Nick

On January 16, our class visited the Imperial War Museum Archives. My experience at the museum was incredibly impactful; many of the exhibits left me speechless and with a feeling of intense emotion. Going through the simulated trenches and seeing videos and pictures from the Holocaust made me incredibly uncomfortable.

I chose to analyze The Flowery pamphlet. This little booklet featured works of art, poems, and short essays from prisoners on old, fragile paper. These works were meant to highlight the humanity of the conscientious objectors in prison during the wars. There was only one copy of each edition of The Flowery due to the risks associated with its anti-war association. I chose to take a deeper look at a short work titled, “To First Timers.’” This work was a message to the first timers in prison. It interestingly described prison in a positive light due to the camaraderie the conscientious objectors shared. This positive outlook was impactful as it demonstrated how the COs and pacifists approached their circumstances with optimism and not bitterness. This continual positivity keeps them going, fighting for nonviolent solutions. These nonviolent solutions align with many of the opinions of the Bloomsbury Group; many of the members within the group were conscientious objectors themselves. The work of Bloomsbury culminated to serve as pacifist activism as emphasized by Virginia Bell’s decision to move to the countryside with Duncan Grand and David Barnett to “facilitate their Conscientious Objection by allowing them perform nonmilitary government service through farming.”1

While we have learned about various glorious war stories, in this instance we can see equally inspiring stories of individuals collaborating in jail for their pacifist beliefs. The passion and unconditional positivity I saw in the selected works was inspiring and provided me more insight on the character of conscientious objectors.