Pope Calls for Freedom in Visit to Nazi Death Camp

Pope John Paul II today condemned political oppression during an emotional visit to the site of a Nazi death camp and later praised the example of a pro-Solidarity priest slain by secret police agents.

“You must serve the dignity of man, his liberation,” the pontiff told a group of newly ordained priests, citing the sacrifice of Father Jerzy Popieluszko, who was beaten to death in 1984.

Meanwhile, Popieluszko’s elderly parents wept in front of several hundred people today because in an apparent mix-up the Pope failed for the second straight day to meet them at their son’s grave.

Rumors Blamed

“I don’t know why his parents were taken to the church now,” said a Vatican official, who said the meeting will be Sunday. He indicated it had been a mix-up by local officials based on rumors.

At the site of the Maidanek Nazi concentration camp, the Polish-born Pope buried his head in his hands as he knelt in silent prayer for the 1.5 million people who died there.

As a band played a dirge and a drum rolled slowly, he knelt on a white-draped stand under a large mausoleum inscribed with the words “Your Fate Is a Warning to Us” and containing the ashes of tens of thousands of the camp’s victims.

The Roman Catholic leader prayed alone for nearly 10 minutes, sometimes resting his chin on his folded hands and sometimes covering his face.

After the prayers, the Pope received a bouquet of red and white flowers from an elderly woman once held at Maidanek and at the Auschwitz death camp.

“We love you, we pray for you,” said the woman, Wanda Ossowska, whose blue concentration camp tattoo was visible on her wrist.

The pontiff then traveled six miles to the eastern city of Lublin, site of Catholic University, the only independent university in the Soviet Bloc.

At the school where he taught for 24 years, he singled out for criticism “various kinds of totalitarian systems” in a speech to several hundred people, some of whom briefly unfurled the familiar banner of the outlawed Solidarity labor federation.

During an afternoon outdoor Mass in Lublin, the pontiff oversaw the ordination of several dozen new priests.