In an effort to educate our children on the horror of the holocaust, many teachers are having the students read "Night" by Elie Wiesel. The book is a disturbing memoir of his experience in the concentration camps. I am always surprised however, that they do not have them read an equally important book "Man's Search for Meaning" by Victor Frankl. Frankl was a psychiatrist who also endured the horrors of concentration camps,(the same one in fact) and ended up developing a psychiatric treatment approach (logo therapy) as a result.
It is important to read both accounts not because of their common horrific experience, but because their respective works are great examples of how such an experience can make a person view the world. Wiesel's book is documentary in its effect and leaves the reader with a very dim and hopeless view of mankind. Frankl's account does not sugar coat the events or his experience but he made a decision (in his estimation the reason for his survival) to live in hope and love and thereby discover a true meaningful existence. Wouldn't everyone benefit from reading such a powerful witnesses of hope?
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