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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Frankl describe the "size" of human suffering?
(a) It is impossible to gauge.
(b) It is relative.
(c) It can never be as great as it was for prisoners in Auschwitz.
(d) It is only perceptible to the individual.

2. What does Frankl argue happened in camp to "sensitive people used to a rich intellectual life"?
(a) They fell ill more frequently.
(b) They were beaten more harshly.
(c) They had difficulty adapting to not being heard.
(d) The damage to their inner life was less.

3. What was the main characteristic of the second phase of the prisoner's mental life?
(a) Anger.
(b) Apathy.
(c) Love.
(d) Violence.

4. What kind of outbreak affected the prisoners at the author's camp?
(a) Measles.
(b) Typhus.
(c) A strong seasonal flu.
(d) Scarlet Fever.

5. What kind of complex does the author write prisoners suffered from?
(a) A Marytyr complex.
(b) A Persecution complex.
(c) A Napoleon complex.
(d) An Inferiority complex.

6. What is the "delusion of reprieve"?
(a) This is when a person deludes themself into believing that the worst is over, and the best is yet to come.
(b) The idea that many psychiatric patients have, that someone else is responsible for their own well-being.
(c) When a psychiatric patient splits their own personality in two, in order to avoid dealing with trauma.
(d) The idea that a condemned person has the illusion just before death that he will be saved.

7. What was the "most ghastly moment of the twenty-four hours of camp life"?
(a) Skipping lunch.
(b) Dinner time, hungry and dealing with small, flavorless food.
(c) Working in the early hours, in the cold.
(d) Waking up at three in the morning to work.

8. What were the wishes and desires of prisoners?
(a) Most of the men wished for intimacy.
(b) Food and comfort.
(c) The strongest desire was often for more water than was readily available.
(d) Intellectual stimulation.

9. When the author arrived to the concentration camp, the group of arrivals were separated into two lines. What happened to these two groups?
(a) One group was used to work. The other group was killed.
(b) One group was sent on another train, while the group the author was part of remained at the same camp.
(c) One group was destined to work inside. The other group was destined for heavy labor.
(d) One group was sent to the men's quarters, while the other group was sent to women's quarters.

10. Were all foremen harsh and cruel?
(a) Yes, this was always true.
(b) Yes, and the harshest tended to hold the most power.
(c) Very nearly all.
(d) No, there were some who felt sorry for the prisoners.

11. What does Frankl call "the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire."
(a) Love.
(b) Hope.
(c) Belonging.
(d) Faith.

12. What does the author claim helped to detach prisoner's minds from their surroundings?
(a) A cold curiosity about what conditions they could survive.
(b) A card game that they invented in their quarters that they looked forward to during the day.
(c) An intense fantasy life.
(d) Intimate relationships with fellow prisoners.

13. Where does the author of the book travel in a "prison car" with small peepholes?
(a) Past his hometown.
(b) To Switzerland.
(c) Through Germany.
(d) To Auschwitz.

14. During the time that the author spent in concentration camps, what does he describe as his main work?
(a) Digging and laying tracks for railway lines.
(b) Preparing bodies for burial.
(c) Cleaning the guards' living and work quarters.
(d) Working in the kitchen.

15. How did Frankl respond to an SS officer who called him a pig, and asked him what his profession was?
(a) He said he had been a psychiatrist, and understood perfectly what his issues were.
(b) He argued that it was none of his business, and then tried to hit him.
(c) He told him he was a doctor who did charitable work.
(d) He refused to speak.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does the author claim that most of the extermination took place?

2. Why does the author, himself a concentration camp survivor, write, "We know: the best of us did not return"?

3. Under what conditions does Frankl describe the SS beating prisoners?

4. What symptom characterizes the first mental phase of prisoners in concentration camps?

5. Who narrates this story?

(see the answer keys)

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