Victor Frankl Dialogue Sketch

Victor Frankl Dialogue Sketch (Nazi Auschwitz Camp, sometime during WWII)

V. Frankl: What seems to trouble you sir?

Sir: Life.

V. Frankl: What is it life is doing wrong?

Sir: Everything.

V. Frankl: Everything? No, not everything, but enough to trouble you?

Sir: Yes, just enough.

V. Frankl: I know, I know, but we can survive. It’s up to us if we want to keep living.

Sir: What do you mean?

V. Frankl: Your mind, ask yourself this: “Do I have control over what I’m thinking”…

(Silent Pause)

Sir: No! (worried expression)

V. Frankl: Exactly, but you can stimulate what you want to think about because you want to think about something at a given time. Therefore, if you want to think of a positive and free future, everything won’t seem so miserable as it really is and will lighten up in front of you.

Sir: That’s easy to say, but hard to achieve. But, (sighs) I suppose you are right. We have in fact been put to this earth for a reason and a bigger meaning then to serve as slaves for low life Nazi’s.

V. Frankl: Only with that in mind, am I still here.

Sir: I have lost my job today. The SS told me I was to frail to work at the work site. We were building a new barrack for incoming Jews next week. One general told me I can find an easy job helping out in the kitchen. At least then I could steal a potato and some bread here and there. Why!? I feel healthy, and I’ve only lost a bit of weight, 5 kilos maximum. My position with the architects provided me with steady pay and I was better off then most prisoners in this horrid place. If I could only know why my luck had left me today.

V. Frankl: I’m sorry about your job.

(Silent Pause)

Cont’d: I don’t know why all this is happening to us. Perhaps it is a plan or test to prove our true human strength above something much more superior. We can imagine many things, and yet we will still not know what the future holds for us. Personally, since arriving here, my thoughts have tripled and I am no longer able to follow what I think.

Sir: It’s been like that with all of us. Oh Jesus, help me! Help us!

V. Frankl: I think you need some professional psychiatric help.

Sir: Probably.

V. Frankl: I will meet you in the ‘red barrack’. That’s where I sleep, at 22:00 o’clock. Be there.

(That same evening at 22:00.)

Sir: I almost got killed coming here!???

V. Frankl: Just calm down now, calm down. Tomorrow, we’ll meet in your barrack.

 

End.

Marek Birner – March/April 2003.