In the camp, the intellectuals among the prisoners formed a cultural society: artists, priests, and others - including Sartre. They had discussions and even organized lectures. Some of them took careful notes. Others did extensive writing.
Captured in 1940 and released in 1941, Sartre spent a little less than a year in the POW camp. He read extensively during this time. One major point in his intellectual development was his study of Heidegger which he undertook at Stalag 12-D. He also wrote a great deal during these months.
Shortly after Perrin published his book about his time with Sartre, Alfred Desautels wrote a review of it. Desautels begins his analysis of Perrin’s biographical account of Sartre’s war years by examining its reliability.
The veracity of Perrin’s book is relevant, because it is one piece of evidence used to support a particular view of Sartre’s career. One group of Sartre scholars divide his working years into four phases. Briefly, they assert that Sartre’s career began with a phase of despair, followed by a phase of hope, followed by a second phase of despair, and ending with a second phase of hope.
Scholars who embrace this view of Sartre lean on Perrin’s work, because the first ‘hopeful’ phase in Sartre’s career is defined, under this view, as his time in Stalag 12-D. Desautels writes:
At the outset we should assume, I think, that his testimony is accurate for the following reasons: 1) the priest is an unabashed admirer of Sartre, confessing that he is deeply indebted to him for a change of outlook on life; 2) the account is based on extensive notes he took daily during the nine months together; 3) he was encouraged by good friends of Sartre to publish his account of prison life; 4) in his preface, he urges his fellow-prisoners who are still alive to make known their own recollections of their rapport with the philosopher. A Docteur-es-Lettres even at the time of his captivity, Perrin undoubtedly had the academic background to appreciate the value of Sartre’s intellectual stature.
Thus Desautels defends Perrin’s account of Sartre, for with it stands or falls not only Perrin’s book, but also a large school of thought about the progression of Sartre’s career.
Sartre’s months as a POW were highlighted by his intense engagement with Heidegger’s writings, by his authorship of the stage play Bariona, and by his intellectually stimulating conversations with his fellow prisoners, many of whom were Roman Catholic priests from France.
