I think Adam was optimistic. He always looked for the good -"but i know I've been fortunate even in circumstances I might have once found impossible to see as fortunate - sometimes there's tea - we have a toilet that flushes - we're alive."
In the middle of terrible poverty and starvation, he taught poetry - as in beauty is truth, truth beauty that's all you know on earth and all you need to know etc.
When his brother urged him to leave before the Nazi's took over, he declined never believing they would do what they did. So, in that - his optimism did not serve him well.
I think Szifra wanted to be an optimist - initially insisting that the British and U.S. would save them. But she eventually realized the futility of that hope and sacrificed herself to save her brothers.
I am mostly an optimist, but our current government scares me - prosecuting those who threaten their power while allowing and abetting other significant crime and violence that they apparently believe contributes to their continued power, lying about policies that hurt us while shifting blame to their political enemies for the damage they've done, silencing social media and people who speak against them, pitting groups against each other to convince people they are oppressed and only the current government can save them by going after the oppressors. Yes, it is not that different than Nazi Germany in the beginning.