DISCUSSION: Dr. William Niederland, on the basis of his own extensive experience with concentration camp survivors, also emphasized the narrow range of defensive responses available. Like the author, he found an initial denial, acute panic, and confusion, followed by an automatization of the ego and concomitant ego regression. When ego regression was too extensive, apathy and withdrawal were found and inevitably resulted in death; this stage is similar to infantile marasmus and the anaclitic depression of Spitz. With respect to the time span between