Her death was confirmed by her grandson Chris Dadak. The pope’s friendship with Dr. Poltawska (pronounced pole-DUS-ka), a married Roman Catholic with four grown daughters, was largely unknown until 2009, four years after John Paul’s death, when she revealed details of it in a memoir. They had exchanged letters and visits for almost a half-century, she wrote, starting in 1956 in Krakow, Poland, where she had begun a psychiatric practice and where the future pontiff was a dynamic young parish priest, the Rev. There, Dr. Poltawska told Father Wojtyla of the burdens she had borne for years as a victim of gruesome medical experiments performed on her and other women in the concentration camp at Ravensbrück, Germany. Their exchange led to further consultations and, over time, a bond that would extend from Poland to the Vatican.

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Persons: Wanda Poltawska, Pope John Paul II, Chris Dadak, Poltawska, John Paul’s, Karol Wojtyla, Father Wojtyla Organizations: Roman Catholic Locations: Polish, Krakow, Poland, Ravensbrück, Germany