Biography
Herman D. Kaplan 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. Sentenced to 15 years in prison (not reduced). (Documented in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection's World War I Conscientious Objectors database.) Archival note: registered for draft on June 5, 1917, as a C.O.; interviewed by Bd. on June 18, 1918 at Camp Upton, and on July 18, 1918 at Ft. Leavenworth; hung by neck & then by arm while at Ft. Riley*; classed by Bd. as 2; charged with disobedience of orders; …
Confirmed Camp Funston guardhouse transfer
The signed report on treatment of conscientious objectors identifies Herman D. Kaplan 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. Kaplan is individually named in the September 14, 27 and 28 mistreatment entries and the October 10 hunger-strike entry. The report signs his name Herman Kaplan; the affidavit addendum prints H. H. Kaplan. That inconsistent initial is not silently adopted as a new name or used to alter an existing vital date. 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.
