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MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING<br />

though it were a farewell, not <strong>for</strong> life, but from life.<br />

Slowly I walked back to my hut. There I found a good<br />

friend waiting <strong>for</strong> me.<br />

"You really want to go with them?" he asked sadly.<br />

"Yes, I am going."<br />

Tears came to his eyes and I tried to com<strong>for</strong>t him.<br />

Then there was something else to do - to make my<br />

will:<br />

"Listen, Otto, if I don't get back home to my wife,<br />

and if you should see her again, then tell her that I<br />

talked of her daily, hourly. You remember. Secondly, I<br />

have loved her more than anyone. Thirdly, the short<br />

time I have been married to her outweighs everything,<br />

even all we have gone through here."<br />

Otto, where are you now? Are you alive? What has<br />

happened to you since our last hour together? Did you<br />

find your wife again? And do you remember how I<br />

made you learn my will by heart - word <strong>for</strong> word - in<br />

spite of your childlike tears?<br />

The next morning I departed with the transport.<br />

This time it was not a ruse. We were not heading <strong>for</strong><br />

the gas chambers, and we actually did go to a rest<br />

camp. Those who had pitied me remained in a camp<br />

where famine was to rage even more fiercely than in<br />

our new camp. They tried to save themselves, but they<br />

only sealed their own fates. Months later, after liberation,<br />

I met a friend from the old camp. He related to<br />

me how he, as camp police<strong>man</strong>, had <strong>search</strong>ed <strong>for</strong> a<br />

piece of hu<strong>man</strong> flesh that was missing from a pile of<br />

corpses. He confiscated it from a pot in which he<br />

found it cooking. Cannibalism had broken out. I had<br />

left just in time.<br />

Does this not bring to mind the story of Death in<br />

76

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