In Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl, the Austrian psychologist, philosopher, and holocaust survivor, writes of his experience: “From all this we may learn that there are two races of men in this world, but only these two—the "race" of the decent man and the "race" of the indecent man. Both are found everywhere; they penetrate into all groups of society. No group consists entirely of decent or indecent people.”

To be clear, Frankl isn’t drawing a simplistic line between the camp overseers—the perpetrators—and the prisoners—their victims with the former as the indecent race and the latter among the decent race. His observation comes after recounting a surprising act of compassion by a camp foreman who risked his life to slip Frankl a piece of his own bread rations. This kindness, small but monumental, illustrates Frankl’s assessment of human nature that “the boundaries between groups overlapped.” That decency can exist in the most indecent of places.

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