Zalmen Gradowski

Zalmen Gradowski (also Ḥaim Zalmen Gradowski) was born in Suwalki and in his youth received a traditional Jewish education as well as some grounding in European literature. Gradowski spent the early years of World War II in Soviet-occupied Lunna, but with the German occupation, he and his family were deported to Auschwitz in December 1942. Assigned to the Sonderkommando (to work at the crematoria), he recorded his impressions of Auschwitz, and two of his manuscripts were recovered after the war. Gradowski was killed leading the Sonderkommando revolt of October 1944.