Holocaust cannot be forgotten or denied, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- "The horror of the extermination of millions of Jews and people of other faiths" before and during World War II "can neither be forgotten nor denied," Pope Francis said.

After reciting the Angelus prayer Jan. 26 with visitors in St. Peter's Square, the pope drew their attention to the following day's commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

"Eighty years have passed since the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp," the pope noted. Soviet troops liberated the camp Jan. 27, 1945. The Auschwitz-Birkenau camp complex was the largest of the Nazi work and death camps; an estimated 1.1 million of the more than 6 million victims of the Holocaust died there.

Pope Francis urged people to seek out and listen to the stories of the survivors of the Shoah, and he recommended Italians watch a program featuring his friend, the Hungarian poet Edith Bruck on television that night.

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, he said, "I renew my appeal for everyone to work together to eradicate the scourge of antisemitism, along with all forms of discrimination and religious persecution."

Pope Francis also remembered the many Christians, including martyrs like St. Maximilian Kolbe, who were killed at Auschwitz and other Nazi camps.

"Let us build a more fraternal, more just world, together," he said. "Let us educate young people to have a heart open to all, following the logic of fraternity, forgiveness and peace."

Pope Francis also used his Angelus address to appeal for an end to the fighting that began in Sudan last April as a power struggle between two generals.

The conflict, the pope said, "is causing the most serious humanitarian crisis in the world, with dramatic consequences in South Sudan, too." The United Nations reported Jan. 21 that more than 1 million people fleeing the violence have crossed into South Sudan.

"I am close to the peoples of both countries, and I invite them to fraternity, solidarity, to avoid any kind of violence and not to allow themselves to be exploited," the pope said. "I renew my appeal to those who are at war in Sudan for them to put an end to hostilities and to agree to sit at the negotiating table."

Pope Francis also asked the international community "to do all it can to get the necessary humanitarian aid to the displaced people and to help the belligerents find paths to peace soon."