Benedict XVI Prayed for Victims of Former Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp
Fence of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp
Benedict XVI arrived at the former concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau shortly after 5 pm. In silence and by himself he crossed the gate leading to the former camp with the infamous inscription "Arbeit macht frei" (Work makes you free). Then, still alone, he walked to Block No. 11, so-called Death Block.
President of the Republic of Poland Lech Kaczyński went to meet the Holy Father and they together walked the last metres to Block No. 11. There they were greeted by the ordinary of Bielsko and Żywiec, Bishop Tadeusz Rakoczy and Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, Chairman of the Committee for Dialogue with Judaism at the Episcopal Conference of Poland, and then by Minister of Culture and National Heritage Kazimierz Ujazdowski, President of the International Auschwitz Council Prof. Władysław Bartoszewski, and Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Jerzy Wróblewski.
The Pope entered the yard and approached alone the Death Wall. There he prayed standing for a while. The Pope was approached by three former inmates - Kazimierz Smoleń, Stanisław Frączysty, and Zofia Posmysz-Piasecka. The woman handed a memorial candle to the Holy Father and he placed it at the execution wall.
In the yard of Block No. 11 the Pope greeted 32 former inmates of KL Auschwitz. The Pope shook hands with each of them and talked with each for a short while. One of the former inmates gave the Holy Father a photograph. Nearly all kissed the Pope’s Fisherman’s Ring, genuflecting slightly. Some were wearing camp caps or striped white-and-blue kerchiefs. Benedict XVI showed utmost cordiality to all of them, kissing them on the cheeks, stroking their heads; some were reduced to tears. The group included two prominent Polish artists – former inmates – director Józef Szajna and graphic artist Marian Kołodziej.
Afterwards the Pope entered the death cell of St. Maximilian Kolbe, which featured a lit candle left there in 1979 by John Paul II.
The Pope prayed for a while in silence and then said aloud in Latin: "Saint Maximilian Kolbe pray for us, all the saint martyrs, pray for us."
Upon leaving Block No. 11 Benedict XVI appeared in the yard and entered his signature in the Commemorative Book and posed for a picture with President Kaczyński. The Polish President thanked the Holy Father and accompanied him to a car.
Subsequently Benedict XVI went by car to the Centre for Dialogue and Prayer.
He was greeted there by Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, Fr. Jan Nowak, director of the Centre, Fr. Manfred Deselaers, working for 16 years in Poland for the reconciliation cause, and two young volunteers of the Centre – a Polish boy and a German girl. The young people handed flowers to the Pope; the people in attendance greeted the Pope with applause.
Benedict XVI approached every one individually, shook hands, and talked for a moment. First he came up to 14 Carmelite nuns from Oświęcim. Two young staff members of the Centre for Dialogue and Prayer presented the Pope with the text of the Message of the young people of Oświęcim to the youth of the world, prepared on the occasion of the World Youth Days in Cologne in August 2005. Another document, a Memorial of the Oświęcim Academy, was presented to Benedict XVI by Prof. Andrzej Zoll. The Memorial reminds everyone that the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp was created 64 years ago as a result of Nazi ideology of hatred; this camp was the death place of over a million people and remains a unique symbol of the Holocaust. The obvious and documented truth that gas chambers and crematoria were conceived as tools of the "ultimate solution of the Jewish question" cannot depreciate the memory of the Poles, Roma, Russians, and representatives of other nations murdered here, the document reads. In the judgement of the authors of the Memorial, to account for the Holocaust it is not enough to make use of the notion of ant-Semitism, and the solidarity of remembrance about the victims of the Holocaust must go hand in hand with the awareness of a more profound nature of evil.
The Pope entered his signature in the Commemorative Book.
After the visit to the Centre for Dialogue and Prayer Benedict XVI drove to the International Memorial of the Martyrdom of Nations on the premises of the former Birkenau camp. It started to rain at this precise moment. The Holy Father walked in complete silence along the 22 tablets in front of the memorial, commemorating in various languages the victims of this place. He paused at the first one and prayed standing. Then he made stops every few metres. At this moment it stopped raining and a huge rainbow appeared above the camp.
