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Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

Editor's Essay

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Editor’s note: I often quote Dr. Viktor Frankl on the Word Gems site; you’ll find his writings primarily on the “Existentialism” and “Perfect Mate” pages.

One who has suffered privation and extremity of the horrific, but without bitterness and victimhood, rather with equanimous and spiritual mind, is worth listening to.

one's life toyed with by fate

Time and time again, in the camps, Frankl’s life, as he said, was “toyed with by fate.” A quick decision would often result in death or survival. He determined that he would not attempt to "push to the head of the line" and "fight for an extra morsel of bread." Instead, he resolved to choose an attitude of altruistic service.

an uncanny ninth-inning rescue

As he did, things worked out for him: an uncanny ninth-inning rescue would intervene.

Allow me to present, from his book, Man’s Search For Meaning, a few instances of his philosophy in action.

“The chief doctor rushed [into my hut] and asked me to volunteer for medical duties in another camp containing typhus patients. Against the urgent advice of my friends, and despite that almost none of my colleagues offered their services, I decided to volunteer. I knew that in a working party I would die in a short time, but, if I had to die, there might, at least, be some sense in my death. I thought, doubtless, it would be more to the purpose to help my comrades as a doctor than to vegetate or finally lose my life as the unproductive laborer that I was then. For me, this was simple mathematics, not sacrifice; but secretly the warrant officer from the sanitation squad had ordered that the two doctors who had volunteered for the typhus camp should be ‘taken care of’ until they left. We looked so weak that he feared he might have two additional corpses on his hands than two doctors.”

“When the transport of sick patients was organized for the ‘rest camp,’ my name was put on the list, since a few doctors were needed. But no one was convinced that the destination was really a rest camp. A few weeks previously, the same transport had been prepared and, then, too, everyone thought it was destined for the gas ovens. When it was announced that anyone volunteering for the dreaded ‘night shift’ would be taken off the transport list, 82 prisoners volunteered immediately. A quarter of an hour later, the transport was cancelled. But the 82 stayed on the list for the night shift; for the majority of them, this meant death within [several days]. Now the transport for the rest camp was arranged for the second time. Again, no one knew if this was a ruse to obtain the last bit of work from the sick, if only for [several days] or if they would go to the gas ovens or a genuine rest camp. The chief doctor, who had taken a liking to me, told me furtively one evening that ‘I have made it known in the orderly room that you can still have your name crossed off the list. You may do so until ten o’clock.’ I told him this was not my way, that I had learned to let fate take its course. ‘I might as well stay with my friends,’ I said. There was a look of pity in his eyes, as if he knew. He shook my hands silently as though it were a farewell, not for life but from life. Slowly, I walked back to my hut. There, I found a good friend waiting for me. ‘You really want to go with them?’ he asked sadly. ‘Yes, I am going.’ Tears came to his eyes, and I tried to comfort him. Then there was something else to do: to make my will. ‘Listen, Otto, if I don’t get back home to my wife, and if you should see her again, then tell her that I talked of her daily – hourly. You remember! Secondly, that I have loved her more than anyone. Thirdly, the short time I have been married to her outweighs everything, even all that we have gone through here.’ … The next morning I departed with the transport. This time it was not a ruse. We were not heading for the gas chambers, and we actually did go to a rest camp. Those who had pitied me remained in a camp where famine was to rage even more fiercely than in our new camp. They tried to save themselves, but they only sealed their own fates. Months later, after liberation, I met a friend from the old camp. He related to me how he, as camp policeman, had searched for a piece of flesh that was missing from a pile of corpses. He confiscated it from a pot in which it was cooking. Cannibalism had broken out. I had left just in time.”

[Frankl, with a friend, planned an escape from the camp.] “I made a quick last round of my patients who were lying on the rotten planks of wood on either side of the hut. I came to my only countryman, who was almost dying, and whose life it had been my ambition to save despite his condition. I had to keep my intention to escape to myself. But my comrade seemed to guess that something was wrong. Perhaps I showed a little nervousness. In a tired voice he asked me, ‘You, too, are getting out?’ I denied it. But I found it difficult to avoid his sad look. After my round, I returned to him. Again, a hopeless look greeted me, and somehow I felt it to be an accusation. The unpleasant feeling that had gripped me [a few days prior] as soon as I had told my friend that I would escape with him became more intense. Suddenly I decided to take fate into my own hands… I ran out of the hut and told my friend that I could not go with him. As soon as I had told him that I had made up my mind, with finality, to stay with my patients, the unhappy feeling left me. I did not know what the following days would bring, but I had gained an inward peace that I had never experienced before. I returned to the hut, sat down on the boards at my countryman’s feet, and tried to comfort him. Then I chatted with the others, trying to comfort them in their delirium.”

