"Among those who are with us this evening are some who physically underwent a horrendous experience, crossing a dark wilderness where the very source of love seemed dried up," Pope John Paul II said in remarks at the conclusion of a concert in the Vatican's audience hall to commemorate the Shoah, or Holocaust. The concert took place on the day when Jews throughout the world remember the Holocaust victims. Earlier in the day, the Pope met with a group of Jewish leaders and others who helped organize the concert.

2. Thus we are gathered this evening to commemorate the Holocaust of millions of Jews. The candles lit by some of the survivors are intended to show symbolically that this hall does not have narrow limits. It contains all the victims: fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and friends. In our memory they are all present, they are with you, they are with us.

We have a commitment, the only one perhaps that can give meaning to every tear shed by man because of man and to justify it.

We have seen with our eyes, we were and are witnesses of violence and hatred, which are kindled in the world all too often and consume it.

We have seen and we see peace derided, brotherhood mocked, harmony ignored, mercy scorned.

April 7, 1994

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