Langbeschreibung
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 is 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.