From Viktor Franks’s From Death Camp to Existentialism:
Instead of taking the camp's difficulties as a test of their inner strength, they did not take their life seriously and despised it as something of no consequence. They preferred to close their eyes and to live in the past. Life for such people became meaningless.
Naturally only a few people were capable of reaching
great spiritual heights. But a few were given the chance to attain human greatness even through their apparent worldly failure and death, an accomplishment which in ordinary circumstances they would never have achieved.
I greatly respect this man’s work. It’s an account of his time in a concentration camp.
But when he talks about having the right attitude about the situation? I dunno, man. I don’t fully grasp attaining greatness through death.
Nor am I sure that spiritual challenges would be all that rewarding in that situation. However, I guess it is better than the alternatives, of which there are few.