Black Monastery

2 ideas

1. Francophile scholar interned as enemy alien

   Aladár Kuncz, a Hungarian teacher and critic devoted to French culture, was on holiday in France when the First World War began in August 1914. Because his passport made him an enemy civilian, the French state arrested him. He was held for about five years, first in a fortress on Noirmoutier and then in a camp on the Île d'Yeu, and was released only after the war ended. He wrote the account more than a decade later and died shortly after it was published.

2. Detention without end date erodes hope

   A prisoner with a fixed sentence can pace his endurance against a known finish line. An internee held 'for the duration' has no endpoint, so he cannot ration hope. Recurring rumors of release or exchange raise expectations and then crush them, and this repeated cycle wears down the mind more than the physical hardship does.

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