Marking Memory at the heart of Auschwitz

The building lies at the heart of a desolate place : the concentration and extermination camps of Auschwitz Birkenau. It houses a Centre for Dialogue and Prayer and it's where Father Manfred Desalaers, Pastor of the German Bishop's Conference , lives and works .


While there Veronica Scarisbrick asked him what had struck him most about this daunting place the first time he visited and he confirmed it was: " the scale and the scale of loss of human feeling and dignity.."


Father Manfred was born 10 years after the inmates there walked to freedom, yet as a German he highlights how while he may not personally be guilty : "..someone did what happened and there is a guilt ...connected to the German people..this for me means a responsibility to try to build bridges..." . A process he insists which involves reinforcing the bridges already in place while at the same time creating new ones with always at their centre the human person.


The most important thing here he insists is: "... to believe that God did not abandon the victims ...God had the last word, God is love."
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