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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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 aided him in finding the strongest men to work on his team.
(d) The author listened to his marital problems and offered psychotherapeutic advice.

2. What rule did the author establish for himself in Auschwitz?
(a) He would work as hard as possible when given a task.
(b) He would answer all questions truthfully.
(c) He would try to earn the confidence of everyone he met.
(d) He would always eat his food slowly to enjoy it as much as possible.

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

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

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

6. Who does the author claim entertained thoughts of suicide in the concentration camp?
(a) The author claims these thoughts were particularly common among men.
(b) The author writes that suicide was most common when it was snowing.
(c) He notes there was a high suicide rate among the Capos.
(d) The author notes that nearly all of the prisoners entertained these thoughts.

7. How were prisoners identified?
(a) By the room they were assigned.
(b) By name.
(c) By the name of the place they lived before being captured.
(d) By number.

8. What did Frankl learn happened at Auschwitz after he left?
(a) There was a fire.
(b) Prisoners killed an SS officer.
(c) Frankl's friend broke his leg and was sent to the gas chamber.
(d) Cannibalism broke out.

9. How were normal reactions hastened among the workers charged with removing sewage?
(a) The officers in charge would "reward" those who finished their work quickly by forcing them to clean raw sewage, one of the worst jobs at the concentration camp.
(b) The Capo would strike them if they attempted to wipe off the sewage that splashed on their faces.
(c) The officers used loud noises to shock the prisoners as they removed the sewage.
(d) The Capo would threaten them if they did not quickly stomp in the sewage to clean the latrines and remove sewage.

10. What job did Frankl do in freezing temperatures out of doors?
(a) He worked in the sewage pits.
(b) He worked on icky train tracks.
(c) He worked on the roof of the prison director's building.
(d) He worked in an open-air hospital.

11. 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.

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

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 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.

14. 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) This was a cruel joke of the SS who wanted to horrify the other riders.
(c) They were there to take up space, so that the prisoners would not have much room.
(d) If their number was on the list, their life was considered less important than their number.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Who does the author describe smoking in the concentration camps?

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

3. Why did prisoners try to get to the center of the lines that workers formed in the morning?

4. What does the author claim hurts most about the physical blows from SS officers?

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

(see the answer keys)

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