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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. Why does the author, himself a concentration camp survivor, write, "We know: the best of us did not return"?
(a) This quote is taken from a paragraph in which the author writes that the humblest prisoners were the earliest to be killed by the SS officers.
(b) The author feels that the most defiant prisoners, those who stood up to the SS officers, were immediately killed.
(c) The author claims that this is the case because he deeply misses his family members who died at Auschwitz.
(d) The author believes this because the prisoners kept themselves alive by brutally and dishonestly fighting for their existence.

3. How does the author describe the Capos?
(a) "The Capos were miserable, knowing that they had betrayed their people."
(b) "Many Capos fared better in camp than they had in their entire lives."
(c) "The Capos lived in fear, knowing that they could be stripped of their privileges at any moment."
(d) "The Capos enjoyed life in the prisons, and took pleasure in the humiliation of others."

4. How did prisoners experience beauty?
(a) They discussed beautiful art that they had seen outside the camp.
(b) Their lives were too focused on primitive needs to worry about such things.
(c) They experienced it intensely.
(d) The SS officers made light of their lack of sensibility when surrounded by beauty in nature.

5. Under what conditions does Frankl describe the SS beating prisoners?
(a) At the slightest provocation or for no reason at all.
(b) When they spoke before being spoken to.
(c) When they were injurred and unable to work.
(d) At the direction of the SS authorities, prisoners were beaten.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is this book most concerned with?

2. Who does the author claim entertained thoughts of suicide in the concentration camp?

3. What rule did the author establish for himself in Auschwitz?

4. How many mental phases does the author claim that concentration camp prisoners go through?

5. What was the main characteristic of the second phase of the prisoner's mental life?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who were termed "Moslems" in camp? What consequences did being called "Moslem" have?

2. According to Frankl, what characterizes the prisoners' thinking when they first arrive at camp?

3. How does Frankl describe a "delusion of reprieve"?

4. What kind of curiosity does Frankl write that the prisoners had?

5. How did the SS respond to changing the list of prisoners who would board transport that would transfer prisoners to another camp or would send them to the gas chambers?

6. What does Frankl claim is the difficulty of his attempt at a methodical presentation of the psychology of the prisoner?

7. According to the first section of the text, "Experiences in a Concentration Camp," what advantages did the Capo have over normal prisoners?

8. What did Frankl call to "run into the wire"? What role did this play in camp life, and in the mental lives of prisoners in camp?

9. How were prisoners separated when they arrived at Auschwitz?

10. After the initial mental phase that was characterized by shock, what characterized the second phase that Frankl noticed in his fellow prisoners and in himself?

(see the answer keys)

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