The following statement was released to the media by Yad Vashem following the visit of Pope Francis.

Yad Vashem attributes great importance and special significance to the visit of Pope Francis, which we hope will foster greater Holocaust awareness around the world.

In his remarks at Yad Vashem, the pope stressed the momentous place of the Shoah in human experience, noting the boundless and incommensurate tragedy of the Holocaust.

His remarks in the Hall of Remembrance, which were characterized by poetry and prayer, dealt with the question where was man during the Holocaust and how could man have committed such a crime? In his remarks, the Pope pointed to the terrible rupture, where people lost their humanity.

His words at Yad Vashem, together with his speech on arrival in Israel, express shame and pain, regarding the nadir that humankind reached with the crimes of the Shoah. And he called for promoting education for human values, and for building a world without anti-Semitism in all its forms, and without expressions of hostility, discrimination and intolerance.

During his visit, the Pope signed the Yad Vashem Guest Book in Spanish.

English translation of his message:

With shame for what man, who was created in the image of God, was able to do; with shame for the fact that man made himself the owner of evil; with shame that man made himself into God and sacrificed his brothers.

Never again!! Never again!!

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)