November 2020 Post #60

Quote for the day: "This is one of the most dramatic coastlines in North America, perhaps in the world. Rising almost directly from the surf behind a tiny striplet of beach, the face of Sleeping Bear heaves skyward like the flank of some enormous buff-colored animal, hulking and severe." William Ashworth. The Great Lakes. 1987.

Reviews

World War II Conscientious Objectors: Germfask, Michigan The Alcatraz Camp

by Jane Kopecky

The treatment of conscientious objectors (COs) in World War II is a subject rarely written about even in histories of the homefront during WW II. As a history major at CMU let alone in high school I never read or heard it mentioned. Which, after reading this meticulously researched and revelatory book seems all the stranger because the treatment of COs during the war goes to the very heart of the Constitution, religious freedom, and personal rights.

The primary focus of this book is the CO camp at Germfask in the U.P. Out of the 151 CO camps in the country during WW II the camp at Germfask was where all the trouble makers were sent. The author presents a concise and very informative overview of how COs were handled before delving into life at the Germfask camp. When inductees declared they were conscientious objectors they were offered non-combat positions in the military. If they rejected that option the COs were sent to camps (usually old CCC camps) where they were given work of supposedly vital importance to the nation. The government assumed COs came from churches that held pacifism as a basic tenant of their faith. The camps were even turned over to members of the peace churches to administer. The "campers," as they were called, had to pay $35 a month while at the camp. What Select Service didn't understand was that many of the COs refused to serve due to their personal belief that war and killing were morally wrong. Many were inspired followers of Gandhi. 

This later group refused to pay for being forced into confinement and knew they were given unimportant make-work jobs. They protested being held in involuntary servitude, tried to spread their belief in pacifism, and most refused to do any work. In short, the Selective Service considered them trouble makers and sent them to the Germfask camp in order to isolate them from other COs, public view, and simply incarcerate them. 

Impressive primary research went into telling the Germfask story. Kopecky interviewed many of the "campers" in person, by phone, or letter. She also included short autobiographical essays by a few of the "campers." The COs at Germfask were a widely diverse group. Many were highly educated. Counted among them were lawyers, teachers, writers, artists, and scientists who continued their research at Germask. And most continued to be trouble makers. As one camp administrator wrote, "... the main activity of this camp was refusal to work." The camp earned the reputation as the Alcatraz of CO camps because it became the epi-center of non-violent resistance to the very principle of removing conscientious objectors from society.

The book examines how the general public's opinion of COs has changed since WW II and makes it more than clear that the people of the area held "campers" in contempt and on more than one occasion COs were threatened with violence when they got an occasional pass to Manistique or Newberry. Although the camp was only in existence for 13 months the author notes that many of the "campers" became neurotic or deeply depressed. 

The Historical Society of Michigan recently presented the author with the 2020 State History Award for a Privately Printed Book. It's also sure to make the Michigan Notable  Book List.

World War II Conscientious Objectors: Germfask, Michigan The Alcatraz Camp by Jane Kopecky. Privately published. 2020,  $19.95.

The Snow Killings: Inside the Oakland County Child Killer Investigations

by Marney Rich Keenan

For thirteen months in 1976-77, the Detroit metro area was held in a reign of terror as four children ranging in age from 10 to13 were abducted on city streets in plain sight, held captive for four to nineteen days as they were tortured, sexually molested, then murdered. Their bodies were then left beside roads and highways like pieces of litter thrown from a passing car. It resulted in the formation of the Oakland County Child Killer Task Force and at that time became the largest manhunt in history. It was headed by a ranking Michigan State Police Officer. After two years the task force was disbanded saying all leads were followed and no suspects were identified.

The author is a retired Detroit News reporter who followed the case from day one and has continued to write and research the killings for more than forty years. The book is disturbing, sad, revealing, important, and a brilliant example of great writing and reporting. The author leads the reader through a complicated and convoluted history of the case with great clarity and mounting anger. Especially as she details the growing concern by some dedicated detectives who worked it as a cold-case thirty years later and harbored a growing suspicion there was a police cover-up. 

The book highlights the work of Detective Cory Williams of the Livonia Police who began investigating the killings as a volunteer and spent decades looking for the killer. He found inexplicable mistakes made by the Task Force. He also developed new leads and help uncover a state-wide network of pedophiles who worked together to entrap and trade victims, make videotapes and take photographs of sexually abused children. He found the Task Force failed to even consider a 4-time convicted pedophile living in Birmingham. He was never questioned or even considered a suspect probably because his father was an influential GM exec. The pedophile was later found dead of an apparent suicide which baffled a new task force that reopened the case and found the man's suicide was more likely a murder. 

