War Service
Unlike North American Mennonites, who emigrated in the 18th century, French Mennonites had largely abandoned the principle of non-resistance or pacifism. It was not unusual then that Widmer enrolled in the Ecole des Sous-Officiers, a military academy at Saint Maixent.
Afterwards, he became a primary school teacher near Montbéliard but remained in the Army reserves. When France declared war on Germany in September 1939, Widmer was called back to the Army. He was serving on the front along the Rhine when Germany invaded France in June 1940. His unit was beaten back to the Vosges mountains. Widmer was taken prisoner by the Germans at Masevaux in the Haut Rhin.
Read more about this topic: Pierre Widmer
Famous quotes containing the words war and/or service:
“This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final Note stating that, unless we heard from them by 11 o’clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany.”
—Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940)
“Service ... is love in action, love “made flesh”; service is the body, the incarnation of love. Love is the impetus, service the act, and creativity the result with many by-products.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 3, ch. 3 (1962)