One who bore witness to these events was Primo Levi, who in his book entitled Si c'est un homme [If This Be A Man], continually returned to this theme of how deportees were deliberately, fanatically reduced to the level of “animals”, “raw materials”, “garbage”.
On pense à Primo Levi qui, dans Si c'est un homme, revient sans cesse sur cette rétrogradation délibérée et maniaque du déporté au rang de «bestiau», de «matière première», d'«ordure».