ROME (AP) – Pope Francis marked Holocaust Remembrance Day on Wednesday, warning that distorted ideologies could pave the way for another genocide.
Francis spoke from the headline at the end of his weekly hearing, held in his private library due to coronavirus restrictions, to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the release of the Auschwitz camp. in Poland, where the Nazis killed more than 1 million Jews and others.
In total, about 6 million European Jews and millions more were killed by the Germans and their collaborators.
The Argentine pope insisted on the need to remember, saying it is a sign of humanity and a condition for a peaceful future. But he said the memory “also means being aware that these things can happen again, starting with ideological proposals that claim to save a people and end up destroying a people and humanity.”
He warned that the Holocaust had thus begun, opening “this way of death, extermination, and brutality.”
Francis prayed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial during his 2016 visit to Poland.