Identifying the Death March Victims Buried in a Mass Grave in Książenice, Poland

In a Christian cemetery in the village of Książenice, Poland, about an hour-and-a-half from Auschwitz-Birkenau, a memorial presides over a mass grave of 45 people, victims of a death march that left Auschwitz-Birkenau. Unlike many other victims of death marches, they received a burial. The local priest, Pawel Rys, made the decision to bury the victims and also to document their 'names' – the inmate numbers tattooed on their arms. The priest instructed the gravedigger to record the numbers. The original document is stored in the Auschwitz Archive and a copy is on display in the Holocaust History Museum at Yad Vashem.

The mass grave site was known to researchers and to some Polish tour guides. The initial idea, to try to identify the victims by means of the numbers engraved on the gravestone and to erect an additional gravestone which would list their names, was raised following a visit by the Israel Security Agency.