Eine Reflexion der Erfahrungen aus Auschwitz

Tomáš Radil, a survivor of Terezín and Auschwitz, is a neuro-physiologist from Prague who emigrated to the United States. In his essay, he describes how certain people were able to survive in concentration camps while others could not. He stresses the importance of psychological phenomena for survival and describes the sociological structures of the prisoners. Since certain modes of behaviour developed in concentration camp, rules were constructed to prescribe how one should help others without hurting oneself. There was, to be sure, deviant behaviour whereby prisoners stole from or harmed others. These, however, were only the exceptions.

 The full texts of articles from Theresienstädter Studien und Dokumente 1994 on CEEOL web-site.