Pope
Francis paid a somber visit to the Nazi German death camp of
Auschwitz-Birkenau on Friday, becoming the third consecutive pontiff to
make the pilgrimage to the place where Adolf Hitler's forces killed more
than one million people, most of them Jews. Wearing
white robe and skullcap, Francis walked slowly
beneath the notorious
gate at Auschwitz bearing the cynical words 'Arbeit Macht Frei', meaning
'work sets you free'. He was then transported on a small car past
barracks and brought to a spot in front, where he sat on a bench, his
head bent for many long moments in contemplation and prayer.
Pope Francis prays at the Death Wall in the former Former Nazi German
concentration camp. The wall, situated between Block 11 and 10, was the
place where people were lined up and shot
The
Argentine pontiff lead prayers for the 1.1 million mostly-Jewish
victims murdered at the camp and rather than making a speech he stood in
silence to reflect on the horrors committed and let his tears flow.
He
prayed silently for more than 15 minutes before meeting with several
survivors of the camp, greeting them one by one, shaking their hands and
kissing them on the cheeks. He then carried a large white candle and
placed it at the Death Wall, where prisoners were executed.
The wall is a
reconstruction of the original - situated next to the Block 11 torture
chamber - where Jewish inmates were forced to collect dead bodies from
after prisoners were executed by firing squad.
At
the dark underground prison cell that once housed St. Maximilian Kolbe,
a Polish Catholic friar who sacrificed his own life during the war to
save the life of another man, Francis prayed again.
The visit falls on the 75th anniversary of the day Kolbe was sentenced to death.
A
few shafts from a tiny window were the only light cast on the white
figure of the pope, who knelt for many minutes before he crossed himself
and rose to his feet.
After
arriving Wednesday in Poland - the heartland of Nazi Germany's
atrocities - the pontiff said the world had been plunged into a
piecemeal third world war.
He
has repeatedly denounced those committing crimes in the name of
religion, after Europe suffered a string of deadly jihadist attacks.
The
pontiff, who has forged ever-closer ties between the Catholic Church
and Jews since his election in 2013, met 12 former inmates at the site
which is now a memorial and museum.
Among
those who met the pope was a 101-year-old woman violinist called Helena
Dunicz Niwinska who played in the Auschwitz orchestra as a prisoner,
alongside others who worked at the camp hospital or who were there as
children.
During
the visit, prayers will be said just a stone's throw from the ruins of
one of the crematoriums which was blown up by the Nazis as they
evacuated the camp.- Daily Mail
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