It was a truly powerful sight: the Polish pope who had grown up under Nazi occupation kneeling in prayer at Auschwitz’s Death Wall.
There, in June 1979, John Paul II asked God for peace during his visit to what had been the centre of the Nazis’ horrifying killing machine.
Today, on the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’ liberation, survivors and relatives of victims also prayed and left floral tributes at the Death Wall, as it has become known.
Although what stands today is a reconstruction – the original was dismantled by the Nazis in 1944 – the wall is a poignant symbol of the crimes that took place at the camp in occupied Poland.
Between 1941 and 1944, thousands of people – mostly Polish political prisoners but also Jews and Soviet prisoners of war – who had been condemned to die were lined up in front of the wall and shot.
Nearby was Block 10, where twisted doctors – including the notorious Josef Mengele – performed horrifying experiments on selected men, women and children.
John Paul II’s visit was followed by both of his immediate successors. Pope Benedict came in 2006, whilst Pope Francis made the trip in 2016.
Both men also paid their respects at the Death Wall, which was re-built after the Second World War when the Auschwitz was transformed into the museum that it remains today.

It was a truly powerful sight: the Polish pope who had grown up under Nazi occupation kneeling in prayer at Auschwitz’s Death Wall. There, in June 1979, John Paul II asked God for peace during his visit to what had been the centre of the Nazis’ horrifying killing machine

Today, on the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’ liberation, survivors and relatives of victims also prayed at the Death Wall, as it has become known
Others who were executed at the Death Wall included hostages captured after operations carried out by the Polish resistance movement.
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Inmates were also flogged in front of the wall and subjected to an extremely painful punishment known as the ‘post’.
The victim’s hands would be tied behind their back and they would be hanged from a post so their feet could not touch the ground.
They would remain there for hours, long enough for victims’ tendons to be ruptured – meaning that those who could no longer work would be liable to be sent to the gas chambers.
Today, Poland’s president Andrzej Duda joined Auschwitz survivors – some of whom were blue and white scarves reminiscent of their prison uniforms – in laying wreaths and candles at the Death Wall.
Mr Duda carried a candle and walked with Aschwitz-Birkenau State Museum director Piotr Cywinski.
At the wall, the two men bowed their heads, murmured prayers and crossed themselves.
Mr Duda said: ‘We Poles, on whose land – occupied by Nazi Germans at that time – the Germans built this extermination industry and this concentration camp, are today the guardians of memory.’

John Paul II’s visit (above) was followed by both of his immediate successors. Pope Benedict came in 2006, whilst Pope Francis made the trip in 2016

Museum security staff handle wreaths as survivors and relatives stand at the Death Wall at Auschwitz
He spoke of the ‘unimaginable harm’ inflicted on so many people, especially the Jewish people.
Later, King Charles – the first British head of state to visit the former Nazi concentration camp – will lay his own wreath wreath.
He said earlier in Krakow that the testimony of Holocaust survivors teaches us to ‘never be a bystander in the face of violence and hate’ as he met those who lived through one of humanity’s darkest hours.
Charles visited the heart of Krakow’s Jewish community as commemorations began marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
He told those gathered at the Jewish Community Centre (JCC) that remembering the ‘evils of the past remains a vital task’, and knowledge should be used to inspire people to ‘build a kinder and more compassionate world’.

Today, Poland’s president Andrzej Duda joined Auschwitz survivors – some of whom were blue and white scarves reminiscent of their prison uniforms – in laying wreaths and candles at the Death Wall

The reconstruction of the Death Wall at Auschwitz. Thousands of prisoners were shot in front of it

Survivors stand at the Death Wall at Auschwitz today on the 80th anniversary of the camp’s liberation
The King went on: ‘It is a moment when we recall the depths to which humanity can sink when evil is allowed to flourish, ignored for too long by the world.
‘And it is a moment when we recall the powerful testimonies of survivors such as Lily Ebert, who so sadly passed away in October, and who collectively taught us to cherish our freedom, to challenge prejudice and never to be a bystander in the face of violence and hate.’
He added those lessons could not be more important in a world that has seen the ‘dangerous re-emergence of antisemitism’ and remains ‘full of turmoil and strife’.
The King said: ‘As the number of Holocaust survivors regrettably diminishes with the passage of time, the responsibility of remembrance rests far heavier on our shoulders, and on those of generations yet unborn.
‘The act of remembering the evils of the past remains a vital task and in so doing, we inform our present and shape our future.’