man-s-search-for-meaning

MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING
ian landscape, framed by the meshes of barbed wire. I
dreamed longingly, and my thoughts wandered north
and northeast, in the direction of my home, but I could
only see clouds.
The corpses near me, crawling with lice, did not
bother me. Only the steps of passing guards could
rouse me from my dreams; or perhaps it would be a
call to the sick-bay or to collect a newly arrived supply
of medicine for my hut - consisting of perhaps five or
ten tablets of aspirin, to last for several days for fifty
patients. I collected them and then did my rounds,
feeling the patients' pulses and giving half-tablets to
the serious cases. But the desperately ill received no
medicine. It would not have helped, and besides, it
would have deprived those for whom there was still
some hope. For light cases, I had nothing, except
perhaps a word of encouragement. In this way I
dragged myself from patient to patient, though I myself
was weak and exhausted from a serious attack of
typhus. Then I went back to my lonely place on the
wood cover of the water shaft.
This shaft, incidentally, once saved the lives of three
fellow prisoners. Shortly before liberation, mass transports
were organized to go to Dachau, and these three
prisoners wisely tried to avoid the trip. They climbed
down the shaft and hid there from the guards. I calmly
sat on the lid, looking innocent and playing a childish
game of throwing pebbles at the barbed wire. On
spotting me, the guard hesitated for a moment, but
then passed on. Soon I could tell the three men below
that the worst danger was over.
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