John Curley shares Holocaust survivor’s powerful story behind ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’

KIRO host John Curley highlighted Dr. Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor who wrote the influential book “Man’s Search for Meaning” after suffering through the tragedies within Auschwitz.

Curley summarized a few of the moments that shaped Frankl and what led to him writing the book, which was composed of the many lessons he learned while in a concentration camp, away from his family.

“This particular week in 1944, the death rate would soar in Auschwitz; it wasn’t like the work was any harder or the winter was any harsher. It was because the prisoners who were there had given up hope,” Curley said on “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio.

Frankl was separated from his wife, Tilly, when they first arrived at the camp. They were sending some prisoners to the right, some to the left, and Tilly went one way. Frankl always imagined that he would see her again.

“Whenever he was there, in the concentration camps, he just always imagined that he would see his wife, Tilly, again. He imagined they would be back together again in a warm home somewhere, drinking tea. And that’s the thing that kept him going,” Curley said.

Tragically, once Frankl was released after three years in the concentration camp, he learned that Tilly had been executed, along with his mother and the rest of his family.

In the many years after his time at the concentration camp, Frankl’s book, dictated just nine days after his release, was printed more than 16 million times and became one of the 100 most recommended books in the world.

Frankl went on to earn 29 honorary degrees, lecture at 200 universities, and continue treating patients who were debating suicide with four simple words, “Why not commit suicide?”

“The answers would then reveal the meaning or the purpose that the person would have in life. And then with that, he would begin to build on it,” Curley said.

Holocaust survivor explained the meaning behind his influential book

In 1979, Frankl spoke on why he believed it is now harder to find meaning in life, in comparison to those who suffered through the atrocities within Auschwitz.

“You scarcely will find any reference to what is the most fundamental and basic concern of man, neither pleasure nor happiness nor power, prestige, but originally and basically his wish, his desire, to find and fulfill a meaning in his life,” Frankl said. “In each single life situation confronting him, and if there is a meaning to fulfill, if he becomes cognizant of such a meaning, then he is ready to suffer. He is ready to offer sacrifices. He is ready to undergo tension, stress, and so forth, without any harm being done to his health.

“But if there is no meaning available, no meaning in his visual field, then he takes his life. Can you imagine a situation for a human being that is more full of stress than Auschwitz?” Frankl continued. “The degree to which suicide took place in Auschwitz and Dachau was astonishingly, surprisingly low.”

Frankl went on to explain how he could see the lack of meaning in life throughout his home country of Austria, where one of the most common questions amongst children ages 14 to 15 was about suicide.

“In Austria, there were virtually no stress or tensions, because they are pampered,” Frankl said. “Nobody allows himself to challenge them. What young people need are ideals, challenges, and personal tasks. Cowardly people who don’t venture to confront them with anything because they might become angry because they are challenged.

“Neither parents nor school teachers are courageous enough to challenge them. Don’t arouse tensions. Don’t create tensions. Don’t put stress on them. See, people are today. They are not over-demanded. They are under-demanded,” Frankl continued.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to John Curley weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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