Quotes About Survival

I mentioned earlier how everything that was not connected with the immediate task of keeping oneself and one's closest friends alive lost its value.

Thus the illusions some of us still held were destroyed one by one, and then, quite unexpectedly, most of us were overcome by a grim sense of humor. We knew that we had nothing to lose except our so ridiculously naked lives.

One may howl with the wolves, if need be, but when doing so, one should be, I would urge, a sheep in wolf's clothing.

Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how'." ? Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

the period following his admission;

a mí me angustiaba otra cuestión: todo este sufrimiento, todas esas muertes, ¿tienen un sentido? —pues, de no ser así, tampoco tendría sentido sobrevivir a la estancia en el Lager—. Una vida que consistiera solo en salvarse o perecer, cuyo sentido dependiera del azar de las miles de arbitrariedades que conforman la vida en un campo de concentración, no merecería ser vivida.

it is not for me to pass judgment on those prisoners who put their own people above everyone else. Who can throw a stone at a man who favors his friends under circumstances when, sooner or later, it is a question of life or death? No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same.

If you want to stay alive, there is only one way: look fit for work.

Bir t?rmanma kazas?nda hayati bir tehlikeye girince, o anda tek bir duyguya kap?lm??t?m: Kazadan saÄŸ m? kurtulaca??m, yoksa kafatas? parçalanm?? vs. ÅŸekilde yaralanm?? olarak m? ç?kaca??m konusunda yoÄŸun bir merak.

Their question was Will we survive the camp? For, if not, all this suffering has no meaning. The question which beset me was, Has all this suffering, this dying around us, a meaning? For, if not, then ultimately there is no meaning to survival; for life whose meaning depends upon such a happenstance—as whether one escapes or not—ultimately would not be worth living at all.

once lost, the will to live seldom returned.

iba a hacer. En aquel momento comprendí, con toda crudeza, que ningún sueño, por horrible que fuera, podía ser peor que la realidad del Lager a la que cruelmente iba a devolverlo.

It is well known that humor, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds. … The attempt to develop a sense of humor and to see things in a humorous light is some kind of a trick learned while mastering the art of living. Yet it is possible to practice the art of living even in a concentration camp, although suffering is omnipresent.

If someone had seen our faces on the journey from Auschwitz to a Bavarian camp as we beheld the mountains of Salzburg with their summits glowing in the sunset, through the little barred windows of the prison carriage, he would never have believed that those were the faces of men who had given up all hope of life and liberty. Despite that factor - or maybe because of it - we were carried away by nature's beauty

may remain brave, dignified and unselfish, or in the bitter fight for self-preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal.

Quien tiene un porqué para vivir puede soportar casi cualquier cómo».

Frankl writes that a person "may remain brave, dignified and unselfish, or in the bitter fight for self-preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal." He concedes that only a few prisoners of the Nazis were able to do the former, "but even one such example is sufficient proof that man's inner strength may raise him above his outward fate.

The prisoner passed from the first to the second phase; the phase of relative apathy, in which he achieved a kind of emotional death.

T?pk? çok büyük bir atmosfer bas?nc? alt?nda bulunduÄŸu dalg?ç hücresinden birdenbire ayr?lmas? halinde, dalg?c?n fiziksel saÄŸl???n?n tehlikeye girmesi gibi, ruhsal bask?dan birdenbire kurtulan bir insan?n, ahlaki ve ruhsal saÄŸl??? da hasar görebilir.

So, let us be alert—alert in a twofold sense: Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of. And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.

I became intensely conscious of the fact that no dream, no matter how horrible, could be as bad as the reality of the camp which surrounded us

He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How." He

How was everyday life in a concentration camp reflected in the mind of the average prisoner?

El deseo sexual ni siquiera aparecía en los sueños de los prisioneros, lo que contradice el postulado del psicoanálisis que asegura que «los deseos inhibidos» se manifiestan de forma especial en el sueño.