Viktor Frankl, a well-known psychiatrist in Vienna before the war, had a unique perspective on how he and the other prisoners dealt with their time in Auschwitz. He observed that the survivors who offered consolation to others and shared their last piece of bread provided evidence that nothing can be taken from us but the freedom to choose our attitude in any given situation. The prisoner’s personality development was the consequence of an internal choice rather than solely camp influences. Only those who allowed their inner control over their moral and spiritual selves to weaken eventually fell prey to the camp’s degenerating impact, while those who made a conscious effort to maintain such controls never did.
