Robert Antelme was a French writer. During the Second World War he was involved in the French Resistance. Antelme was arrested and deported on 1 July 1944. He was at Buchenwald, then Gandersheim. After the end of the war François Mitterrand found Antelme in a terrible state while visiting the Dachau concentration camp and organised his return to Paris. Antelme later wrote L'Espèce humaine (1947) depicting his experiences in the camps. The book related his experience of detention in concentration camps. More than just a memoir of the hardships of a concentration camp, it was also a philosophical reflection on humanity.