An Unsung Hero
The story of a legend not everybody knows about
When facing the worst of fates, when confronting a situation that cannot be changed, when we lose everything we have earned since the day we had nothing, remember life never ceases to have a meaning.
Without suffering, without pain, without death, life is incomplete. Even in hopeless situations, in unavoidable circumstances that give you a feeling that you will suffer forever, there is undying yet difficult to grasp the fact that suffering too can have a meaning - a meaning that can lead you to survive and live under any situation. For circumstances can never make life unbearable but lack of meaning and purpose can!
Search for this meaning was something that helped Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychiatrist survive after the most dehumanising and horrible experience of the Holocaust. He spent the years 1942-1945 in four different Nazi concentration camps during World War II. He suffered the most inhumane treatment in modern history. Once inside the camp, there were fewer ways to survive. The prisoners were inked with a number and then all they are is just a 'number’. Everything they ever worked for was gone. From surviving with a piece of bread and some watery soup each day to waking up to the noise of rifles and cannons and burying the dead knowing that they could be next Frankl and his inmates suffered everything and became numb to death.
Yet Frankl’s ability to find meaning in even those dying circumstances helped him to survive. He never gave hope. He was determined to survive to be reunited with the love of his life, his wife and this drove him to dig frozen land, endure countless beatings and fight off malnutrition and tetanus for four years. He believed that "Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how' ". Suffering ceases to be suffering the moment it finds a meaning.
There are times when we cannot change the circumstances but we are always free to choose the attitude we take towards unavoidable suffering. Frankl remembers the men in the camps who walked through huts comforting others and giving away their last piece of bread. They may be few in number but they offer sufficient proof to Frankl’s idea that -
"Everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the freedom to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances to choose one’s own way." He met two types of prisoners -those who had lost faith, hope and meaning and those who have not. The ones who looked at life as a challenge to overcome, the ones who had a why to live were more likely to survive. One can either make a victory of their experiences or ignore the challenge and simply fade away. One needs to have a strong 'why' in life, a 'why' that can help us overcome any challenges.
Even in conditions such as lack of sleep, insufficient food and mental stress, his inmates react in certain ways and in the final analysis, it became clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision and not the result of camp influences alone.
Upon returning to Vienna, Frankl discovered that his parents, wife and brother were not as fortunate and in his immediate family, only his sister survived. Alienated and distraught Frankl began to ponder the meaning of life and acknowledged that "without pain and death life is incomplete". His famous book 'Man’s search for meaning’, tells the story of how he survived after the Holocaust by finding personal meaning in the experience. He believed that
"What is to give life must endure burning".
The story does not deny the grief and rage that spring from suffering and tragedy. Neither making the best of things nor suggesting that everything happens for a good reason. But we must encourage ourselves to acknowledge our grief and see our suffering as an experience in which it is possible to find meaning.
After surviving in World War II, Frankl noted:
"The crowning experience of all, for a homecoming man is the wonderful feeling after all he has suffered, that there is nothing he needs to fear anymore- except his God."
At this alarming rate of disturbances and failing hopes among people, Frankl’s call to answer life’s call may be a promising resource.