“Our last day in camp arrived. As the battlefront came nearer, mass transports had taken nearly all the prisoners to other camps. The camp authorities, the kapos, and the cooks had fled. On this day an order was given that the camp had to be evacuated completely by sunset. Even the few remaining prisoners, the sick, a few doctors, and some nurses, would have to leave. At night, the camp was to be set on fire. In the afternoon, the trucks which were to collect the sick had not yet appeared. Instead, the camp gates were suddenly closed and the barbed wire closely watched so that no one could attempt an escape. The remaining prisoners seemed destined to burn with the camp. For the second time, my friend and I decided to escape. We had been given an order to bury three men outside the barbed wire fence. We were the only two in camp who had strength enough to do the job. Nearly all the others lay in the huts, prostrate with fever and delirium. We now made our plans. Along with the first body, we would smuggle out my friend’s rucksack… When we carried out the second body, we would also take my rucksack. And on the third trip we intended to make our escape. The first two trips went according to plan. After we returned, I waited while my friend tried to find a piece of bread to have something to eat during the next few days in the woods. I waited. Minutes passed. I became more and more impatient as he did not return… The very moment when my friend returned, the camp gate was thrown open. A splendid aluminum-colored car, on which were painted large red crosses, slowly rolled onto the parade ground. A delegate from the International Red Cross in Geneva had arrived, and the camp and its inmates were under his protection… Who worried about escape now? Boxes with medicines were unloaded from the car… we were photographed, and joy reigned supreme. And now there was no need for us to risk running toward the fighting line. In our excitement we had forgotten the third body, and so we carried it outside and dropped it into the narrow grave we had dug for the three corpses. The guard who had accompanied us, a relatively inoffensive man, suddenly became quite gentle. He saw that the tables might be turned and tried to win our good will. He joined in the short prayer we offered for the dead men as we threw soil over them… And so the last day in camp had passed with our anticipation of freedom. But we had rejoiced too early. The Red Cross delegate had assured us that an agreement had been signed and that the camp must not be evacuated. But that night the SS arrived with trucks with an order to clear the camp. The last remaining prisoners were to be taken to a central camp from which they would be sent to Switzerland within 48 hours to be exchanged for some prisoners of war. We scarcely recognized the SS – they were so friendly, trying to persuade us to get into the trucks without fear, telling us to be grateful for our good luck. Those who were strong enough crowded into the trucks while the seriously ill were lifted up with difficulty. My friend and I – we did not hide our rucksacks now – stood in the last group from which 13 would be chosen for the next to last truck. The chief doctor counted out the requisite number, but he omitted the two of us. The 13 were loaded into the truck and we had to stay behind. Surprised, very annoyed and disappointed, we blamed the chief doctor who excused himself by saying that he had been tired and distracted. He said that he thought we had still intended to escape. Impatiently, we sat down, keeping our rucksacks on our backs, and waited with the few remaining prisoners for the last truck. We had to wait a long time [and we fell asleep in a hut]. The noise of rifles and cannons woke us. The flashes of tracer bullets and gunshots entered the hut. The chief doctor dashed in and ordered us to take cover on the floor… Then we grasped what was happening: the battlefront had reached us… Many weeks later we found out that, even in those last hours, fate had toyed with us few remaining prisoners. We found out just how uncertain human decisions are, especially in matters of life and death. I was confronted with photographs taken in a small camp not far from ours. Our friends who had thought they were traveling to freedom that night had been taken in the trucks to this camp. And there they [the ones who boarded the trucks first] were locked in the huts and burned to death. Their partially charred bodies were recognizable in the photograph. And I thought of [the story ‘Death In Tehran,’ about someone who tried to get away from Death by fleeing on a fast horse to hide in the big city of Tehran. He did not know that Death, all along, had planned on meeting him there that night.]”

Editor’s note: Let’s discuss and analyze what Frankl did.

Deciding not to “push to the head of the line” to get for oneself the plum position or advantage is not like a lucky rabbit’s foot, or knowing “which side your bread is buttered on,” or a clever strategy to outwit fate. It wasn’t like that at all. In each of the above cases, Frankl thought he was going die or, at minimum, had put himself in a less advantageous position. He thought he was giving up his best chance, the “smart-money choice,” for survival.

What Frankl did is not just a wise path to be employed if one meets with extreme disadvantage, but it’s a philosophy of life for good times and bad. It’s a way of looking at our time on planet Earth that acknowledges that there are unseen forces at work which superintend one’s life.

This does not mean that just because we give someone else a better place in line that we will automatically, in the next moments, be rewarded by God/Fate/theUniverse with a gold star. This is not a Gordon Gekko view of how the world works. Frankl put himself in real danger, and it might not have resulted in survival of the body – because, there is a time to die, and if that time had arrived for him, then the circumstantial outcome would have been different. But, in any case, he would have retained his stellar spiritual character.

