.”There could be no appeal against the decision of the Military court martial….Even soldiers who were trying to return to their own frontline trenches risked being found and accused by pre-assuming officers of desertion or funk, the old army word for a yellow or a coward. But just because of a soldier had lost his rifle in a scrap or dust-up with the enemy did not make him a coward, but just try to tell that to the “superiors” in 1914 to 1918.A white blindfold was sometimes placed over the face of the condemned soldier just before execution by firing squad.Another problem faced, were those “out of uniform, men and women who in fact, turned out to be spies. If you were caught spying, the sentence would be the same, death by firing squad.Above. The very beautiful, but deadly female spy, code-named agent H21, “Mata Hari” was executed for espionage by the French during the war.Norwich “Nurse” Edith Cavell was also executed for helping prisoners to escape.Her death caused public outrage and the numbers of men who decided to enlist went up remarkably at the time of her death.The Funeral cortege of Edith Cavell. People turned out to watch the train and the procession as her coffin was transported across England, to be later buried in Norwich cathedral. It was the same public impact as Britain was to see never again until almost a century later for the funeral cortege of Her Royal Highness Princess of Wales lady Diana Spencer.The funeral service for Edith Cavell was a state full occasion, it was in London.Not everyone shot was a coward at all, and there is a foul bad taste right down to this day over these affairs, over the non-pardoning of those in this category who were shot for reasons such as this back there.All across England, recruitment posters were glued to walls, railway notice boards and bus stations, shops windows, Post offices, everywhere. this is the poster of Lord or marshall Kitchener.Another problem of the war was men far too young volunteering and lying about their age. many were not yet of age but did not want to be left behind, (as if going to war was for them a great adventure having had in many cases a limited social life in pre-war Britain's poverty).It was not just Britain who faced this problem, it was many other countries too, including Germany itself.Dunedin is likely to set up New Zealand's first conscientious objector memorial. It would have been unimaginable during World War 1, when ''conchies'' were widely vilified as shirkers and traitors. Bruce Munro asks, how should we now view those who fought for peace by refusing to take up arms?Two children stand among the hushed throng as the bugler's Last Post laments the glorious dead of The Great War.The girl touches medals pinned to her jacket. She calls to mind a photograph of her great-grandfather in a uniform.Her tongue and lips play silently with the exotic names of Chunuk Bair, Mesopotamia and Longueval.Near her, a neighbour's son watches the new dawn's golden rays caress the top of the war memorial.The stories passed down to him contain names from an equally distant time and place - Étaples, Ypres and the Somme. He too recalls with pride a long-dead relative.But there are no polished medals on his young chest.Instead, he imagines a man tied to a post on open ground, his feet and hands tightly bound, as shells explode nearby.Can this be right? Do we have here the descendant of a cowardly shirker standing at this commemoration for those who died fighting for freedom?Or have we got it wrong? Is this an unwitting assembly in honour of thousands of sacrificial pawns, visited today by a representative of the few who bravely pointed to a better way of pursuing peace?Or perhaps it is something else again.Within a month of war being declared in August 1914, New Zealand soldiers had occupied the German territory of Western Samoa.By the end of October, more than 8000 troops left for the other side of the world. Volunteer reinforcements did not keep up with demand.Young men who did not enlist were labelled shirkers and cowards. In 1916, conscription, compulsory enlistment, was introduced.By war's end, 72,000 volunteers and 32,000 conscripts - a tenth of the total population - would have served overseas with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Nearly one-fifth did not return alive.They went to fight, and die, for King and country. That is how most saw it: as their duty and the best way to defeat an evil enemy and restore peace.But the more the genesis of the war is researched, the murkier its moral imperative appears.University of Otago historian Tom Brooking says while Germany will probably always have the most blame apportioned to it, new research suggests culpability goes much wider.''All the new books coming out about 1914 are suggesting it was a European problem ... and everyone was to blame to some extent,'' Prof Brooking says.''The best of the new books is called The Sleepwalkers. I think that captures what happened; they walked into war without thinking.''At the start of hostilities, up to 90% of New Zealanders strongly supported their country's involvement in World War 1.But there were those who were less enthusiastic. Officially, about 3000 people were listed as conscientious objectors; individuals who claimed the right to refuse military service on