Blessed John Paul II and Auschwitz

(Vatican Radio) At the time of the Second World War Blessed John Paul II, the pope from Poland lived a few miles away from the infamous concentration and extermination camps of Auschwitz Birkenau.

A personal history that resonated deeply, providing him with the moral strength to give voice to his convictions in defending human dignity right from the start of his pontificate.

In this feature you can hear him express these convictions in Ireland and Mexico but above all during his first journey to his homeland as Roman Pontiff .

On that journey he visited Auschwitz and knelt by the tomb stones of the victims of what he referred to as the Golgotha of our modern world. And speaking in Polish pronounced these words:" This is not just a place to pay a fleeting visit to, but a sobering reminder of fear, of the frontiers of human hatred and destruction, the frontiers of evil. A place symbolic of all wars. "

Among the guests in this feature is a Jewish school mate of Karol Wojtyla's, Jerzy Kluger, who lost most of his family during those tragic years.

Listen to this programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick: