Security And Significance

Dr. Viktor Frankl was one of the several million Jews who experienced the horrors of Nazi concentration camps during World War II. He personally suffered much, and was an eyewitness to the torturing, incinerating, shooting and gassing of his fellow prisoners. But through it all, he also was a keen observer of the conduct of those who survived. In his book entitled “Man’s Search for Meaning,” Dr. Frankl reports that the majority were overcome by their situation of hopelessness and defeat. Faced with the reality that from the death camp there was no escape-no end to suffering, no “light at the end of the tunnel”-many of the prisoners fell apart spiritually even before they were broken physically. Their spiritual transformation was so complete that they literally ceased to function as human beings. They were dehumanized. But Dr. Frankl also observed, and was deeply moved, by others who refused to be destroyed spiritually. Not only did they refuse to give up hope, but also they helped…