Pensive Pope’s silent prayer at Auschwitz
HIS head bowed in sombre reflection, the Pope enters Auschwitz yesterday under the notorious sign ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ – ‘Work will set you free’.
Francis toured the former Nazi death camp in silent prayer, speaking only during brief exchanges with Holocaust survivors.
On the third day of his visit to Poland, the 79-year-old pontiff led prayers for the 1.1million mostly Jewish victims murdered at the camp.
Rather than make a speech, he stood in silence to reflect on the horrors committed there. The Vatican said he had wanted to express his grief and sorrow through quiet prayer and meditation.
He also left a message in the camp’s guest- book, writing in Spanish: ‘Lord, have pity on your people. Lord, forgive so much cruelty.’
The Pope then moved on to Birkenau, where gas chambers were used for the industrial-scale murder of Jews and other ethnic minorities.
He prayed for 15 minutes before meeting survivors one by one, kissing them on both cheeks and shaking their hands. He carried a large white candle to the Death Wall, where prisoners were executed.
Francis is the third consecutive Pope to make the journey to Auschwitz-Birkenau but, as an Argentine, the first to visit who had not lived through the Second World War in Europe. As a Polish man, John Paul II directly witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust during Germany’s occupation, while Benedict XVI was conscripted into the Hitler Youth as membership was forced on all German teenagers.
When Benedict visited in 2006 he chose to avoid speaking in his native German, instead making a speech in Italian in which he questioned why God was silent during the slaughter of so many innocent people.
For yesterday’s ceremony the guests, including Christian Poles who saved Jews during the war, stood in respect as Francis arrived, his vehicle driving parallel to the rail tracks once used to transport the victims to their death there.