(JTA) — Pope Francis criticized the world powers for failing to stop the Nazis from deporting Jews and other minority groups to death camps in Europe during World War II.
“The great powers had photographs of the railway routes that the trains took to the concentration camps, like Auschwitz, to kill the Jews, and also the Christians, and also the Roma, also the homosexuals,” Francis said Sunday during a visit to Turin in northern Italy, The Associated Press reported. “Tell me, why didn’t they bomb” those railroad routes?
Instead, Francis said, “The great powers divided up Europe like a cake.”
The pope also lamented the deaths of Christians in concentration camps in Russia under Stalin after World War II.
He addressed young people during his Turin trip, asserting that conflicts throughout the world today are “a third world war in segments.”
The pope also viewed the Shroud of Turin, believed to be the burial shroud covering Jesus after his crucifixion, which is now on display in the city’s cathedral.
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