Thirty years after her daughter was grabbed off the street and murdered the victim's mother said in part, "In my opinion, they (the police) have stonewalled and attempted to block every effort to solve these cases. They have refused to answer even the most basic questions. I don't know who is the bigger monster here - the people who murdered these children, or the people who refused to bring them to justice," Keenan has written a true crime epic that will remain with the reader long after the last page has been turned.

The Snow Killing: Inside the Oakland County Child Killing Investigation by Marney Rich Keenan. Exposit, 2020, $29.95.

When Lions Were Kings: The Detroit Lions and the Fabulous Fifties

by Richard Bak

For more than half a century Detroit Lions fans have come to accept the fact that the franchise is the place where head coaches come to die. In seventy years the team has qualified for the playoffs just once and lost that game. A winning season is rarer than a four-leaf clover. But if you're old enough and your memory is sharper than any of the team's recent general managers' grasp of football fundamentals you may remember that in the 1950s the team was the toast of the NFL. And if you don't you will want to read Richard Bak's entertaining and revealing history of the decade when the Lions won three championships and was one of the league's most popular teams.

The book offers readers and fans an intimate, up-close look at the team and the league in the 50s. The author captures the personalities and idiosyncrasies of a team with a roster full of unforgettable characters starting with quarterback Bobby Lane. As one reporter wrote, "They were the living example of the power of positive drinking." There are play by play descriptions from some of the most significant games of the decade and seemingly every page contains great anecdotes and interesting insights into the team. 

In surveying the league in the 1950s the author found the NFL was pretty much Lilly white. There were no minority coaches, executives, shareholders, or even waterboys. There were very few Black players and in 1953 when the Lions won the championship game it was the last year an all-white team won the title. The author also covers in some detail how little was done to make the game safe for players. Concussions were an everyday occasion on the practice field and on game days. The personal cost in cases of dementia and crippling arthritis as the players grew older was and still is epidemic.

The fact that jumped off the page and slapped me in the face was that in the 1950s when the Lions led the league in ticket sales the ownership cleared an annual profit of between $100,000 and $200,000. Today the team that has perfected losing when they go into the fourth quarter with a lead and have seldom recorded a winning season find the Fords pocketing $75 million annually in profits. No wonder the owner is content with a mediocre team, it's simply a case of profits over pride. This is a very good book about a team that once long, long ago was a world-beater. I know, it sounds like a fairy tale. A word must be said about the care and beauty that went into the design and production of this book. From page layout, cover design, artwork, and the selection of paper this is a championship effort. 

When the Lions were Kings: The Detroit Lions and the Fabulous Fifties by  Richard Bak. Wayne State University Press, 2020, $39.95. https://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/when-lions-were-kings.

The Widow and the Warrior

by John Wemlinger

Anna Shane is the national political editor for the Washington Post and is busier than a hamster on a treadwheel trying to keep up with a President that seems to thrive on chaos and sets policy and runs the country via Twitter. But Anna's life is about to change forever when her mother dies and she returns to Frankfort, Michigan to bury her. She meets with her mother's attorney and to her surprise learns the lawyer's sole client was her mother and she died a billionaire. That is not the only surprise in store for Anna in Wemlinger's hopelessly addictive and immensely readable novel.

The author has boldly woven a novel that combines elements of a variety of genres.  It is family history with a dark past, a political thriller, and the rise of armed militias that could have been ripped from recent Michigan headlines. If that's not enough to keep you frantically turning pages there's the contract killer hired to keep Anna from getting her mother's money, Anna learns who her father was, and finally, there is the moving plight of families' who lost loved ones in Iraq and Afganistan and a noble plan to help them. After all the above, be ready for a jaw-dropping twist in the last few pages. This novel is the literary equivalent of dipping a spoon in a memorable bouillabaisse. 

A hallmark of any Wemlinger novel is the creation of believable and interesting characters, even the minor ones are well-drawn and attention-grabbing individuals. Once again John Wemlinger has demonstrated that he is one of Michigan's most under-rated and under-appreciated authors. His last two novels are on my own personal list of Michigan Notable Books. 

The Widow and the Warrior by John Wemlinger. Mission Point Press, 2020, $16.95

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