He then signed with his name in Latin, “Franciscus” and added the date “29.7.2016”.
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“You don’t need words. Prayer was enough”, Sobczynska said, speaking to Poland’s TVN24.
“Our society is unfortunately more inclined to the culture of waste, which is the opposite (of) the culture of welcoming”.
The pope will travel the two miles (three kilometres) to Birkenau, the main extermination site, and be driven along tracks laid in 1944 to allow trains of prisoners to be transported right to the gas chambers and crematoria.
The Pope also visited the nearby Birkenau camp, known as Auschwitz II, where he met with dozens of people who housed Jews or risked their lives to protect them from the Nazis.
Except for the brief exchange with the survivors and rescuers, Francis spent his almost two hours at the death camps in quiet prayer and reflection.
Visibly moved by the sight of the wooden guard towers, barbed wire fences and inmate barracks, he sat in silent prayer for about 15 minutes.
“Lord, have mercy on your people. Lord, forgive so much cruelty”.
Going into the church, the pope paused to see a young girl, whose artificial legs were paid for by Francis, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said.
“Cruelty did not end at Auschwitz and Birkenau”, he said.
“We are both human beings. What I am saying to you is a little sad, but it is the truth”.
They knelt before the Pope, and many kissed his hand as Francis handed out little red boxes containing rosaries.
Rabbi David Sandmel, director of interfaith affairs at the Anti-Defamation League, said what happened at Auschwitz during World War II “beggars description”.
Pope Francis, center, attends the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) with youths participating in World Youth Days, in Blonie Park, Krakow, Poland, Friday, July 29, 2016.
Francis began his public day with a visit to the Divine Mercy Sanctuary, a kilometer (half-mile) stroll away from the St. John Paul II shrine.
Francis lit a candle in front of the death wall, bowing his head in prayer before visiting the cell of Polish priest and saint Maximilian Kolbe who died at Auschwitz after taking the place of a condemned man.
On the fourth day of his trip to Poland for an worldwide gathering of Catholic youth, Francis addressed some 2,000 Polish bishops and priests gathered at a shrine dedicated to the late Pope John Paul, who died in 2005 and was made a saint in 2014. A few shafts from a tiny window were the only light cast on the pontiff.
He prayed at the ruins of one crematorium, where Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich recited Psalm 130.
We “embrace with particular love our brothers and sisters from Syria who have fled from the war”, Francis told hundreds of thousands of cheering youths gathered in Krakow’s sprawling Blonia meadow.
Reflecting on his visit several hours later, Francis asked young people: “Is it possible that man, created in God’s image and likeness, is capable of doing these things?”
Israel’s Yad Vashem has recognized 6,620 Poles as so-called “Righteous Among the Nations”, more than from any other country – a reflection of the fact that Poland was hope to the largest Jewish community in Europe before the Holocaust. Today fewer than 240 in Poland are still alive.
Fellow survivor Alojzy Fros, who turns 100 this year, said the memories of death were seared into his mind.
He noted that a USA group, the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, offers them some financial help. “When someone kills us, we have to defend ourselves”, she said, questioning the Christian axiom of responding to evil with forgiveness.
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Pope Benedict was last to visit in 2006 – the German Pontiff served in the Hitler Youth as a teenager.