the grounds of conscience, freedom of thought or religion.Religious conscientious objectors were the biggest group. Although most churches supported the war, some religions, such as the Society of Friends (Quakers), taught that war was wrong.Jesus told his followers to love their enemies and to refuse violence, they said.Another group, Christadelphians, would not take up arms because war was part of a worldwide system in which they were not to participate.Some socialists were also conscientious objectors, arguing the world's workers should not fight each other. West Coast trade unionist Jim O'Brien maintained that while the workers fought, the capitalists prospered.This allegation has some basis in fact. In 1916, the Labour Party came into existence opposing conscription of men when there was not also conscription of wealth, Prof Brooking says.Whereas in the United Kingdom wages increased during the war, in New Zealand prices skyrocketed and wages stayed about the same.''The worst thing was that rents were going through the roof and wages weren't keeping up,'' Prof Brooking says.Internationally, there were some gross examples of war profiteering. Kevin Clements, who is director of the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Otago, cites one such case.''Capitalists certainly did prosper,'' Prof Clements says.''There was a situation where Britain needed high-powered binoculars and Germany needed rubber. And they did a trade ... in Switzerland. The wheels of industry certainly kept turning.''A mix of separatism and pacifism motivated central North Island Maori leaders' objections to conscription.The other main group of conscientious objectors were Irish Catholics. After Ireland's Easter Rising was crushed in 1916, an increasing number of Irish in New Zealand objected to fighting on behalf of the British Empire.The grounds for being granted the exemption as a conscientious objector were limited. Between the introduction of conscription and the end of the war two years later, only 73 objectors were offered the exemption.Almost 300 were imprisoned for refusing military service. Many more elected to take up non-combatant roles in New Zealand and overseas.Fourteen were forcibly sent to Europe to experience the reality of war, as a ''cure'' for their idealism.''Conchies'' were derided, posted white feathers and barred from sports clubs. A note in the Dunedin Quakers' minute bookmarking the end of the war bears brief, tantalizing witness to their treatment.''The conscientious objectors of our Society, and others like-minded have fared badly,'' it states.And the repercussions did not end with the armistice. About 2600 conscientious objectors lost their civil rights: they were not allowed to vote for 10 years and could not get work with central or local government.This was despite the fact that as the war dragged on and the numbers of deaths mounted, opposition to the war and support for conscientious objectors slowly grew.But much of this new pacifism was kept secret until well after the war.It is hard to ignore the extent to which soldiers and conscientious objectors shared common experiences, qualities and goals.Soldiers serving anywhere on the 700km-long Western Front experienced the squalor and horror of trench warfare: parallel lines of trenches separated by a strip of barbed wire-laced open land where the call to go ''over the top'' gave artillery, machine guns and poison gas an open invitation to deal out injury and death in staggering numbers.More than 18,000 New Zealand soldiers were killed during World War 1, while more than twice that number were either wounded or became sick.For some conscientious objectors, such as Otago brothers Harry and Cecil Wardell, it was an experience with which they also became all too familiar.The Wardells were Irish immigrants raised in Dunedin as Quakers. Harry, Cecil and their two brothers worked in their father's George St grocery business before trying their hands at farming.In 1915, Harry and Cecil, finding a way to honour their pacifist beliefs and their desire to ease suffering, volunteered for the Friends Ambulance Unit.They served in France, Belgium and Austria before transferring to the Red Cross Society's First British Ambulance Unit, in Italy.In 1918, the Otago Daily Times reported the brothers had been awarded medals.''An official report from the head of the Military Medical Board of the Italian army calls attention to the highly excellent work done for the wounded at the battle of the Piave Bridge in most critical circumstances,'' the report states.''Much of the work was done under constant fire, and in recognition of their bravery, the cross Al Merito de Guerre was awarded to the ambulance drivers, among whom are Second Lieutenant Harry J Wardell and Second Lieutenant Cecil W Wardell.''In addition ... Lieutenant Cecil Wardell received the silver medal Pro Valore Militaire, the second highest decoration in the Italian army.''The most celebrated of New Zealand's WW1 conscientious objectors is Archibald Baxter, of Dunedin.He and two of his brothers were among the 14 shipped off to war. Abused during the sea voyage and in England, 10 of the men, including Baxter, were then sent to Étaples, in France.Told they would be shot if they refused to submit, several relented and became stretcher