Technical Agency: Office of Scientific Research & Development

Summary:

CPS Unit No. 115, a series of medical and research experiments in various locations under the auspices of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) with a cooperative group of the three historic peace churches, opened in 1943 and closed in October 1946. The Brethren, Friends and Mennonites helped recruit volunteers for this series of experiments that were administered through the scientific agency offices. Approximately five hundred COs volunteered for medical experiments conducted by researchers at leading universities and hospitals in the nation. “Though careful to weed out any experiments that might be too closely related to war-work, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and the Brethren Service Committee (BSC) agreed to provide oversight for numerous experiments around the United States”. (Yoder, 2010) The most well publicized of those was the Minnesota Starvation Experiment directed by Ancel Keys at the University of Minnesota Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene.

This description draws on the work of Anne M. Yoder, of the Swarthmore College Peace Collection on “Human Guinea Pigs in CPS Detached Service, 1943-1946, List Compiled by Anne M. Yoder, Archivist, November 2010”. She relied on “work reports sent to NSBRO and/or General Hershey by Mary B. Newman, director of Unit 115”.  (Yoder p. 2)

Directors: Administered through agency officers.

The People:

Approximately five hundred COs volunteered for medical experiments conducted by researchers at leading universities and hospitals in the nation.  Of those, some three hundred men took part in experiments exploring effects of nutrition under different conditions as a way to utilize limited food resources and seek ways to utilize limited food most effectively in relief and rehabilitation efforts in war devastated areas.  A series of experiments sought effective drugs to treat the epidemic disease of malaria, some procedures infecting the men, and then measuring the debilitating effects of the disease.

The American Friends Service Committee and the Brethren Service Committee served as oversight agencies for many of the studies, and the Mennonite Central Committee served in that capacity for one subunit.  A few Mennonites participated in Brethren and Friends projects, “but never more than eleven were to found in Unit No. 115 at any one time.  The Mennonites made their major contributions in other areas of service”. (Gingerich p. 270)

Resources:

For information on Brethren service in human guinea pig experiments, see Leslie Eisan, Pathways of Peace: A History of the Civilian Public Service Program Administered by the Brethren Service Committee.  Elgin, IL:  Brethren Publishing House, 1948, Chapter 9 The Minnesota Experiment in Starvation and Rehabilitation pp. 296-312; Appendix, p. 459.

Brethren Historical Library and Archives at Elgin, IL brethrenarchives@brethren.org

For information on Mennonites in human guinea pig experiments, see Melvin Gingerich, Service for Peace: A History of Mennonite Civilian Public Service. Akron, PA: Mennonite Central Committee printed by Herald Press, Scottdale, PA, 1949, 270-273.

See also Albert N. Keim, The CPS Story: An Illustrated History of Civilian Public Service. Intercourse, PA:  Good Books, 1990.

See also J. Kenneth Kreider, A Cup of Cold Water: The Story of Brethren Service. Elgin, IL: Brethren Press, 2001, Chapter 2.

“Men Starve in Minnesota: Conscientious Objectors Volunteer for Strict Hunger Tests to Study Europe’s Food Problem,” Life Magazine 30 July 1945.

See also Mulford Q. Sibley and Philip E. Jacob, Conscription of Conscience:  The American State and the Conscientious Objector, 1940-47. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1952, Chapter VII: The Service Record of Conscientious Objectors, pp. 124-151.

“Story of CPS 115-R 1943-46, University of Rochester Medical School at Strong Memorial Hospital”, Edited by Robert T. Dick, 1990.

Swarthmore College Peace Collection, Camp periodicals database.

Swarthmore College Peace Collection, Human Guinea Pigs in CPS Detached Service, 1943-1946, List Compiled by Anne M. Yoder, Archivist, November 2010. http://www.swarthmore.edu/Library/peace/conscientiousobjection/CPSResources/MEDICAL%20RESEARCH.pdf

See also Steven J. Taylor, Acts of Conscience: World War II, Mental Institutions, and Religious Objectors. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2009, pp. 80-88.

See Todd Tucker, The Great Starvation Experiment: Ancel Keys and the Men Who Starved for Science. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2006.