Switching lifestyles so quickly without having any influence on it, lead the prisoners to be in a state of shock and curiosity.
On their first days in the camp, the prisoners that were not executed were forced to perform arduous labor and often times the conditions were perilous and most of the time, life threatening. During the winter, the prisoners barely had warm clothing and their shoes were old and did not protect their feet from frostbite. These shoes were often too small for the prisoners' feet and left blisters. In pain, the prisoners including Dr. Frankl had to perform without showing signs of weakness because the Capos would beat prisoners who did show signs. In addition to their poor working conditions, they were malnourished. They received a piece of bread and soup for lunch. These prisoners were in combat with the horrible malnutrition and starvation day after day. A day of work for the prisoners was often long because they woke up early and went to sleep very late. When it came time to sleep, they slept in small uncomfortable cramped spaces. .
When the prisoners are in a concentration camp for some time they often become accustomed to their surroundings. The brutality and the cruelty that were present in the beating and with the gas chambers and the crematoriums were becoming commonplace for the prisoners. .
"The sufferers, the dying and the dead, became such commonplace sights to him after a few weeks of camp life that they couldn't move him any more."" (Pg 40) The morbidity of camp life became ordinary because they want to keep a protective shell to disregard the injustices. When Frankl was not beat he said, "At such a moment it is not the physical pain which hurts the most) and this applies to adults as much as to punished children); it is the mental agony caused by the injustice, the unreasonableness of it all."" 1 (Pg. 42) It is these injustices that that these prisoners must learn to be accustomed.
