Agence France Presse has tracked down Albert Veissid, one of the Auschwitz prisoners who 65 years ago left a message in a bottle in the wall of a school in Oswiecim, southern Poland. 

A Frenchman, Albert Veissid has just turned 85 and lives in a village near Marseille. He confirmed he was an Auschwitz prisoner but did not remember hiding a bottle with a letter in one of the pavilions that belonged to the death camp and later became a school.

The bottle with a letter was found by workers who were demolishing what is now a vocational school. The letter was written in 1944 by camp prisoners constructing a bomb shelter for the soldiers. It was scribbled on a piece of rough paper probably ripped from a cement bag.

Seven prisoners: six Poles and a Frenchman aged 18 to 20-years-old signed the letter and included their identification numbers. One of them was Albert Veissid..  (mg)