Man's Search For Meaning - Viktor E. Frankl

EXPERIENCES IN A CONCENTRATION CAMPourselves and about each other. After all, real waterdid flow from the sprays!Apart from that strange kind of humor, anothersensation seized us: curiosity. I have experienced thiskind of curiosity before, as a fundamental reactiontoward certain strange circumstances. When my lifewas once endangered by a climbing accident, I feltonly one sensation at the critical moment: curiosity,curiosity as to whether I should come out of it alive orwith a fractured skull or some other injuries.Cold curiosity predominated even in Auschwitz,somehow detaching the mind from its surroundings,which came to be regarded with a kind of objectivity.At that time one cultivated this state of mind as ameans of protection. We were anxious to know whatwould happen next; and what would be the consequence,for example, of our standing in the open air, inthe chill of late autumn, stark naked, and still wet fromthe showers. In the next few days our curiosityevolved into surprise; surprise that we did not catchcold.There were many similar surprises in store for newarrivals. The medical men among us learned first of all:"Textbooks tell lies!" Somewhere it is said that mancannot exist without sleep for more than a statednumber of hours. Quite wrong! I had been convincedthat there were certain things I just could not do: Icould not sleep without this or I could not live withthat or the other. The first night in Auschwitz we sleptin beds which were constructed in tiers. On each tier(measuring about six-and-a-half to eight feet) sleptnine men, directly on the boards. Two blankets wereshared by each nine men. We could, of course, lie only35