An autobiographical essay by Viktor Frankl, a representative thinker and psychiatrist of the 20th century.
He recounts the horrific suffering he endured in Nazi concentration camps with a dry and calm gaze.
And by analyzing these experiences, he establishes the psychotherapeutic technique of logotherapy, and through this technique, he suggests a direction for how people should overcome hardships and live their lives.
It approaches the question of what it means to be human and what the meaning of life is from a psychological perspective, leaving readers with a profound impression.

People who have not experienced camp life are prone to have wrong ideas about it, such as sentimentality or pity.
But those outside had no idea what the fierce fight for survival that was taking place among the prisoners at the time meant.
It was a struggle for daily bread and life itself, a bloody struggle to save himself and his beloved friends.

Consider the case where an official announcement is made that a certain number of prisoners will be transferred to another camp.
Then people would naturally assume that the final destination would be the gas chamber.
This is because prisoners who were sick or too weak to work were often selected and sent to large camps with gas chambers and crematoriums.
The process of selecting targets soon becomes the fuse for indiscriminate fighting between prisoners or groups of prisoners.
What matters to them is to erase their own name or the name of their friend from the list of victims.
Even though we know full well that to save one person, we must sacrifice another.

Each time there was a transport, the number of people was set.
All prisoners had numbers, and they meant nothing more than numbers.
So it didn't really matter who was transported.
Upon entry into the camp—at least at Auschwitz—the records of the prisoners' personal information were confiscated along with their belongings.
Therefore, prisoners could give false names or occupations, and many did so for various reasons.

What the camp authorities were interested in was the numbers of the people who had been arrested.
This number was tattooed on the prisoner's skin or embroidered on his trousers, jacket, or coat.
If the guard wanted to punish a prisoner, he simply had to glance at the number.
How terrified he was of that gaze! He never asked for his name.

So, let's look at the prisoners who are about to be transported.
They have neither the luxury nor the desire to concern themselves with moral and ethical issues.
Everyone is obsessed with just one thought.
All he can think about is whether he has to survive for his family waiting for him at home, or whether he has to save the life of his friend who is about to be taken away.
So, without hesitation, he puts another person, another 'number', on the transport list to take his place.

As I said before, Capo is a person selected based on the negative aspects of humanity.
This went to the most violent of the prisoners.
Fortunately, there were occasional exceptions, but separate from the Nazi selection of Kapos, self-selection also took place among the prisoners from time to time.

After being dragged from one camp to another for several years, in the end, only those who have not a shred of conscience will survive the fierce competition for survival.
They were people who were prepared to use any means necessary.
To save his own life, he resorted to brutal violence, theft, and even sold out his friends.
Those of us who came back alive, whether it was by sheer luck or a miracle, know.
The truly good people among us did not come back alive… … .

--- From "Part 1: Experiences in a Concentration Camp - A Fierce Arena of Survival"