Pope Francis today kissed the number tattooed on the arm of an Auschwitz survivor who suffered medical experiments at the hands of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. The pontiff listened intently as a Polish priest who accompanied Lidia Maksymowicz, 80, told him of her story at a general audience in the Vatican's San Damaso courtyard. Maksymowicz told Vatican News that she didn't exchange words with the Pope. After the liberation of the camp in 1945, Russian soldiers assumed her mother Anna - tattooed with the number 70071 - was dead. The Vatican said that during the hour-long visit, Francis told her: 'I came to thank you for your witness and to pay homage to the people martyred by the craziness of Nazi populism.'

Source: Daily Mail May 26, 2021 13:26 UTC