Henri Béland was a Canadian senator and doctor enjoying a European summer in 1914. Then the guns of August fired, and his world shattered. As a citizen of a British Dominion, he was suddenly an enemy in Germany. With no trial or specific charge, he was taken from his hotel and interned in a prison camp at Ruhleben, a converted horse racing track near Berlin.

The Story

This book is Béland's day-by-day account of his captivity, which lasted from 1914 to 1917. It's not a chronicle of daring escapes, but of a slow, psychological siege. He describes turning stables into living quarters, the struggle to find purpose, and the complex society that springs up among the prisoners—professors, sailors, businessmen—all in the same boat. The 'plot' is the internal conflict: watching the world go mad from behind barbed wire, fighting despair with routine, and clinging to his identity as a doctor and a human being. The tension comes from the unknown: Will the war ever end? Will they be forgotten?

Why You Should Read It

I was blown away by how immediate it feels. Béland doesn't write like a distant historian; he writes like a man trying to survive Tuesday. His observations are sharp and often surprisingly fair. He details German bureaucracy's absurdity but also notes guards who showed compassion. The real power is in the small things: the importance of a shared book, the morale boost of organizing a lecture series, the agony of unreliable news from the outside. It makes you ask yourself, 'What would I have done?' His resilience, built on duty, intellect, and simple camaraderie, is quietly inspiring.

Final Verdict

Perfect for anyone who loves real-life stories that read like novels, or for history readers tired of generals and maps. This is history from the ground up, from a man with a front-row seat to a unique kind of suffering. If you enjoyed the personal depth of Viktor Frankl's 'Man's Search for Meaning' or the confined-world drama of 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society', you'll find a similar, gripping humanity here. It's a powerful reminder of how war traps ordinary people, and how they find light even in the darkest stalls.