Albert Bofman papers, 1940-1948, 1968-1977

Descriptive Inventory for the Collection at Chicago History Museum, Research Center

By Barry Sturm, February-March 1997

Please address questions to:

Chicago History Museum, Research Center

1601 North Clark Street

Chicago, IL 60614-6038

Web-site: http://www.chicagohistory.org/research

© Copyright 2000, Chicago Historical Society

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Title: Albert Bofman papers, 1940-1948, 1968-1977

Main entry: Bofman, Albert.

Inclusive dates: 1940-1948, 1968-1977

Size:

0.5 linear ft. (1 box)

1 sound recording.

Access: This collection is open for research use.

Provenance statement: Gift of D. Bofman (1996.0281).

Terms governing use: Copyright may be retained by the creators of items, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law, unless otherwise noted.

Please cite this collection as: Albert Bofman papers (Chicago History Museum) plus a detailed description, date, and box/folder number of a specific item.

This descriptive inventory contains the following sections:

Biographical note,

Summary description of the collection,

List of online catalog headings about the collection,

Arrangement of the collection,

List of contents of the collection.

Biographical note:

Albert Bofman, conscientious objector and peace activist, was born in Chicago, Ill., on Jan. 14, 1913. He went to Englewood High School in Chicago from 1925-1929. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Chicago in 1937. He sought but never obtained a Master of Arts degree. He could read Hebrew and Yiddish and some French, Latin, and Russian. From 1938 to 1942, he worked as a field advisor for the Illinois Department of Unemployment Compensation, a research assistant for the Illinois Tax Commission, and a price inspector for the Office of Price Administration (OPA).

Bofman claimed conscientious objector status in January 1942. In May 1942 he was laid off from his job as a price inspector, he alleged, for distributing conscientious objector literature to former co-workers. He repeatedly requested but was denied 4F classification. He was sentenced on April 22, 1943, and started to serve time five days later for not reporting for induction in October 1942.

In prison, he worked on a labor crew and taught economics and Russian language courses in the prison library. Bofman periodically lost visiting and correspondence privileges for prison infractions. He was released from prison conditionally on February 13, 1945. His sentence ended on April 26, 1945.

Albert Bofman wrote a report on prison conditions entitled: "Maladministration and Human Relations in a Federal Prison, Sandstone, Minnesota, World War II, 1943-1945." He sent a preliminary draft composed in November 1948 to conscientious objectors, ex-convicts, prison reform groups, and selected friends, among others, and suggested that they make revisions where necessary.

Bofman believed that representatives of countries should not vote according to nationality but according to their personal consciences. Countries should give up national sovereignty. Bofman did not subscribe to the United Nations charter but believed in world government. Bofman supported economic reconstruction with socialism and opposed peacetime conscription. Even as a Jew in response to Nazi atrocities in World War II, he did not believe in Zionism as an answer to anti-Semitism but instead felt it would lead to Jewish nationalism. He suggested pacifism, socialism, and communism. He felt frustrated by his family's and friends' inability to avoid brain-washing by the dominant media's propaganda. In prison, at least, he felt that he was among like-minded people. He believed people must choose statesmen not politicians dominated by political machines; there must be open diplomacy.

Bofman formed an income tax service beginning in 1948 which was still operating as late as 1975. He wrote letters to the editor of Chicago area newspapers condemning the Cold War expenses of the Pentagon, the inequitable nature of the tax system, the greediness of arms manufacturers, and the Vietnam War. He played a major role in the U.S. Committee Against Militarization and its publication, Peacedom Digest.

In March 1969, Bofman offered to donate his peace library to the University of Chicago Library but the university apparently declined this offer. Bofman owned pamphlets and leaflets from thousands of American and hundreds of foreign peace committees. Bofman also collected materials on militarization which consisted of Congressional publications and federal agency publications. Albert Bofman died on May 3, 1977.

Summary description of the collection:

Correspondence, some publications, report on prison conditions, and other items of Albert Bofman, a Chicago-area pacifist who was imprisoned as a conscientious objector and war resister during World War II. Includes correspondence with family members, friends, and fellow pacifists and conscientious objectors, primarily 1943-1948, and a typed/mimeographed report by Bofman in 1948: "Maladministration and Human Relations in a Federal Prison (A Report based on the Federal Prison, Sandstone, Minnesota, 1943-1945)." Topics of the correspondence focus on imprisonment, militarism, and the threat of nuclear war. Later materials include Bofman's work for the U.S. Committee Against Militarization and its publication, Peacedom Digest, and an open-reel audio tape of Bofman's description of American atrocities in the Vietnam War in a recording compiled by Shingo Shibata.

The early correspondence includes Bofman's letters to government agencies, especially requests that the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack send its hearing reports and that the OPA investigate violations of the wartime price codes. He also wrote to private booksellers requesting books. There also is incoming and outgoing correspondence between his sisters and prison officials on his behalf. Later in his life, Bofman's corresponded about trying to donate his peace library. After his death, his family corresponded with archival repositories about donating his library and his manuscripts.

The most detailed of Bofman's letters are to his younger brother Dave when Dave was serving in the army during World War II. Albert discusses his personal philosophy, his activities, and family matters. There are no letters from Dave, however. Dave was inducted into the army in June 1941 and served for three and one-half years in mess hall duties at Chanute Field in Illinois. He was transferred overseas in November 1944.

There is incoming and outgoing correspondence, after Bofman was released from prison, with Walter Gormly, a conscientious objector who also was imprisoned at Sandstone. Gormly was segregated from the other prisoners as a result of his refusal to work and subsequently went on a hunger strike for more than four months.

Chicago History Museum staff do not know the disposition of his voluminous library of peace literature.

List of online catalog headings about the collection:

The following headings for this collection were placed in the online catalog:

Subjects:

Bofman, Albert--Archives.

Gormly, Walter--Archives.

U.S. Committee Against Militarization

Antinuclear movement--Illinois--20th century.

Conscientious objectors--Illinois--Chicago--20th century.

Peace movements--United States--20th century.

Prisons--Minnesota--Sandstone--20th century.

Radicalism--United States--Chicago--20th century.

World War, 1939-1945--Conscientious objectors--Illinois--Chicago.

World War, 1939-1945--Conscientious objectors--Minnesota--Sandstone.

Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Protest movements.

Chicago (Ill.)--Social conditions--20th century.

Form/genre:

Audio tapes.

Correspondence.

Reports.

Added entries:

Gormly, Walter.

Shibata, Shingo, 1930-

U.S. Committee Against Militarization

United States--Minnesota--Sandstone.

United States--Illinois--Cook County--Chicago.

List of contents of the collection:

Box:

folders:

1 Chronology of events 1940-1943

2 Correspondence 1943-1948

3 Correspondence 1944-1947

4 Correspondence with Walter Gormly

5 Correspondence, preliminary draft of prison report, 1944-1948

6 Correspondence, Peacedom Digest and peace library 1968-1975

7 Correspondence, disposition of papers 1977

8 U. S. War Crimes in Vietnam, presented by Shingo Shibata (reel-to-reel audio tape)