Has everyone else forgotten that this Pope was a member of Bavarian Hitler Youth? They seem to approve of his anti gay, anti woman, semi racist policies. Is this offensive to anyone besides me?
OSWIECIM, Poland (Reuters) – Survivors of the most infamous Nazi death camp, Auschwitz, on Friday marked the 61th anniversary of its liberation and looked to a May visit there by German-born Pope Benedict as a sign of healing.
“No one can pass indifferently by the tragedy of the Shoah. This crime has stained all humankind, for all time,” said Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, using
the Hebrew word for the Nazi attempt to exterminate the Jews.
More than 1.5 million people died at Auschwitz-Birkenau, set up by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland as its most efficient killing machine in the “Final Solution”, the genocide of European Jews.
More than one million Jews were killed there, along with Gypsies, Poles and Russians.
At the sombre ceremony, Marcinkiewicz warned that hatred and anti-Semitism were still dangers.
“And still today the world must defend itself against people obsessed with hatred,” he said.
The commemoration was held a day after Poland’s President, Lech Kaczynski, met the Pope and then confirmed that Benedict would stop at Auschwitz during his visit to Poland in May.
“The visit of a German Pope brings a certain closure — when I was here in the camp, I thought that there was no God. And now the German Pope is coming here,” said Denis Karagiorga, a Greek Jew, more than 80 years old.
But no-one underestimated the significance the Pope’s visit could have.
“It’s very difficult for me to talk about the visit of Pope Benedict to Auschwitz, because during the war my whole family died at the hands of the Germans — only my brother was left,” said former prisoner Wladyslaw Szepelak, more than 70 years old.
“But perhaps there are times when it’s better to forget, to think about the future and not to live in what happened 60 years ago,” he added.
Ha ha! You used my pic! EXCELLENT. I am particularly happy with this one. It shows his Excellency-the-Bigot for who he is. Hitler’s Youth, indeed.
(And I was raised Catholic… heh).
It’s so sad you people harbor so much hatred.