After praying the midday Angelus on Sunday, Pope Francis noted that January 27 is the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. This year marks 80 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, as the Holy Father recalled.
The Pope said:
The horror of the extermination of millions of Jews and people of other faiths during those years can neither be forgotten nor denied. I remember the talented Hungarian poet Edith Bruck, who lives in Rome. She suffered because of all of that ... Today, if you want, you can listen to her on the program Che tempo che fa. She is a good woman. We also remember many Christians, among them many martyrs.
The Pope and Bruck have had a friendship for many years. In 2021, he went to visit her at her home.
The Jewish novelist, of Hungarian origin, has been living in Italy since the mid-1950s.
The following year, on January 27, Bruck visited the Pope at the Vatican.
Deported at the age of 13 to the Auschwitz camp with her family, only she and a sister escaped death.
A heart open to all
About 50 survivors and various heads of state, including King Charles, will be in Auschwitz today for a memorial ceremony.
Pope Francis on Sunday called for anti-Semitism to be eradicated, and for a better world to be built together:
I renew my appeal for everyone to work together to eradicate the scourge of anti-Semitism, along with all forms of discrimination and religious persecution. Let us build a more fraternal, more just world, together. Let us educate young people to have a heart open to all, following the logic of fraternity, forgiveness, and peace.
