“I was in this camp until nearly the last day and then put in the death march to another camp” he told journalists. “Lord, forgive so much cruelty”.
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Francis prayed silently for more than 15 minutes before greeting survivors, one by one, shaking their hands and kissing them on the cheeks.
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.
He walked alone and in silence around the concentration and extermination camp in what was Nazi-occupied Poland where 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were killed, BBC reported.
While he prayed, the voice of Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Joseph Schudrich echoed Psalm 130 in Hebrew throughout the camp.
In the evening, local church organizers in Krakow said another 500,000 faithful, young people from all around the world cheered Francis at a pep rally on a meadow in the southern city.
On his flight to Poland on Wednesday, the Pope addressed this week’s slaying of a Catholic priest in northern France’s Normandy region by two jihadists who declared their allegiance to ISIS.
“World Youth Day is all about fun, and it is about joy – and he talked about that today, he says that often you know a Christian without joy, something is really missing”, Burke said.
“I only want to clarify that, when I speak of war, I am really speaking of war – a war of interests, for money, resources, dominion of peoples”.
Representatives of Kraków’s Jewish community will meet privately with Pope Francis after the pontiff’s visit to Auschwitz.
“Auschwitz is an eternal reminder of what can happen when hatred is allowed to fester, when the world remains silent in the face of evil and looks the other way as unspeakable crimes are being committed nearby”, Lauder said.
The pope arrived July 29 at the Auschwitz-BirkenauNazi death camp in Oswiecim, an area now blanketed by green fields and empty barracks lined by barbed wire fences, remnants of a horror that remains embedded in history.
She was 2 years old when brought to the camp and was 5 when the camp was liberated by the Soviet Red Army in 1945.
Teenagers still wrapped in sleeping bags, elderly couples perched on folding chairs outside tents and families with Francis-themed balloons were serenaded by the Argentine pope’s favorite tango music before his arrival.
The Mass was held in celebration of the 1,050th anniversary this year of Poland’s acceptance of Roman Catholicism.
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After resting in the afternoon the residence of the Krakow archbishop, Francis rode in an electric tram through the heart of Krakow with disabled young people _ a gesture underlining his mission to fight climate change and encourage more humanity for the disadvantaged. He rode it to Blonia, a park where he was joining tens of thousands of young Catholics participating in World Youth Day, a global gathering which runs through Sunday. He was swiftly assisted by members of the clergy, and the service continued without interruption.
