As he wrote later, his own skin was the boundary of the space he had, and even as he slept he could always feel someone’s arm or leg against his own. Yet it did not disturb him: those others were part of himself. He had never found physical proximity easy before, so this was a revelation.
These are Sartre's words on his experience as a prisoner of war. Powerful words. He was captured by German troops in 1940 and spent 9 months imprisoned. He received a letter to receive medical attention for his eye outside of the camp, which he used to escape and never return. He then reunited with his longtime girlfriend Simone de Beauvoir in Paris, where they continued to develop their ideas of philosophy.
