Call Number:

CDG-A.Dietrich correspondence

Repository:

Swarthmore College Peace Collection

Extent:

1.04 linear ft. (12.5 linear inches.)

Preferred Citation:

Cite as: Swarthmore College Peace Collection, CDG-A., Dietrich correspondence..

Date:

1939-1946, 1988-1998 (inclusive) and 1939-1946 (bulk)

Creator:

Dietrich, Albert, 1914-2002, Dietrich, Frank, 1914-2009, and Dietrich, Christine

Abstract:

Collection consists of correspondence between the two brothers and their letters to their parents and to Frank's wife, Christine; topics include war, peace, patriotism, daily life in the army and Civilian Public Service, and arguments about the use of military force and pacifist nonviolence in the face of Nazi Germany and expansionist Japan; Frank's letters from the Philippines offer descriptions of life there, and the challenges of wartime marriages and parenthood.

Albert Giles Dietrich; Frank Ryall Dietrich; identical twins, born 1914 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; during World War II, Albert, a pacifist, was a conscientious objector who spent two years building dams, working on hookworm eradication projects, performing emergency farm labor, and training COs for overseas relief work at Civilian Public Service camps; Frank was drafted into the Army Air Forces and trained as a radio operator, and was shipped to the Philippines in 1945, where as a sergeant in the Fifth Air Force he prepared for the invasion of Japan.