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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When Frankl was scheduled to be transported to another camp, what did the chief doctor do?
(a) Forged a letter of introduction.
(b) Fired Frankl from his job.
(c) Arranged for Frankl to stay.
(d) Created a new position for Frankl in the next camp.

2. Who greets the prisoners upon their arrival at the concentration camp?
(a) The director of the camp.
(b) An unidentified man who directs the prisoners to form two separate lines.
(c) Cruel SS guards with dogs.
(d) Cheerful prisoners speaking different languages.

3. Why does the author, after leaving camp, upon seeing an image of prisoners lying on their bunks, argue that these aren't horrible images?
(a) They are images of sick prisoners who could stay in bed all day.
(b) They are images of men that he knew, and all of them survived.
(c) They are images of men from the Capo who had been demoted, and one of them had been in a position to be cruel to the author before this demotion.
(d) They were images of people who had been spared the gas chambers.

4. What does the author attempt to describe in this essay?
(a) The reason that the Nazis rose to power.
(b) The last days of the war.
(c) The ways in which living in a concentration camp made prisoners stronger.
(d) The experience of living in a concentration camp.

5. What kind of event does the author attend with the camp's chief officer?
(a) A meeting where SS officials discuss punishment.
(b) A private meal.
(c) A seance.
(d) A medical presentation on Measles.

6. Why was the author not bothered by sitting near lice-infested human corpses?
(a) He was able, near these bodies, to spend a few minutes alone.
(b) He was able to distract himself thinking of his love for his wife.
(c) He was emotionally distanced from death, and saw the humor in the situation.
(d) As a doctor, he knew that if he were infected with lice, he could easily treat himself.

7. 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 a condemned person has the illusion just before death that he will be saved.
(c) The idea that many psychiatric patients have, that someone else is responsible for their own well-being.
(d) When a psychiatric patient splits their own personality in two, in order to avoid dealing with trauma.

8. Why did the Capo in the author's working party do him favors?
(a) The author was his doctor before he was put in prison.
(b) This Capo favored him because they were from the same hometown.
(c) The author listened to his marital problems and offered psychotherapeutic advice.
(d) The author aided him in finding the strongest men to work on his team.

9. Why were dead men thrown on trains transporting prisoners to different concentration camps?
(a) They were sent to spread disease to the other prisoners on the train.
(b) If their number was on the list, their life was considered less important than their number.
(c) This was a cruel joke of the SS who wanted to horrify the other riders.
(d) They were there to take up space, so that the prisoners would not have much room.

10. How were the Capos chosen?
(a) They were the prisoners who were seen as having a suitable character for the job.
(b) They were randomly chosen from groups arriving by train daily.
(c) They were chosen for their height, as the work that they did required tall men.
(d) They were chosen according to their phyiscal strength.

11. What does the author claim hurts most about the physical blows from SS officers?
(a) The unfairness of the blows.
(b) The way in which the SS officers did not speak to the prisoners before beating them.
(c) The use of sticks to hit the prisoners.
(d) The way that the officers hit prisoners where they were already injured.

12. When was there a free fight among the prisoners?
(a) Before meal time, when prisoners competed for one of the limited number of two-course meals.
(b) Before there was a shipment of the feeble and inable to work, when prisoners struggled not to be transported to another site.
(c) Before bed, when men and women competed for a place on a soft bed.
(d) Before work began daily, when prisoners competed to be assigned the first jobs, as these were the least physically demanding.

13. 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 claims that this is the case because he deeply misses his family members who died at Auschwitz.
(c) The author believes this because the prisoners kept themselves alive by brutally and dishonestly fighting for their existence.
(d) The author feels that the most defiant prisoners, those who stood up to the SS officers, were immediately killed.

14. What possession does the author of this book try to keep after arriving to the concentration camp?
(a) A gold tooth.
(b) A sturdy pair of boots.
(c) A scientific manuscript.
(d) A wedding ring.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What did the prisoners think of indoor work?

2. Were all foremen harsh and cruel?

3. What happens in the story of Death in Teheran?

4. What did Frankl visit with the camp's chief doctor?

5. What were the exceptions to the "cultural hibernation" in camp?

(see the answer keys)

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