Time Stood Still

A masterpiece of humanism, Time Stood Still recounts Paul Cohen-Portheim's years of internment in England as an enemy alien during World War One. An artist and theatre designer, he at first viewed internment as a sort of holiday: "Should I bring my bathing things and evening dress?" he asked the policeman taking him prisoner. Though confined in a "gentleman's camp" near Wakefield, as Cohen-Portheim shows with grace, humour, and deep compassion, even under the best conditions, the simple act of being confined and placed in a sort of limbo was a form of torture: "Where there is no aim, no object, no sense, there is no time." Time Stood Still is a passionate but balanced argument against internment and its inherently dehumanizing effects.

"A civilian All Quiet on the Western Front" - New York Times