THE MEN WHO SAID NO | ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION | CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION | PRISONS | SENTENCED TO DEATH | TRIBUNALS | WIDER CONTEXT | INDEX
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THE MEN WHO SAID NO | ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION | CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION | PRISONS | SENTENCED TO DEATH | TRIBUNALS | WIDER CONTEXT | INDEX |
| NATHAN SOGON 1892 - |
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| When Nathan Sogon was called before his local Tribunal in 1916 he, like thousands of other Conscientious Objectors, argued that as an Internationalist he would refuse to fight and kill those he considered his brothers - workers of any nation, more similar to him than to the politicians and generals of Britain. For Nathan, this internationalist belief would have been particularly strong as his parents had moved to London from Russia. Many first and second generation immigrants to Britain refused to fight on national grounds. For some, this meant that they could not fight people of their own nations, perhaps even their own families. COs of Russian descent had more difficulty in justifying their position. Russia was an ally of Britain during the war, and families who had fled the cruel persecution and grinding poverty of Russia frequently refused to fight on the side of the autocratic Tsar. Nathan was even judged not to be a legitimate Conscientious Objector by the Central Tribunal when he was sent before them in October 1917. Their decision meant prison with no possibility of the Home Office Scheme or early release and he was imprisoned from August 1917 to April 1919 in Wormwood Scrubs and Wandsworth.
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