There is a song in
Moses, the show that opened a few weeks ago in Switzerland, for which I received more praise than I deserve. It is the aria the tortured Moses sings in prison. Although he is locked up and chained, he claims to be free. Addressing his myrmidons he shouts: "Fetter and gag me, insult me, scorn and torture me: What makes me a human being stays free!" I owe this thought to Victor Frankl, an unbroken Auschwitz surviver. Frankl was convinced that only his will to "say yes to life in spite of everything" let him endure the sufferings of the camp. His tormentors could not destroy his thoughts. He just would not let them. I admire this man, and deeply regret that I discovered his writings only after his death in the late nineties.
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