The recent visit to Auschwitz by Pope Francis whose solitary prayer at the infamous site where millions of Jews were slaughtered during the unspeakable Holocaust was seemingly an attempt to forge better relations between Jews and the Catholic Church.
Following his meeting with Jewish survivors, the Pope declared such atrocities are still happening today,with prisoners being tortured (sic)as well as
war being waged in many parts of the world.
He reportedly also questioned "Where is G-D when innocents suffer from violence and terrorism?
As I read and re-read his statements, I asked myself if he, the Pontiff a religious leader of millions of Catholics throughout the globe, seeks to blame G-D for the indescribable atrocities that were perpetrated by many of his co-religionists, the bestial German Nazis.
Was the prayer recited by the Pope who then asked for forgiveness, a message to contemporary Jews to forgive the burning, starvation and gassing of one third of the Jewish people, while today he allegedly espouses the cause of the so-those called "palestinians" despite the daily murderous attacks by those "palestinian" Arab terrorists in Israel?
These questions reminded me of the theme of Simon Wiesenthal's classic book "The Sunflower" in which the famed author describes his crisis of conscience when he was interred in a concentration camp and brought to the bedside of a dying Nazi who asked that a Jew forgive him. In remaining silent, Wiesenthal's answer was that which Judaism teaches "only the victims can forgive."
To my mind, the trial today of an elderly Nazi in his nineties, and other similar trials conducted in Germany, who received a four year prison
is not a case of "justice being served."
These bestial Nazis that were part of Hitler's "final solution," were able to live long lives, unlike the victims whom they helped to
annihilate!
Even more unconscionable are media reports of a survivor who accepted a kiss and apology from a former German concentration camp guard who was standing trial and said she forgives him, although her close family was put to death during the Holocaust.
Can one truly forgive the unforgivable?
I believe not!
Such undeserved absolution cheapens the supreme sacrifice of the millions of martyred Jewish souls, those precious people lost forever
to the Jewish nation, whom we must never,never forget.
Shifra Hoffman is a noted journalist, Founder of the VICTIMS OF ARAB TERROR INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION (VAT) and Executive Director of SHUVA (Return) The Israel Emergency Aliyah Movement (Website: www.shuva.net). She can be contacted at :[email protected]