AMONG THE CUMULATIVELY traumatic experiences in the concentration camps the attack on individuality was one that victims felt immediately. Brought by force into the concentrationary system, prisoners were robbed not only of their freedom and their civil rights but also of almost all external attributes that indicate and in some sense can be said to constitute a person's individuality. Circumstances varied greatly by time, location, and the category to which the National Socialists assigned a particular inmate. However most inmates lost their residence, their professional and social status, all contact with family and friends, their possessions, their clothing, and even their head- and body-hair. They were assigned numbers to replace their names and were allowed no self-determination. Depending on the camp, such humiliating treatment might include perverse elements such as being forced to ask for permission — often denied — to relieve one's bowels. Jean Samuel, a survivor from Auschwitz-Monowitz and Levi's companion “Pikolo” there, describes the beginning of life in the camp: