After reciting the Angelus together with the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope lamented the Nazi program that killed or arrested thousands of Jews and destroyed synagogues during the nights of Nov. 9-10, 1938.
«Nazi fury was unleashed against the Jews in Germany,» he explained. «Shops, offices, dwellings and synagogues were attacked and many people were also killed, initiating the systematic and violent persecution of German Jews, which ended with the Shoah.»
«Today I still feel pain over what happened in those tragic circumstances,» the Pontiff said. «The memory of these things must serve to prevent similar horrors from ever happening again and must lead us to dedicate ourselves, at every level, to fight against every form of anti-Semitism and discrimination, educating the younger generations in respect and reciprocal acceptance.
«I invite you to pray for the victims of that time and to join with me in manifesting a deep solidarity with the Jewish world.»
