The short answer to your question is that the theme of this quote is the psychological destruction of the people confined in concentration camps. However, this is quite a difficult question for a number of reasons. First, you posted the quotation (and your question) under the general topic of “Literature,” and not under any particular title. Second, you give neither the author of the quote nor the character who speaks it. An internet search does nothing to help, either. Third, you don’t mention the type of essay you might be wanting to write except to say that it should be “reflective.” Next, I wonder if the word you say is “adopt” is actually “adapt” (in that people don’t usually adopt “toward” anything). Therefore, I will continue with both possiblities in mind. Finally, I am only assuming you mean the Nazi concentration camps (such as Auschwitz) during World War II. (In reality, other concentration camps (such as those of the British) existed as well. This being said, I would suggest explaining the quotation and then using pieces of literature (or even movies) that are perfect examples.
Your first paragraph, of course, would be your introduction. In it, you should provide the quotation and explain it. Let us look at it again in the proper format:
[In the world of the concentration camp,] men learn to adopt/adapt toward totally irrational events and attitudes that one would expect only from insane or otherwise bewildered human beings.
The quotation itself is very deep and difficult to understand. In your introduction, you should introduce the idea of a concentration camp as a place of internment for huge numbers of people being persecuted for no reason other than their race, political ideology, religion, etc. Concentration camps are usually temporary and inadequate facilities too small for the numbers of people living within them. They are also called “work camps” because the people interred there are forced to work against their will or, worse, to simply await execution. In the 1930s and 1940s, the most infamous concentration camps were Dachau, Belsen, and Auschwitz.
After the description of the concentration camp, you should further explain the wording of the quotation. The author’s point (and the theme you ask for) is the psychological destruction of the people imprisoned in the camp. In order to continue living, these people have to value strange events and attitudes (that would seem irrational to us). In fact, the author proclaims, that if we took the events and attitudes out of context, we would think the people to be out of their minds or at least very confused. In this way, the theme of psychological destruction is clear.
In light of this theme, your thesis might be as follows: This quotation proclaims the psychological destruction of the prisoners of concentration camps as evidenced by Night, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and The Hiding Place.
Each of your body paragraphs, then, would focus on one of the three pieces of literature above and how they apply to the quotation. Your first would be about Night. An example of psychological destruction by having to adapt to strange events and attitudes would be the train ride to Buchenwald concentration camp. Not only do people die on the train and/or are thrown from the cars by guards but also the poor prisoners kill each other for scraps of food thrown to them by passersby. These are people under such severe conditions that insanity or at least extreme confusion can be cited.
Another body paragraph could be about The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, where a good example would be how Schmuel desperately asks for help from Bruno. There could be nothing more insane than this: a Jewish boy asking for help from one of the Nazi commander’s children. Desperation has caused this psychological destruction. Youth and innocence make it happen. Tragically, the two die together in the gas chambers as they struggle to find Schmuel’s father.
A final body paragraph could be about The Hiding Place. Even though the book begins about the Ten Booms hiding Jewish people within their home, because they are eventually caught, the Ten Booms eventually wind up in a concentration camp. A perfect example in this book could be the difference between the sisters Corrie and Betsy. At different times, both girls seem either “insane” or “bewildered.” Corrie is bitter and angry at being interred. Besty always keeps her optimism and faith despite anything that happens to her: even death at Ravensbruck. It is this death that changes Corrie’s outlook on life. Corrie Ten Boom would go on to write the book containing these events.
In your conclusion, I would restate the thesis and then concentrate a bit on a few movies such as Schindler’s List or Life is Beautiful (both of which focus on concentration camps). Why? Because both movies provide good examples. In the former, there is a scene where the Jewish girls panic before an inspection, pricking their fingers to use the blood as blush to make themselves look more attractive so they will not be chosen for execution. In the latter, in an effort not to allow his watching son to panic, Guido does a funny walk on the way to his execution. Your conclusion, then, will go even further than the literature by bringing media into this idea of psychological destruction of the prisoners due to their behavior.
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