Can you still believe in God after horror of Auschwitz? AS POPE ADMITS DEATH CAMP SHOOK HIS FAITH..

Byline: By ANTONIA HOYLE

IT was a shocking admission by the most powerful figure in the Christian world: the horrors of Auschwitz bought into question the existence of God.

During his weekend visit to the Nazi death camp where 1.5 million innocent people were slaughtered, Pope Benedict XVI said: "Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this?"

The German Pope who, like many of his generation served in the Hitler Youth, isn't alone in asking whether God had failed the victims.

Leonard Stimler, 84, and his wife Barbara, 79, who now live in Stanmore, Middlesex, both suffered as their families were exterminated by the Nazis.

Barbara spent a year imprisoned in Auschwitz when she was 16 but her terrible experiences only strengthened her belief in God. Husband Leonard, however, a former Polish soldier whose parents, brother and two sisters died in the Auschwitz and Mat-hausen camps, lost his faith.

Here, they reveal how they've struggled to come to terms with the horrific events...

NO LEONARD STIMLER

, I'M afraid that I can't forgive what happened. And I want to know why God, if he exists, stood idly by and watched six million innocent Jews being slaughtered in the Holo-caust. How he can have let that happen is beyond me.

I admire the fact that the Pope has visited Auschwitz but I still feel angry that the Catholic Church hasn't done more to condemn anti-semitism. My grandparents were very religious but, since the war, I haven't been able to believe at all. And this is why...

My elder brother Adolf was ill in hospital in 1940. When my mother Eugenia went to look after him they were both taken away. I think they were sent to Auschwitz. I never saw them again.

A few months later, my father Hermann was given the choice of going to Math-ausen camp in Austria, or Auschwitz. He "chose" Mathausen and survivors have told me that he starved to death there.

My sisters - Helena, now 86, and Fran-cisca, 75 - were sent to Auschwitz while I was in the Polish army, fighting for the British.

I assumed they'd died in there. It was only after the war ended that I discovered they were alive. But they're still suffering, as is my wife. I go to the synagogue to support her but I can't be comforted by her faith.

I've tried to pray, to seek solace in God, but it hasn't helped. We live in a world where evil things happen all the time - the September 11 attacks, the tsunami, the earthquake in Pakistan...

Innocent people have been butchered. Where was God?

I'm angry with both humanity and the Christian world for its treatment of Jews.

But, above all, I'm angry I with God. Sometimes I can't even believe there is one any more. And if there is, He's guilty.,

YES BARBARA STIMLER

, WHEN I saw the Pope with Auschwitz survivors, tears fell down my face. It must have been so difficult for him to go there - and he must feel an element of guilt. I respect him trying to repair the damage done by his fellow Germans and his decision to visit the camps is a credit to the Catholic faith.

As a Jew, my ordeal in Auschwitz has made my belief in God stronger. I couldn't have coped without it. I had a very religious upbringing in o'ur Polish hometown of Aleksandrow Kujawski. My parents, Sarah and Jakob, went to synagogue regularly and on Fridays they'd light candles and pray.

But when I was 12, my father was arrested by SS guards. We were all taken to a concentration camp but managed to escape. Then, in 1941, my father was taken away again. We received one postcard from him, then nothing.

Two months later, my mother and I were taken to the Lodz ghetto in Germany, where my mother fell ill. I was 15 and looking after both of us until 1943, when two SS men took me away. I never saw my mother again. I assume she was shot.

I was then taken to Auschwitz. Terrified and alone, I didn't think of God for the entire year I spent there because religion reminded me of the parents I had lost. I stopped praying and simply tried to make it from one day to the next.

In 1944, I was moved to another camp and the following year I was freed by Russian soldiers. By the time the war ended, I was he only survivor out of my extended Polish family of 80.

The year after, I came to Britain - where I also had family - and met Leonard. At first, I found it too difficult to talk about my experience. But as the years passed, I learned to place my faith in God again.

I began to feel blessed, realised that God had looked after me and I blamed the people responsible for witz, rather than the God looking over us. I started pray again - it's a comfort and allows me to hope.

There's so much suffering in the world. Our son as had multiple sclerosis for 17 years. I pray for him all the time. It hasn't helped so far but maybe one day it will.

So I'll continue to give thanks to God and I'll carry on lighting candles every Friday.

Because if I didn't, there'd be nothing left for me.,

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The Holocaust Education Trust - where you can learn more about Auschwitz - can be contacted on 020 7222 6822.

CAPTION(S):

MOVED: Pope at Auschwitz' ORDEAL: In the army' SUPPORT: Leonard and Barbara Stimler's families were victims of the Holocaust' Picture: ROGER ALLEN' STRUGGLE: Barbara