The aim of this article is to trace the lives of Czech and Slovak prisoners in the Mauthausen concentration camp, with the focus on the question of one of the interviewers: "What kept you alive?" Accordingly, I would like to show how former prisoners survived, that is, to highlight those aspects that increased their chances of surviving the terrible conditions in the camp. In addition to this leading research question, we are interested in what, from the survivors' perspective, prevented them from falling into lethargy and apathy.