Power of human kindness at challenging times

My journey in search of human kindness even at the most challenging times started after reading Rutger Bregman’s Humankind a Hopeful History.

My recent stop is at Viktor E Frankl’s ‘Man’s search for meaning’. Viktor, an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher, author, was a holocaust survivor. His above book provides a chronicle of his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II.

The terrible conditions of the camps and the harrowing experiences of the prisoners are unimaginable. The daily rations for a prisoner included much less than 10.5 ounces of bread and 1.75 pints of thin soup. Their daily duties include laborious works including on works contracted out as labourers to digging and laying tracks for railways, digging tunnels with no proper gears and tools etc. The prisoners were practically sold as slaves for firms who paid the camp authorities a fixed price per day per prisoner. At times selected prisoners are reward with coupons which can be exchanged for six cigarettes and they too loose its validity after sometimes. They can be exchanged for soups which often a real respite from starvation according to Viktor Frankl. The conditions of the prisoners are in such a way that when their last layers of subcutaneous fat had vanished, they looked like skeletons disguised with skin and rags. One could watch their bodies beginning to devour themselves and the organism digested its own protein and the muscles disappeared. The body has no powers of resistance left. They had lack of sleep due partly to the pestering of vermin which infested the terribly over crowded huts because of the general lack of hygiene and sanitation. Even a smallest gesture of kindness like a small extra portion of bread given or sending the ladle deep down the soup pot to get some peas with the soup meant a lot to these prisoners.

Albeit having some portion of the cruel men amongst the prisoners’ vast majority stick together and supported each other silently. Their supporting songs, poems and jokes helped them forget their misery even for a fraction of a time.

Even at this height of misery there is sheer demonstration of the human kindness displayed by the vast majority. One such example is on an incident where a semi-starved prisoner had broken into the potato store to steal a few pounds of potatoes. All prisoners were forewarned in the beginning that even very minor ‘thefts’ would be punishable by immediate death by hanging. When the theft had been discovered and some prisoners recognised the ‘burglar’, the whole camp, when order to hand over the guilty man or face starve for a day, chose to starve for a day. That was 2500 men for one ‘burglar’ among them. A sheer demonstration of human kindness even at the height of such misery.

Their misery reminded Viktor of Bismarck’s words "Life is like being at the dentist. You always think that the worst is still to come, and yet it is over already."

Viktor emphasized the fact that one had to ask themselves what irreplaceable losses they had suffered and their consolation was if one is still alive then there is a reason for hope as health, family, happiness, professional abilities, fortune, position in society are all that could be achieved again or restored.

Often the selected men amongst the prisoners were made Capos, who acted as trustees and enjoyed special privileges. Capos were never hungry and they were often harder on the prisoners and beat cruelly. Often, they are sadists from purest clinical sense according to Viktor. But even amongst them there were good ones who bought prisoners medicines from their own money and showed act of kindness. Hence Viktor argues that boundaries between groups of individuals overlapped and we must not try to simplify matters by saying that these men were angels and those were devils by groups they belong to.

Viktor says that he learnt that there are two races of men (human) in the world i.e., decent and indecent. Both are found everywhere; they penetrate into all groups of society. No group consists entirely of decent or indecent people. In this sense, Viktor says there is no group that is of ‘Pure Race’. He found that the rift dividing good from evil, which goes through all human beings, reaches into the lowest depths and becomes apparent even on the bottom of the abyss which is laid open by the concentration camp.

Viktor analyses the above again in the post release phase of the prisoners (psychological phase) and observed that people with natures of a more primitive kind could not escape the influences of brutality which had surrounded them in camp life. Now, being free, they thought they could use their freedom “licentiously and ruthless”. The only thing that had changed for them was that they were now the oppressors instead of the oppressed. They became instigators, not objects, of willful force and injustice. They justified their behaviour by their own terrible experiences. Viktor says we have to strive to lead them back to truth by citing a small incident of him avoiding to tread on a few stalks of oats infuriated his friend.

Following words of Viktor E Frankl summarises human life beautifully “What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life - daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.”

So, my end note is for all of us not to fall for the worst pictures painted of humans as evils by the social media, movies, news etc. and believe in the fact that there is a vast majority of humans are kind and their kindness is what helps the world still a wonderful place to live albeit all challenges.