bearers.The four remaining men were subjected to Field Punishment No 1: being tied to a post in the open, near the front lines, for up to four hours at a time, in all weathers.Three survived, only to be forced into the trenches and subjected to further abuse.In April 1918, Baxter was admitted to hospital with ''mental weakness and confusional insanity'' and then sent back to New Zealand.He and Mark Briggs were the only two of the original 14 who held out to the end.Whether fighting in a uniform or refusing to put a uniform on, both are acts of bravery, Prof Brooking says.''It takes enormous courage to be one of a small handful of people standing against something that has huge popular support,'' he says.''It takes enormous courage to go over the top as well. Lots of men were being extraordinarily brave. And Baxter himself said many of the soldiers never condemned him.''You can't deny the courage of someone like Baxter who just refused to put on the uniform because he was opposed to the war in any form.Of course, the argument against that is that one of the democratic responsibilities, in return for all the rights, is to go and defend your country.''It was not just bravery in the face of harsh realities that soldiers and conscientious objectors shared.Ultimately, both were fighting for the same thing: peace. Conchies were trying to bring about peace by stopping people fighting one another, just as soldiers thought they were going to bring about peace by beating the enemy.''The ends were the same; the means were dramatically different,'' Prof Brooking says.''That's the fundamental point of the debate.''Has either succeeded? Not yet.DESPITE conscientious objectors' stand for non-violence, and despite the cyclic waxing and waning of support for their viewpoint, armed conflict continues.The soldiers' solution, the War to end all Wars, proved to be anything but. And other attempts - diplomacy and international agreements - have also signally failed to bring lasting peace.''Maybe more thought needs to be given to the root causes like growth in inequality and poverty,'' Prof Brooking says.''Unless those things are addressed, perhaps the wretched thing will never go away. I've just turned 65 and I thought as a young, wild-eyed idealist listening to all those protest songs that we'd get there. But singing a few songs ain't enough. It has to be addressed on a whole lot of fronts.''In the meantime, we honour the soldiers' courage and dedication.Anzac Day and other war observances have been growing in popularity again since the late 1990s, a result of nostalgia mixed with a desire to identify and honour national heroes.Is it possible to also memorialise the actions of conscientious objectors? A chorus of ''yes'' is coming from most quarters. Even Dunedin Returned and Services Association president Jenepher Glover says a memorial would be appropriate.After initially considering a site on Anzac Ave, the Archibald Baxter Memorial Trust is now proposing locating it in the Otago Museum reserve, which already has a peace memorial.A meeting between the trust, the museum and the university is being organized to discuss the idea, trustee Richard Jackson says. The design of the conscientious objectors memorial will be worked on after the location is known, he says.''The point of the memorial is to acknowledge that these people created a space for political dissent at considerable personal cost,'' Prof Clements, who is chairman of the trust, says.''It is a space that is really important to have so that people can exercise their conscience when the State asks them to do things that contravene it.''Conscientious objectors should have an important place in World War 1 commemorations, Prof Brooking says.''As part of a balanced commemoration, they need to be remembered and their courage acknowledged, along with that of all the other people involved,'' he saysGerman Objectors.While communities around the UK commemorate the British “conchies”, it is easy to forget the international dimension, especially when it comes to German anti-war activists. This is partly due to how the war itself is considered. This perspective is exemplified by Michael Gove’s view of the First World War as a just war, fought against German militarism:The ruthless social Darwinism of the German elites, the pitiless approach they took to occupation, their aggressively expansionist war aims and their scorn for the international order all made resistance more than justified.And this is certainly how Germany was presented in the British press and propaganda from the very start of the war, mainly driven by atrocities – some imagined, some all too real – committed by the German troops during the invasion and occupation of Belgium.Listen to Ingrid Sharp talk about conscientious objectors on The Anthill podcast episode on World War I here, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.Germany in 1914 was a society dominated by military values. But it would be wrong to think that this was accepted without opposition – that World War I was fought without any dissenting German voices.Pacifist, anti-war voices were effectively suppressed by military censorship, and those working for peace were isolated, persecuted and imprisoned. But they were not completely silenced.Although there was no