ROME (AP) – Pope Francis marked Holocaust Remembrance Day on Wednesday, warning that distorted ideologies could pave the way for another genocide.
Francis withdrew his fist at the end of the weekly general hearing, held in his private library due to coronavirus restrictions, to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp. in Poland, where the Nazis killed more than a million Jews and others.
In total, approximately 6 million European Jews and millions of other people were killed by the Germans and their collaborators.
The Argentine pope insisted on the need to remember, saying it was a sign of humanity and a condition for a peaceful future. But he said remembering “also means being aware that these things can happen again, starting with ideological proposals that seek to save a people and end up destroying a people and humanity.”
He warned that the Holocaust began like this, opening “this path of death, extermination and brutality.”
Francis prayed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial during his 2016 visit to Poland.