'The memories remain' for pope's visit to Holocaust memorial

The pope expressed his grief for the"terrible tragedy of the Shoah" Thursday at Yad Vashem

John Paul II offers grief and sorrow, but no apology

March 23, 2000
Web posted at: 8:53 a.m. EST (1353 GMT)

In this story: 'Silence in which to remember' Pontiff meets Israel's chief rabbis RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

AUDIO A female choir sings "Ani Maamin," a melody that some Holocaust victims sang on the way to their deaths 7.2mb/125 sec. AIFF or WAV sound Barakspeaks at Yad Vashem in honor of Pope John Paul II Part 1: 5.7mb/2.00 min. AIFF or WAV sound Part 2: 9.9mb/4.00 min. AIFF or WAV sound Pope John Paul II pays homage at Yad Vashem to the millions of Jews killed in the Holocaust Part 1: 6mb/1.40 min. AIFF or WAV sound Part 2: 7.6mb/2.12 min. AIFF or WAV sound Part 3: 8.4mb/2.70 min. AIFF or WAV sound Part 4: 8.7mb/3.00 min. AIFF or WAV sound    VIDEO Holocaust ceremony (part 1): Introductory statements, songs and ceremony. Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K Holocaust ceremony (part 2): The pope's speech. QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K Holocaust ceremony (part 3): Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak speaks, and the pope is presented with artwork. QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K     INTERACTIVE The path of prophets     GALLERY Pope John Paul II continues his tour of the Holy Land     TIME.com analysis The pope tweaks some Israeli sore spots A pope's guide to the Mideast minefield     MESSAGE BOARD The pope in the Middle East

JERUSALEM -- Pope John Paul II on Thursday offered heartfelt grief and sorrow for the "terrible tragedy of the Shoah" during an emotional visit to Israel's hilltop memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. But the frail pontiff stopped short of Jewish hopes for an apology for the silence of the Catholic church during that period in history.

"I assure the Jewish people that the Catholic Church is deeply saddened by the hatred, acts of persecution and displays of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews by Christians at any time and in any place," the pope said during a solemn ceremony in the Yad Vashem's darkened Hall of Remembrances."

As he has almost daily during his historic Holy Land pilgrimage, the 79-year-old pope again urged a reconciliation of two religions with a common source.

"In this place of solemn remembrance, I fervently pray that our sorrow for the tragedy which the Jewish people suffered in the 20th century will lead to a new relationship between Christians and Jews," he said. "Let us build a new future in which there will be no more anti-Jewish feeling among Christians or anti-Christian feeling among Jews, but rather the mutual respect required of those who adore the one Creator and Lord."

Accompanied by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, John Paul rekindled the eternal flame inside the rock-walled hall, and laid a wreath on a stone slab built over the ashes of the victims of six Nazi death camps.

Before his address, the pope was introduced to seven Holocaust survivors, shaking their hands and speaking with each in turn. Following his address, he met more survivors, including some from his Polish hometown of Wadowice.

"I have come to Yad Vashem to pay homage to the millions of Jewish people, who, stripped of everything, especially of their human dignity, were murdered in the Holocaust," he said when he took the podium. "More than half a century has passed but the memories remain."

His voice clear and strong, the pope spoke of his own memories of his native Poland and "my Jewish friends and neighbors, some of whom perished, while others survived." The great Hall of Remembrances, he said, engendered "an extreme need for silence."

"Silence in which to remember. Silence in which to try to make some sense of the memories which come flooding back," he said. "Silence because there are no words strong enough to deplore the terrible tragedy of the Shoah."

Jews had hoped the pope would make a direct apology for the Catholic Church's public silence during the Second World War, some that he would go even further and criticize Pope Pius XII, the pontiff that many Jews accuse of doing little while the Nazis exterminated their brethren.

But students of the Vatican said that was highly unlikely. The Vatican has said Pius' diplomatic silence actually helped save thousands of Jewish lives and he is being considered for beatification, to the dismay of many Jews.

Before traveling to Yad Vashem, the pope met Israel's two chief rabbis, Meir Israel Lau and Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron at their office in west Jerusalem.

Lau, Polish-born and a survivor of the Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald, and Bakshi-Doron presented the pope with a Bible, inscribed with a dedication from the book of the Prophet Micah.

"For all the people who will walk, everyone in the name of his God, and we will walk in the name of the Lord, our God, forever and ever," the dedication read.

At the home of President Ezer Weizman, John Paul took the unprecedented step of blessing the state of Israel. When Pope Paul VI visited the Holy Land in 1964 -- the last pope to do so -- he refused to address then-President Zalman Shazar by his title and never mentioned Israel by name.

Correspondent Jerrold Kessel contributed to this report.

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Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial
Vatican: the Holy See
Catholic Online
EWTN: Papal Visit to the Holy Land
Jordan Information System
Embassy of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
Anti-Defamation League
The World Jewish Congress
Israeli Government

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