author
Henri Béland
1869–1935
A Canadian physician, politician, and wartime prisoner, he turned a harrowing First World War experience into a vivid memoir. His writing offers a firsthand look at captivity, endurance, and the human side of a global conflict.
2 Audiobooks
My Three Years in a German Prison
by Henri Béland
Mille et un jours en prison à Berlin
by Henri Béland
About the author
Born in Quebec in 1869, Henri Sévérin Béland trained as a doctor at Université Laval and went on to build a public life that combined medicine and politics. He served in both provincial and federal politics in Canada, bringing a physician’s perspective to public service.
During the First World War, he was in Europe as a doctor when German forces captured him in Belgium. That experience became the basis for My Three Years in a German Prison, the work for which he is best remembered as an author.
His memoir stands out for its direct, personal view of war and imprisonment rather than battlefield strategy alone. Béland died in 1935, leaving behind a life story that connects medicine, public duty, and eyewitness writing from a turbulent era.