The number of “Hareidi” (or “yeshivish”) type people in the United States in 1942 was probably negligible, and almost all of them were unlikely to be drafted since they were in yeshivah (they had seminary deferments), had clergy exemptions (since in Christian tradition, clergy weren’t allowed to bear arms) or had a family (they tried to avoid drafting fathers). The world in which you find large communities of people who are strictly Shomer Shabbos, strictly kosher even outside the home, and who go around “looking frum” (or even wearing a yarmulke in public, not to mention a beard and pe’os)- was a world that resulted from the arrived of the Holocaust survivors after the war. In 1942, most Shomer Shabbos Americans were public school graduates who wore yarmulkes at home (or only in shul), and has no problem relying on checking ingredient lists rather than demanding a hecksher. Barukh Ha-Shem, that the fanatics of 1942 would now be considered “modern orthodox” at best- America has come a long way in 70 years.
