Frankl did those operations before he was in the camps, not to survive or (IMO) to please the Nazis but out of a misguided attempt to relieve suffering and save lives and impart dignity. What he didn’t grasp was that the suicides of Vienna’s Jews were in large part political protests, an attempt to show the world that their lives under this monstrous regime did indeed have no meaning and never would.
Whatever his intent, he was unqualified to do the procedures described above, which didn’t extend the life of the person who attempted suicide beyond a day or two and which probably created more suffering. He also played into the hands of Austrian Nazis, who were so embarrassed by the spectacle of Jews committing suicide that they made it illegal (only they had the legal right to kill Jews).
Frankl is a complex figure in terms of the practise of moral and ethical philosophy. Whatever one thinks of him, he deserves to be cited by better people than a grinning fascist hatemonger like Gutfeld.
