merig00 | Workers find message hidden in Auschwitz wall

Workers demolishing the wall of a building that once belonged to the former Nazi German Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp have found a message in a bottle written by prisoners 65 years ago, Auschwitz museum officials said.

"We know two of the Auschwitz prisoners who signed the message survived the camp, but their later fate isn't known," Auschwitz-Birkenau museum historian Jerzy Mensfelt told AFP in a telephone interview.

"If they are alive, they would be in their 80s now. Perhaps the publicity surrounding this discovery will lead to more information," he said.

Workers found the bottled message when recently demolishing a wall at the State Higher Vocational School in the southern Polish town of Oswiecim, the site of the infamous World War II Auschwitz Nazi German death camp.

The bottle with a note inside had been placed in the mortar of a wall of building which had served as a warehouse for the camp's Nazi guards during the war.

Hand-written in pencil, the note bears the names and camp ID numbers of seven camp prisoners including four Poles and one Frenchman from Lyon, Mr Mensfelt confirmed. All were aged 18 to 20.

Further details are expected to be made public in the coming days, he said.