*The Human Race* (1947)—an autobiographical account, or more precisely, a true-life narrative—is the first and final book by Robert Antelme (1917–1990), a French writer, poet, and member of the Resistance. It serves as a unique testimony, describing the dehumanization of individuals within concentration camps, as well as the will to live that enables a person—against all odds—to retain their belonging to the human race.
Though it initially went almost unnoticed, the book was eventually translated into several European languages ​​and gave rise to a number of profound philosophical interpretations regarding the phenomenon of "camp life"—the shared existence of prisoners, guards, and collaborators. Antelme’s work has been discussed by figures such as Georges Bataille, Maurice Blanchot, Sarah Kofman, Edgar Morin, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Jean-Luc Nancy, Marguerite Duras, and Georges Perec—the latter of whom asserted that, with the appearance of this book, "literature was born anew."