VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI has marked HolocaustRemembrance Day by denouncing the "horror" of the Shoah and the"unheard of brutality" of death camps created by Nazi Germany.
The German-born pope issued an appeal Wednesday "that such tragedies never repeat themselves."
Benedictcalled the death camps "abhorrent and inhumane places" and turned histhoughts to the "countless victims of a blind racial and religioushatred."
He told his weekly audience the memory of those events,and especially "the tragedy of the Shoah that has struck the Jewishpeople," should induce respect for all mankind. Shoah is Hebrew for theHolocaust.
Six million Jews were killed by the Nazis and theircollaborators during World War II, including 1 million at the Auschwitzand Birkenau camps.