Pope Francis marked International Holocaust Memorial Day on Wednesday – the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp – urging people to remain vigilant about distorted ideologies.
“Remembering is an expression of humanity. Remembering is a sign of civility. Remembering is a condition for a better future of peace and fraternity ”, said Francisco at his general audience, held inside the papal library amid restrictions of the coronavirus.
He said that society should not let its guard down against the dangers of growing nationalism.
“Remembering also means being careful because these things can happen again, based on ideological proposals that intend to save a people, but end up destroying a people and humanity,” he said.
“Be wary of how this path of death, extermination and brutality started,” he added, referring to the Nazis’ rise to power in a wave of extreme nationalism.
The pontiff spoke three weeks after demonstrations of anti-Semitism were seen during the riots in the United States Capitol, where some supporters of former President Trump wore clothes with Nazi symbols.
One wore a T-shirt with the words “Camp Auschwitz” and another wore a T-shirt with the inscription “6MWE”, an extreme right acronym that means “6 million was not enough”.
Most Holocaust Memorial Day events were held online this year due to the virus, including the ceremony at the former Auschwitz camp, where the Nazis killed 1.1 million people in occupied Poland.
Israel celebrates its Holocaust memorial day, Yom HaShoah, in April.
Wired Poles