Pope Francis on Wednesday marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day — the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp — by urging people to keep a close watch on distorted ideologies.
“To remember is an expression of humanity. To remember is a sign of civility. To remember is a condition for a better future of peace and fraternity,” Francis said at his general audience, held inside the papal library amid coronavirus restrictions.
He said society should not let its guard down against the dangers of rising nationalism.
“To remember also means being careful because these things can happen again, starting with ideological proposals that claim to want 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 on a wave of extreme nationalism.
The pontiff spoke three weeks after displays of anti-Semitism were seen during the riots at the US Capitol, where some supporters of former President Trump wore clothes bearing Nazi symbols.
One wore a T-shirt reading “Camp Auschwitz” and another wore a shirt with the inscription “6MWE,” a far-right acronym that stands for “6 Million Wasn’t Enough.”
Most Holocaust Remembrance Day events were being 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 holds its Holocaust remembrance day, Yom HaShoah, in April.
With Post wires