Jews from around the world gathered in Poland in April 1993 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto. The Holy Father sent a message to Archbishop Józef Kowalczyk, Apostolic Nuncio in Poland, to be transmitted to the Coordinating Commission of the Hebrew Organizations in Poland. The following is the text of the Pope's message, which was written in English:

As the fiftieth anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising approaches, together with the whole Church, I wish to remember those terrible days of World War II, days of contempt for the human person, manifested in the horror of the sufferings endured at that time by so many of our Jewish brothers and sisters.

It is with profound grief that we call to mind what happened then, and indeed all that happened then, and indeed all that happened in the long black night of the Shoah. We remember, and we need to remember, but we need to remember with renewed trust in God and in his all-healing blessing.

April 6, 1993

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Vatican Commemorating the Holocaust