Second part of the visit to Poland Superior General spent in Krakow and surroundings on private sightseeing of historic places and tourist attractions. In the morning Fr. Greg went to the Museum in former concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. In the late afternoon he stepped underground – touring the salt mine in Wieliczka.
The only way we can consider visit to former KL Auschwitz is reflection. It never is a regular sightseeing of historic place. In fact it is historic location, but first of all it is a monument of human hate and sophisticated brutality. Superior General went privately. Only Fr. Adam Borowski accompanied him. Concentrated and thoughtful Fr. Greg walked among buildings of original camp. For a longer moment he stopped at so called Death Wall a prayed. This place on courtyard between block No 11 with underground cells and block No 10 held executions of thousands of prisoners who were shot killed. In Block No 11 there is a death cell of St. Maksymilian Kolbe OFM. Superior General toured Auschwitz II – Birkenau camp, too. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people were exterminated in that camp just because they were human beings, the victims of Nazism.
It was very impressing and strong personal experience for Superior General to visit this place.
The website of Museum of KL Auschwitz-Birkenau offers virtual tour of the former concentration camp. On this website you can learn more about history of the camp, too.
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At lunchtime our Honorable Guest returned to Stradom House in Krakow. And coincidentally, the weather got better soon before he left for another tour this day. Together with Fr. Arkadiusz, the Visitor, Fr. Adam, The Secretary and Fr. Jozef Lucyszyn CM, superior of Stradom House he went to Wieliczka to take a tourist tour of the well known, marvelous old salt mine. With the assistance a a guide they walked alog so called ‘tourist route’ which you can follow virtually visiting the website of the salt mine. Fr. Greg was very interested in the history of the mine and facts about those fabulous places like Chapel of St. Kinga which he saw during the tour.
This was a day of rest, reflection and tourist attractions. We hope the day allowed Superior General rest after exhausting visits to various Vincentian and Daughters of Charity communities and travel across the country. This was also opportunity watch important and attractive places and to regain strength and energy for all those days of his visit which are ahead. Other stories will follow.
International viewers can visit our English site to read stories from Superior’s General visit to Poland or follow us on Twitter. Facebook users can visit our page there. There’s a map of places visited by Superior General in Poland, too. Czytaj także pozostałe informacje na temat wizyty Przełożonego Generalnego w Polsce w naszym serwisie. Najświeższe informacje możecie znaleźć w kanale CM_Polonia na Twitterze. Użytkownicy Facebook-a mogą śledzić wizytę na stronie Zgromadzenie Księży Misjonarzy. Polecamy także mapę z zaznaczonymi miejscami odwiedzanymi przez O. Generała.
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