David Pastel was a Jew of Polish origin who emigrated to France before World War II, as shown in a number of documents that piece together his fate during the Holocaust. He was caught early in the war and put in an internment camp at Beaune-la-Rolande. On June 28, 1942 he was sent to Auschwitz.
He survived the camp but was murdered in January 1945 in a death march. The local priest decided to bury the dead in a mass grave. Because he didn't know their names, he asked his assistant to register the numbers tattooed on their arms. The numbers were later put on gravestones."
