A visit to the death camps

This morning, after having celebrated Mass privately in the chapel at the Archbishop's residence in Kraków, the Holy Father travelled to Oświęcim where he visited the Auschwitz and Birkenau camps.  At 9:15am local time, Pope Francis arrived at the entrance arch leading to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, where the Director of the Museum was waiting to welcome him.

The Pope entered the concentration camp on foot, passing beneath the arch and then boarded an electric car which took him to Block 11, the symbolic area located in a field known as the Wall of death where the Nazis used to shoot their prisoners.  In the Appeal Square, the place where hangings would take place, and where Saint Maximilian Kolbe offered his life in exchange for the life of another prisoner, the Holy Father paused in silent and personal prayer.  He was then welcomed at the entrance to Block 11 by the Prime Minister of Poland, Mistress Beata Maria Szydło and there he met individually with twelve survivors of the concentration camps, the last of which presented him with a candle with which he lit a lamp which he himself presented as a gift to the Auschwitz Museum.  His Holiness then spent some time alone in prayer.

Next came a visit to the hunger cell, the place where Saint Maximilian Kolbe was martyred.  The Holy Father was met there by the Superior General and the Provincial of the Order of Conventual Franciscan Friars Minor, and His Holiness spent some time in private prayer outside Father Kolbe's cell.  This year marks the 75th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Franciscan priest.

Having left the cell where Saint Maximillian Kolbe was martyred, the Pope then signed the guest book, inscribing the following words in Spanish:

Señor, ten piedad de tu pueblo!
(Lord, have mercy on your people!)
Señor, perdón por tanta crueldad!
(Lord, forgiveness for so much cruelty!) 

Franciscus
29.7.2016

At 10:30am (local time) this morning, Pope Francis arrived at the Birkenau camp, the largest internment camp complex in Oświęcim.  Passing through the main entrance of the camp, the Holy Father then travelled aboard an electric vehicle which took him along the railway to the courtyard where the Monument to the victims of the Nations is located.

Welcomed by the Prime Minister and the Director of the Auschwitz Museum, in the presence of about 1,000 guests, Pope Francis walked past the commemorative lamps in various languages dedicated to the victims.  Arriving in front of the monument, he paused in silent prayer and then placed his own lit candle, before continuing on foot to the last headstone where he met 25 Just ones of the Nations. Finally, the Rabbi chanted (in Hebrew) Psalm 130 which was then read in Polish by one of the survivors of the camp.



Concluding his visit to the Birkenau camp, the Holy Father then returned to Kraków.