A religious service commenced with the singing of Psalm 22, followed by petitions. The one in Roma was recited by Romani Rose, a representative of the European Roma. Archbishop Szymon, the Orthodox Archbishop of the Diocese of Łódz and Poznań, prayed in Russian, and Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki in Polish.
The next petition, in Hebrew, was accompanied by a Kadish, a Jewish prayer for the deceased. This was prayed by Michael Schudrich, the Chief Rabbi of Poland, and Piotr Kadlcik, Chairman of the Board of the Jewish Religious Community in Warsaw. Michael Schudrich delivered an address in Polish in which he mentioned the people murdered here and called for always remembering them. He likewise spoke about the righteous among the nations, who risked their own lives in order to salvage Jewish lives.
The next prayer, in English, was recited by the bishop of the Warsaw Diocese of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession, Mieczysław Cieślar. The Pope prayed in German: "God of Peace, You alone are peace who cannot be comprehended by a quarrelsome man. Make those living in harmony continue to live in peace, and make those living in discord enter the road of reconciliation. Through Christ, Our Lord."
- I come to ask the grace of forgiveness of God and the people who suffered here, said Benedict XVI in an address delivered after the prayer. He admitted that to speak in a place where "unprecedented mass crimes were committed against God and man, is almost impossible - and it is particularly difficult and troubling for a Christian, for a Pope from Germany." The Pope warned also against the present day dangers the world is faced with, namely the "abuse of God’s name as a means of justifying senseless violence against innocent persons, or the cynicism which refuses to acknowledge God and ridicules faith in Him."
In his speech the Pope made three references to his German origin and said that the visit to the former camp was his duty before the truth and the just due of all who suffered here, a duty before God. He added that he arrives at Auschwitz "as a son of that people over which a ring of criminals rose to power by false promises of future greatness and the recovery of the nation’s honour, prominence and prosperity, but also through terror and intimidation."
The Pope acknowledged that words fail in a place such as Auschwitz and questions like: "Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this?" and "Where was God in those days? Why was he silent? How could he permit this endless slaughter, this triumph of evil?" arise. Benedict XVI pointed out that man is not able to peer into the mystery of God, but they must continue to cry out humbly yet insistently to God: Rouse yourself! Do not forget mankind, your creature."
The Holy Father stressed that this crying out to God should must also be a cry that pierces our very heart, a cry that awakens within us God’s hidden presence - so that his power, the power he has planted in our hearts, will not be buried or choked within us by the mire of selfishness, pusillanimity, indifference or opportunism." The Pope indicated that the world is threatened today both by the "abuse of God’s name as a means of justifying senseless violence against innocent persons, and the cynicism which refuses to acknowledge God and ridicules faith in Him."
Benedict XVI devoted another section of his speech, just like John Paul II in his Birkenau address in 1979, to a reflection on the martyrdom of individual nations, which is commemorated by the row of plaques in various languages. Recalling that the rulers of the Third Reich wanted to crush the entire Jewish people, he drew attention to the martyrdom of Poles and to the fact that the Nazis also aimed at erasing the Polish people as an autonomous historical subject.
The Holy Father owned up to an inner urge to pause in particular at a tablet with an inscription in German, which evokes Edith Stein, a German of Jewish descent, who as a Catholic religious sister, Benedicta of the Cross, died in a camp accepting the sacrifice with her people and for them. The Pope recalled that the Germans sent to Auschwitz were considered as the refuse of the nation. He noted with gratitude a number of initiatives taken up on the premises of the camp with a view to "the purification of memory." He enumerated among others the Centre for Dialogue and Prayer, which he had blessed a few minutes before, and the activity of the Carmelite Sisters who, as the Pope termed it, "remind us of the faith of Christians, which declares that God himself descended into the hell of suffering and suffers with us."
In conclusion, making a reference to Psalm 23, the Pope observed that in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp the whole humanity went through the "dark valley." He then quoted a longer excerpt from this Psalm: "The LORD is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack. In green pastures you let me graze; to safe waters you lead me; you restore my strength. You guide me along the right path for the sake of your name. Even when I walk through a dark valley, I fear no harm for you are at my side; your rod and staff give me courage. ... I will dwell in the house of the LORD for years to come."
Upon imparting his apostolic blessing Benedict XVI set off for Balice Airport.
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