Henri is a young, frighteningly astute Jewish man who survives Auschwitz by learning how to manipulate various people, eliciting their compassion and making them believe he is their most genuine friend. Levi describes Henri to demonstrate how one may survive the horrors of the camp through cunning and manipulation, though Henri is so skilled at this that Levi finds it deeply unnerving. Although Levi knows that Henri survived the Holocaust, he remarks that he never wants to see him again.