Biography
Benjamin Breger was a conscientious objector from New York imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for refusing military service, he was held at Fort Leavenworth; Fort Douglas. (Documented in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection's World War I Conscientious Objectors database.) Archival note: registered for draft on June 5, 1917, but not as a C.O.; had hose turned on him (along with Hennessey) for 15-20 mins. while at Ft. Riley*; interviewed by Bd. in July 1918 at Leavenworth; classed by Bd. as 2; charged with disobedience of orders; reason for stance = humanitarian; …
Confirmed Camp Funston guardhouse transfer
The signed report on treatment of conscientious objectors identifies Benjamin Breger among those received at the Camp Funston Military Police Guard House on September 5, 1918. This is a confirmed facility receipt, not an independently established new arrest or beginning of all imprisonment. The September 5 and September 27 groups explicitly came from the Fort Riley guardhouse. The report individually describes Breger being beaten, joining the hunger strike and placed in solitary confinement. The appended affidavit describes Bregar already bound in a cell on the day before August 26, 1918; that is evidence of prior confinement, not the date of initial admission. The report covers events through October 21 but does not supply an individual discharge date. Existing original-admission, release, sentence and total-duration fields are not replaced by this receipt date or calculated from a military sentence.
