Seasons of Captivity1994

In this unique study of survival, Amia Lieblich documents the experience of a group of ten Israeli prisoners of war who shared a single jail cell in Egypt for more than three years. Unfolding in ten individual voices, this engrossing story chronicles their ordeal, from captivity in 1969 and 1970, through the first six months of interrogation, torture, and isolation, the process of being joined together in a common cell, and the establishment of an almost utopian social system, to their release and return to Israel in November 1973. A watershed event of their imprisonment was their transfer to shared living quarters. The prisoners forged a community and held weekly meetings at which they discussed and resolved issues that affected their lives. They kept a diary of these meetings, started study classes, and, among other projects, translated The Hobbit into Hebrew. The narrative also chronicles the released prisoners re-entry into family and social roles, and the personal impact of the experience on the wives of the married prisoners, and introduces the women's own stories of separation and reunion. This dramatic account of the POWs' ordeal illustrates the extraordinary endurance of the human spirit under even the most adverse conditions, and shows how positive values can be drawn from the most negative situations. A national bestseller when it first appeared in Hebrew in Israel, Seasons of Captivity is an inspiring story of human survival and hope.