Victor Frankl, the founder of logo-therapy, made an interesting point in his book “Man’s Search for Meaning”. He said something to the effect that happiness can at least partially be defined by the negative situations (emotional, physical, etc.) that we DON’T experience.

No one wants to be a pessimist, but there are those who claim to be pessimists simply because they want to be “realistic.” Indeed, some bright intellectuals have charged that when the world contains molesters and murderers, and when something as terrible as the Holocaust can occur in our century, it is simpleminded to take [...]

Though some have denied that Holocaust ever happened, it is certainly real in the lives of those who experienced its horrors first hand. There are innumerable people, particularly the Jews, who have suffered terribly under the German Nazi regime and survived. Many were resilient enough to pick up the pieces and went on to achieve greatness in their chosen endeavors.