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Just
as many Canadian women contributed to the war effort, Mennonite
women did their share as well. Mennonite women, like their brothers,
fathers, and sons, believed in a peaceful life of nonresistance.
In
Waldheim, Saskatchewan, some Mennonites refused to follow the National
Registration Act. They would not register their names with the government
or provide any information to them. At the end of an article about
these men, The Star-Phoenix
made a small note about the women in the family:
"The
Unruh girls, Susan and Elizabeth, also charged with failure to
register, also told the magistrate they had not registered and
would not. They were clothed in long black dresses, wore black
shawls, and answered the court's questions meekly."
“I
feel that if I registered I would be eternally damned,” said one
of them. “I am in your hands now,” she said, addressing the magistrate.
“There will be a day yet when nobody will take me away from God,”
she concluded."
“Yes,
I know you are in my hands and I wish it was somebody else's,”
remarked Magistrate Leger. He fined them each $25 and costs with
the alternative of two months in the women's jail in Battleford."
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