In his memoir "If this is a man" Primo Levi explores the ways in which Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz were dehumanised yet managed to retain some sense of self - of who they were. They retain their identity despite the intention of the Germans to totally dehumanise them before sending them to the `chimney'. Although the characters change their typical behaviour in order to survive, it is none the less part of their personality, which maybe wasn't evident on the other side of the barbed wire. The Germans only succeeded in suppressing the expression of their identity, they did not however eliminate it.

The men in `If this is a man' are robbed of everything they love, of their house, family, clothes, habits, of everything they possess. Their hair is shaven off and their dignity is lost. They are referred to by a number, which is tattooed onto...