A doctor lost almost everything — his work, his family, his freedom. He kept asking one question: what is left that is still mine?
Simpler version: Open this story at A2 level → · Read before: The Man Who Decided to Believe
Ten items. Work through the four activities — say your answer out loud before you reveal it.
Three words: attitude · purpose · hardship. Say the right one, then reveal.
Read each part. After it, there's a quick check (answer from memory first), then a question to discuss. The story is told simply and with care.
Viktor Frankl was born in Vienna in 1905. As a young doctor he worked with people who had lost all hope. Over the years he developed an idea: the deepest human need is not pleasure or power, but meaning. A person who has a reason to live, he believed, can endure almost any hardship.
By 1942 he was writing a book about this idea. He had spent years on it. But he was Jewish, and Vienna was no longer safe. In September 1942, Frankl, his wife Tilly, his parents and his brother were taken to a ghetto in Theresienstadt, and the book became impossible.
1. What was Frankl's main idea about human beings?
2. What happened in September 1942?
1. That the deepest human need is meaning, and that a person with a reason to live can endure almost any hardship.
2. Because he was Jewish, he, his wife, his parents and his brother were taken to the Theresienstadt ghetto, and he could no longer work on his book.
In October 1944 Frankl was moved to Auschwitz. He had hidden the manuscript of his book — about two hundred and fifty pages — in the lining of his coat. It was taken from him at once. In the months that followed, in several camps, he lost almost everything: his belongings, his work and, eventually, his wife, his parents and his brother.
He was a psychiatrist, and even there he watched people closely. He noticed that those who had something to live for — a person to meet again, or a task still to finish — often endured the hardship longer. He did not say this was a rule. He knew that luck, health and chance decided many lives, and that many strong, good people did not return. But he saw something that stayed with him for the rest of his life. Almost everything could be taken from a person. What could not be taken was the way each prisoner chose to respond.
To keep his mind alive, he imagined himself giving lectures after the war on the psychology of the camps. On 27 April 1945, American soldiers freed the camp where he was held.
1. What happened to the manuscript, and what else did Frankl lose?
2. What did he notice about the prisoners — and what did he not claim?
1. It was taken from him when he arrived at Auschwitz. He lost his belongings, his work and, in the end, his wife, parents and brother.
2. People with something to live for often endured longer, and the one thing that could not be taken was how each person chose to respond. He did not claim it was a rule — luck and chance decided many lives, and many good people died.
Frankl returned to Vienna and learned that nearly everyone he loved had died. He was forty, with almost nothing left except the idea. In 1946, he wrote a short book about his experience in just nine days. Its German title meant A Psychologist Experiences the Concentration Camp. It was later published in English as Man's Search for Meaning, and it has been read by many millions of people.
He went on to develop a method of therapy built on meaning, called logotherapy, and he taught and wrote for the rest of his long life. He died in 1997, aged ninety-two.
Frankl never said that suffering is good, or that people should look for it. His point was smaller and harder. When suffering cannot be avoided, people can still ask what it is for, and what they will do with it. Some critics say that his view is too hopeful, and that such a choice is not always possible. His answer was not to deny the horror, but to refuse to let it be the last word.
1. How and when did Frankl write his book?
2. What did he say — and not say — about suffering?
1. He wrote it in nine days in 1946, after returning to Vienna; it became Man's Search for Meaning.
2. He did not say suffering is good or that people should seek it. He said that when suffering cannot be avoided, people can still ask what it is for and choose how to respond.
A cleft sentence splits one idea into two parts so that the important information comes first or last. It adds emphasis — useful when you want people to notice what really matters.
Rewrite each sentence as a cleft sentence, starting with the words given. Say it, then reveal a model.
Write one word in each gap.
1. Frankl wanted to understand was why some people kept going.
2. was the thought of his wife that gave him strength.
3. All he wanted to see his family again.
1. What 2. It 3. was
1: the focus comes AFTER "was", so the first part is "What… wanted to understand". 2: the focus ("the thought of his wife") comes inside, so we need "It was… that". 3: "All he wanted" is the first part; the verb "be" follows.
Each sentence has one mistake. Find it, then reveal the correction.
Take the pattern into the Speak tab — "what really mattered" is where cleft sentences belong.
A note on the record: the dates and facts follow the standard accounts of Frankl's life. His ideas are discussed here carefully — he spoke from experience, and he did not offer a rule that explains who survived and who did not.
Say whether he would agree with each statement, then reveal.
All of it out loud, against the clock. Put the important idea first — use cleft sentences where the story turns.
Tell it as a story about what remains: the doctor and his idea → the book in progress → the coat → what he noticed → liberation → nine days → what he did and did not claim.
Use at least three cleft sentences (what… was / it was… that… / all he… was) and five key words (manuscript, endure, reconstruct, attitude, purpose, hardship, response, survive, meaning, freedom).
Two rounds. Round one: you are Frankl — explain why a person is never only a product of circumstances. Round two: you are a thoughtful critic — explain what his idea can leave out. Then say where you stand.
Choose one and speak for two minutes, then take questions:
Prefer an outside scenario? A runner in the last kilometre of a marathon · a student who must retake an important exam · a team that has just lost its biggest client · someone waiting a long time for important news.