provision in German conscription laws for exemption, as there was in the UK, there is evidence that there were cases of conscientious objection. These were mostly religiously motivated within very small sects such as Mennonites, Jehova’s Witnesses (known then as Ernste Bibelforscher or Bible Students) and Adventists. Soldiers from these groups were often informally accommodated in non-combatant roles.But conscientious objectors who took the absolutist position, or were politically rather than religiously motivated, had no public platform like their counterparts’ tribunals in the UK. As there was no legal basis for their objection there were no legal cases. They most often found themselves in mental asylums or prisons on the grounds that a German man refusing to do his military duty was either mad or criminal.There are no reliable figures, no memoirs, no supporting organizations for these people. Such references to them as exist are in medical journals. Sending conchies who refused non-combatant service for psychiatric assessment was one way of discrediting their position and also getting rid of potentially troublesome individuals. And if they were not considered insane, they were liable to lengthy terms of imprisonment for “desertion”.The best-known example of a German conscientious objector is the radical anarchist socialist, Ernst Friedrich. Friedrich refused to serve in 1914 and was sent for a psychiatric assessment. When called up again in 1917, he ended up in prison for an act of sabotage and was only released by revolutionary troops in 1918. He joined the revolutionary barricades, showing that he was not unwilling to fight, but only for social justice and against the causes of further wars.Ernst Friedrich went on to achieve international notoriety in the post-war period for his famous book Krieg dem Kriege (War Against War), published in 1924. In it he argued that children were socialized into war by their parents and by playing with war toys and that war benefited the social and economic elite.He also debunked claims about the glory of war and death on the battlefield by reproducing photos of soldiers committing atrocities, with prostitutes, ignominiously dead and unburied on the battlefield or grotesquely injured. These images were often ironically juxtaposed with photos that expressed the civilian view of the war, or extracts from sermons or comments by the military or governing elite. Especially shocking were images of facial injuries that had been kept hidden from the public, even from the soldiers’ families.Towards the end of the Weimar Republic, Friedrich was subject to repeated prosecution. He spent the whole of 1930 in prison and fled in 1933 from the Nazis, who turned his anti-war museum into first a Nazi headquarters and then a torture cellar.Pioneers of peaceAs a defeated nation, Germany found it hard to resist the moral charges against her in the aftermath of war. The moral responsibility for the war was German, and the accusation of war crimes and atrocities was accepted by the international community. They were excluded from international organizations, including the newly-formed League of Nations, and treated as pariahs on the international scene.The previously suppressed voices of the peace movement took on new importance during this period. They emerged, breaking the impression of monolithic Prussian militarism, and showing the possibility of German moral courage. In this way, such voices helped to overcome the overwhelming international antipathy to the entire German nation.German pacifists could then be part of the international groups seeking peace and reconciliation. And in this way, German reintegration into the international scene happened long before it was officially allowed to join the League of Nations in 1926.Awareness of these forms of resistance and the enormous difficulties anti-war activists had in reaching the public make an important contribution to our understanding of World War I and Germany’s response to it.The German government effectively silenced voices for peace between 1914 and 1918, and the Nazis silenced them again after 1933. This is all the more reason why they should be listened to and taken seriously today as we mark its centenary.British Authorities tried to make the best “light” out of wartime situations. Below some Red Cross and medical Nursing posters from the time.Another “funny” poster from the time, but it does send a clear message.Some “funny” posters from Army life in World War One.For more about World War One in the trenches please read my other answer article, click on the link below:Could Douglas Haig's general approach to battles like the Somme during World War I be seen as correct, since if more British soldiers were committed they might have broken the German lines?For another answer about World war one soldiers and the dangers they faced please click hereIs it true that in the British lines in WW1 after going over the top, British Soldiers were assigned to shoot anybody who tried to return to their trenches?For more details of the conditions faced in battlefields, and the French and also a British Wartime Army Mutiny in World War One please click on the link below:Maxime Jouhan Chevallier's answer to How close to defeat was France due to attrition and mutinies in 1917?