Victor Frankl, a young Viennese psychologist, was deported along with his bride of six months to Auschwitz during the Second World War. His wife perished in the gas chambers the day they arrived. Frankl was consigned to a barracks. Withered by work, deprived of food, clothing, warmth, and space, he saw life degenerate to a savage struggle for survival. But Frankl discovered that even in a concentration camp most people choose life over death. They choose to hope rather than despair, to carry on, to remember the past, to find a way to the future. Those who failed to choose simply died. But survivors found some means to aid them—a photograph hidden under a straw mat, remembrance of a beautiful scene or act of kindness, a memento from a loved one, a verse from the Bible. Often the spark of life was sustained by intangibles. That became Frankl’s message to the world: if people could find a reason to live in Auschwitz, they can find a reason to live in any circumstance. (See Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning.) Read more: touchstonemag/archives/article.php?id=06-03-017-f#ixzz2XZMohuP5 touchstonemag/archives/article.php?id=06-03-017-f
Posted on: Sat, 29 Jun 2013 02:44:48 +0000
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