[AngryParsley]

In his bestselling 1946 book, Man's Search for Meaning, which he wrote in nine days about his experiences in the camps, Frankl concluded that the difference between those who had lived and those who had died came down to one thing: Meaning, an insight he came to early in life.

It's interesting to contrast this with the stories from Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea.

Yet another gratuitous cruelty: the killer targets the most innocent, the people who would never steal food, lie, cheat, break the law, or betray a friend. It was a phenomenon that the Italian writer Primo Levi identified after emerging from Auschwitz, when he wrote that he and his fellow survivors never wanted to see one another again after the war because they had all done something of which they were ashamed. As Mrs. Song would observe a decade later, when she thought back on all the people she knew who died during those years in Chongjin, it was the “simple and kindhearted people who did what they were told—they were the first to die.”

That book has many tales of people surviving by cheating, stealing, and ignoring the plights of others. That's the real truth: In a starvation situation, nice people die first. A sense of meaning contains zero calories.

[wfn]

It might be that the experiences/conditions were a bit different: perhaps (shameless utter speculation) Viktor Frankl had in mind those cases in which people were not intentionally murdered, but rather died themselves (starvation / reluctance to eat / falling apart / suicide). e.g. (wiki):

"On 25 September 1942, Frankl, his wife and his parents were deported to the Nazi Theresienstadt Ghetto. There Frankl worked as a general practitioner in a clinic. When his skills in psychiatry were noticed, he was assigned to the psychiatric care ward in block B IV, establishing a camp service of "psychohygiene" or mental health care. He organized a unit to help newcomers to the camp overcome shock and grief. Later he set up a suicide watch, assisted by Regina Jonas."

Then again, e.g. his mother was killed intentionally in gas chambers. etc.

[zwischenzug]

Why is that "the real truth"?

I would assume Frankl was talking about those who had survived the harsh daily conditions rather than those who had dodged a bullet or a gas chamber.

[dharmach]

Meaning for life creates desire to live. it does not have to be real, moral, or good. Most stupid or lowly reason can give people strength to fight for survival in adverse situation.