Pope Francis walks through Auschwitz death camp
OSWIECIM, Poland — Pope Francis paid a somber visit in silence to the Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau on Friday, with his only public comment a guest book entry begging God’s “forgiveness for so much cruelty.”
The Argentine-born pontiff made an early morning pilgrimage to the place where Adolf Hitler’s forces killed more than 1 million people, most of them Jews, during World War II.
Francis entered the camp on foot, walking slowly in his white robes beneath the notorious gate at Auschwitz that bears the cynical words “Arbeit Macht Frei (Work sets you free).”
Among the 11 survivors he met briefly was a woman in her mid-90s who helped deliver babies born to Auschwitz women; another, 101, played the violin in an orchestra at the death camp.
Francis moved on to nearby Birkenau, a sprawling complex where people were murdered in factory-like fashion in its gas chambers. There he greeted 25 Holocaust rescuers, including a woman who as Youths participating in World Youth Days lift up a cross during the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross), attended by Pope Francis, in Blonie Fields, Krakow, Poland, on Friday. a child helped her mother mercy on your people! smuggle in bread in their Lord, forgiveness for so handbags to Jews forced much cruelty!” He then by Nazi occupiers to stay signed with his name in in Warsaw’s ghetto. Latin, “Franciscus” and
Altogether, it was a added the date “29.7.2016.” deeply contemplative and Francis is the first pope private visit of nearly two to visit Auschwitz who did hours that Francis passed not himself live through in total silence, except for the brutality of World War a few words he exchanged II on Europe’s soil. with the survivors and Both of his predecessors rescuers. had a personal or
Vatican and Polish historical connection to church officials said the site. St. John Paul II, Francis wanted to express born in Poland, witnessed his sorrow in silence at the unspeakable suffering the site, mourning the inflicted on his nation victims in quiet prayer during the German occupation and meditation. during the war. His
However, he did successor, Pope Benedict express his feelings, writing XVI, who visited in 2006, in the Auschwitz was a German who served memorial’s guest book in the Hitler Youth for a in Spanish: “Lord, have time as a teenager.