Krakow: On Friday, Pope Francis visited the Nazi
concentration camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, prayed for the dead and spent
solitary times. The Auschwitz camp has seen the killing of more than 1.1
million people, mostly Jews, when Poland was Nazi occupied.
The pope is on his five-day Poland visit to mark 1050 years
of Poland’s adoption of Christianity. It was the third day of his visit when the
pontiff went to the extermination camp, met the camp survivors, kissed them on
their cheeks and spoke to them softly, as reports revealed.
Following his predecessors, Pope Benedict XVI Pope John
Paul II, Pope Francis visited the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz but
refrained from speaking about the sufferings and dismays.
“I would like to go to that place of horror without
speeches, without crowds – only the few people necessary. Alone, enter, pray.
And may the Lord give me the grace to cry,” the Pope said before starting his
five-day long journey. Reports are that the pontiff wrote only a sentence in
the Auschwitz guest book: “Lord, have pity on your people. Lord, forgive so
much cruelty.”
Earlier on Thursday, the Pope attended the World Youth
Rally and urged kindness for the migrants.
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