Biography
Ernest Gellert was a Hungarian-American socialist and conscientious objector, the younger brother of the radical artist Hugo Gellert. Drafted in 1917, he refused military service on grounds of conscience and was confined at Fort Hancock on Sandy Hook, New Jersey, where he was made to stand at the edge of his own grave-like pit as punishment. On March 8, 1918, he was found shot dead while under military confinement. The Army ruled the death a suicide committed to protest the treatment of conscientious objectors, though the circumstances have long been questioned. His death became a rallying point for critics of the brutal treatment of objectors in World War I military prisons.
Roger Baldwin's 1925 introduction identifies Gellert as a conscientious objector who died by suicide in a military camp in protest against treatment and the apparent futility of resistance. Becker's accompanying lithograph is captioned Four Hours in the Snow—Ernest Gellert Before His Suicide. This is a contemporary attributed account and illustration; the image is not an authentic photographic portrait and does not resolve later questions about the death. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/culture/pubs/wm/highres/v4n08-jun-1925-6-gra-WM.pdf#page=14