In Summerland, there is a large class of people who believe that you can work very hard and “earn a merit badge” of spirituality just for the effort. They believe in altruistic service for the personal advantage which they presume will be forthcoming. But this is just Machiavellianism in a new form. We discussed this in the “500 Tape-Recorded Testimonies from the Other Side.”

We dearly hope none of us will be required to experience the sufferings that Frankl endured, but the principle of selflessness, which he so honorably exemplified, will also be effective in less dramatic venue. It’s a way of living life, for all of us.

When we put ourselves out for someone else, for the greater good, and do this with no motivation of reward, but only the joy of serving the brotherhood and sisterhood of humankind, things will always work out the best for us. Guaranteed. Absolutely.

Restatement: the Frankl Principle of ‘not pushing to the front of the line’

Having gone to bed earlier than usual, I awakened in the middle of the night and could not sleep. The 3 AM haunting quietude encouraged various images to tramp through my head, to distract and oppress. At length, I began to think of Dr. Frankl in the camps, his stellar example of “not pushing to the head of the line,” though, to do so, appeared to be a death warrant.

I wondered about this. What does this really mean translated into our day-to-day activities? What is the proper balance between living a life of service but also attempting to secure a measure of happiness in this world?

These contrasting views bothered me. Have I not often written that learning how to enjoy one’s own existence is a primary purpose of life? This was an important conclusion in the “surviving the terror of living forever” article.

Further, my statements to this effect were issued within a context of countermanding the notion that charitable work, of and by itself, is to be our supreme directive; "the insane 500" talk too much of charity and suffer for it. And yet, here we have Dr. Frankl, one of the great men of history, fortitudinously living the altruistic life and finding great blessing in the wake.

What is the answer to this seeming paradox? I well sense that to live exclusively for good works, in the end, becomes self-defeating; it’s unsustainable to one’s own spirit, if that’s all you have, if there’s no pleasure in one’s life. And yet, to live according to an ethos of “always looking out for number one” is also headed for perdition. How to reconcile?

Questions such as these cannot be answered by the egoic mind. It has no way to judge or make sense of the conundrum. Instead, we must “go within,” enter our “small quiet room,” and commune with the sacred soul to find instruction.

As I lay in the darkness I decided to do this, and, almost immediately, the solution flashed in my spirit. I could “feel” the energy, the pressing vitality, of the answer and, in those moments, perceived exactly the truth of the matter.

don't worry about missing out, the good things you need will be added to you

Then, in confirmation, I thought of a supporting New Testament passage: Matthew 6:33 – the “seek first the kingdom” verse.

Amplified Bible

“But first and most importantly seek (aim at, strive after) His kingdom and His righteousness [His way of doing and being right - the attitude and character of God], and all these things will be given to you also.”

Or a modern rendition,

The Message translation

“Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.”

I was somewhat jarred by “Don’t worry about missing out.” This is a very good rephrasing of “Don’t push to the head of the line.”

And notice the context of the verse. Jesus’ “sermon on the mount” discourse had famously referenced the “lilies of the field which neither toil not spin” and yet are cared for by God. The Message has it this way:

^30-33 “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers - most of which are never even seen - don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.”

don't be so preoccupied with getting, as the good things you need will yet come your way

It is absolutely true that we cannot live a life, even, an eternal life, without personal happiness and a modicum of pleasure. We cannot survive living as a spartan-stoic. But here’s the missing element:

focus on offering service, where it's appropriate, and let God worry about what you need for your own happiness

We are not to obsess about “pushing to the head of the line” in order to provide for ourselves. This is something that God does for us. We will be taken care of, just as the lilies of the field do well but without neurotic worry.

we are not to become the proverbial lazy grasshopper who fiddled the summer away while the ant worked

It’s not that we should never help ourselves or lift a finger to live with prudence, that’s not the point; we are to be diligent and productive for self. The real issue, however, is being "preoccupied with getting," “pushing to the head of the line” and trampling on others to get what we want. This is the vicious spirit of the world which oppresses us every day, and those who do this are headed for a big fall and will lose everything.

don't worry about missing out, just relax, what you need for your own happiness is already in the offing for you

“Don’t worry about missing out” is the underlying philosophy of righteousness here. We can “relax,” as the verse has it, we can be carefree about it, we can devote our lives to service, knowing that “all these things,” which we need for our personal lives, will not forever evade us as we strive to honor God with a life of altruistic intent.

Dr. Frankl has provided a tremendous heroic example of how to put all this into practice. It’s the “seek first the kingdom” principle.

If we live our lives honoring Mother-Father God in all we do, there'll be no need to “push to the head of the line.” Our requirements for a happy life then become the responsibility of Another.