Do not forget the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps, Archbishop warns

Vatican City, Jan 24, 2005 / 22:00 pm

Yesterday, the Holy See’s permanent observer to the United Nations, Archbishop Celestino Migliore participated in the UN General Assembly commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi concentration camps by allied troops.

"My delegation," said Archbishop Migliore, "welcomes this chance to remember the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, so that humanity not forget the terror of which man is capable; the evils of arrogant political extremism and social engineering."

"Today we contemplate the consequences of intolerance, as we recall all those ... considered unfit for society - the Jews, the Slavonic peoples, the Roma people, the disabled, homosexuals, among others - (who) were marked for extermination."

The death camps, he went on, "are also witnesses to an unprecedented plan for the deliberate, systematic extermination of a whole people, the Jewish people. ... During his visit to Auschwitz in 1979, Pope John Paul the Second stated that we must let the cry of the people martyred there change the world for the better."

"In a century marked by man-made catastrophes, the Nazi death camps are a particularly sobering reminder of 'man's inhumanity to man' and of his capacity for evil.”

“Nevertheless,” he went on, “we should remember that humankind is also capable of great good, of self-sacrifice and altruism”.

In the context of today's commemoration, we need only think of those courageous people from all walks of society, ... recognized as 'Righteous among the Nations'" he added, in a reference to those who helped the Jewish people during the Second World War.

"May all men and women of good will seize this solemn occasion to say "Never again" to such crimes, no matter their political inspiration, so that all nations, as well as this Organization, truly respect the life, liberty and dignity of every human being."