CPS Unit Number 110-01
Camp: 110
Unit ID: 1
Title: All-State Hospital
Operating agency: MCC
Opened: 11 1943
Closed: 5 1946
Workers
Total number of workers who worked in this camp: 37
CPS Unit No. 110, a Mental Hospital unit at Allentown State Hospital in Allentown, Pennsylvania operated by the Mennonite Central Committee, opened in November 1943 and closed in May 1946. The men served as ward attendants or in related services in the hospital.
Directors: George Miller, Richard Jantzen
The unit operated with twenty-five men. The original group came from CPS Camp No. 67 at Downey, Idaho. A total of thirty-six men served before the unit closed. The hospital superintendent H. F. Hoffman was active in selecting the conscientious objectors.
The majority of men in Mennonite camps and units, when entering CPS reported religious affiliation with various Mennonite groups.
Fifty-nine percent of men reported farming or other agricultural work as their occupation upon entry into CPS. Twelve percent reported technical or professional occupations; eleven percent reported business, sales and public administration work; and five percent reported that they were students. (Sibley and Jacob p. 172)
Men in Mennonite camps and units reported having completed on average 10.45 years of education when entering CPS, with twenty-two percent having completed one or more years of college or graduated, with some having enrolled in or completed some graduate and post graduate work. (Sibley and Jacob p. 171)
The men served as ward attendants and in related services.
The superintendent felt that the unit gave needed help to the hospital.
For more information on this camp and other mental health and training school units, 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, Chapter XVI pp. 213-251.
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.
Swarthmore College Peace Collection, Camp periodicals database.
For a more in depth treatment of mental health and training school units, see Steven J. Taylor, Acts of Conscience: World War II, Mental Institutions, and Religious Objectors. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2009.