Pope Francis on Wednesday stressed how important it is not to forget the Shoah ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day later this week.
"Next Saturday, 27 January, is the International Day of Memory for the Victims of the Holocaust," Francis said at the end of his weekly general audience.
"May the remembrance and condemnation of the horrible extermination of millions of Jews and people of other faiths in the first half of the last century help everyone not to forget that the logic of hatred and violence can never be justified because they deny our very humanity".
Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, meanwhile, said there was no justification for the upswing in anti-Semitism that has occurred since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamasin Gaza.
"We must be very firm against every form of anti-Semitism, which, unfortunately is resurgent," Parolin said.
"There is nothing that can justify such a phenomenon.
"The arguments of the Palestinians must be acknowledged.
It is rectifiable that the two-state solution has not been accepted.
"But this absolutely does not justify an anti-Semitic drift".
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA