Man's Search For Meaning - Viktor E. Frankl

MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANINGall hope, but it was the incorrigible optimists who werethe most irritating companions.The religious interest of the prisoners, as far and assoon as it developed, was the most sincere imaginable.The depth and vigor of religious belief often surprisedand moved a new arrival. Most impressive in thisconnection were improvised prayers or services in thecorner of a hut, or in the darkness of the locked cattletruck in which we were brought back from a distantwork site, tired, hungry and frozen in our raggedclothing.In the winter and spring of 1945 there was an outbreakof typhus which infected nearly all the prisoners.The mortality was great among the weak, whohad to keep on with their hard work as long as theypossibly could. The quarters for the sick were mostinadequate, there were practically no medicines orattendants. Some of the symptoms of the disease wereextremely disagreeable: an irrepressible aversion toeven a scrap of food (which was an additional dangerto life) and terrible attacks of delirium. The worst caseof delirium was suffered by a friend of mine whothought that he was dying and wanted to pray. In hisdelirium he could not find the words to do so. To avoidthese attacks of delirium, I tried, as did many of theothers, to keep awake for most of the night. For hoursI composed speeches in my mind. Eventually I beganto reconstruct the manuscript which I had lost in thedisinfection chamber of Auschwitz, and scribbled thekey words in shorthand on tiny scraps of paper.Occasionally a scientific debate developed in camp.Once I witnessed something I had never seen, even inmy normal life, although it lay somewhat near my own54