Pope makes historic visit to German synagogue

On the second day of his visit to Cologne's Catholic World Youth Day celebrations, the Pope spent more than an hour at the city's synagogue, once destroyed by the Nazis, in what was intended as a gesture of reconciliation between Catholics and Jews worldwide.

After listening in silence with his hands clasped during a Hebrew prayer before a memorial to the six million Jewish victims of the Nazis, the Pope enjoyed loud applause after he told his audience: "I want to tell you that it is my intention to carry on the process of building friendship with the Jewish people that was begun by my predecessor Pope John Paul II. I intend to do this with all my power."

The visit had a special significance not least because of the Pope's brief membership of the Hitler Youth and his role as young anti-aircraft gunner during the closing stages of the Second World War. It was also the first visit to a German synagogue by a pope. The late John Paul II made the first historic visit to a synagogue in Rome in 1986 and is credited with paving the way for a marked improvement in relations between Catholics and Jews.

Benedict XVI, in his address, paid tribute to the 11,000 Cologne Jews murdered by the Nazis and described the Holocaust as an "insane and unimaginable" process perpetrated by a regime that "trampled the sanctity of human life with its feet".

Warning against growing anti-Semitism in Europe and elsewhere, the Pope added: "Today we are witnessing the rise of new signs of anti-Semitism and various forms of hostility to foreigners. How can we fail to see this as a reason for concern?"

The ceremony was attended by several victims of the Nazis including Mrs Vera Lehrer, who survived the extermination camp at Auschwitz. Rabbi Natanel Teitelbaum drew a stunned silence from the audience when he told them: "Pope Benedict XVI your visit has given us new strength. Mrs Lehrer still bears the tattoo of her concentration camp number on her arm. Never did she believe that she would live to welcome the Pope in her own synagogue."

Abraham Lehrer, the head of Cologne's 5,000-strong Jewish community, described the Pope as a "great bridge-builder" who was carrying on in the tradition of his predecessor. He said his visit demonstrated that Benedict XVI held the Jewish people in high esteem.

But the Pope declined to respond to Jewish leaders' demands that the Vatican open its archives to reveal the full extent of the Church's relationship with the Nazis during the Second World War. Pope Pius XII (who was pontiff between 1939 and 1958) has been described as "Hitler's Pope" by scholars critical of his passivity during the Nazi era. "This would be an important gesture 60 years after the end of the Shoah," Rabbi Teitelbaum said.

There was no reference to the recent acrimonious exchange between the Vatican and Israel. Weeks ago, the Pope conspicuously failed to mention Israel in a list of countries hit by terrorist attacks.

That provoked angry condemnation from the Israeli government which claimed the Pope "deliberately failed" to condemn Palestinian attacks on Israelis. Tensions worsened when the Vatican issued a harshly worded statement telling Israel to stop trying to lecture the Pope.

The Pope is to hold talks with members of Cologne's Muslim community during his World Youth Day tour today. But German commentators noted that the meeting appeared to have been downplayed by the Vatican. The Pope was not scheduled to attend a mosque and was expected only to receive Muslim leaders at the Cologne bishop's residence where he is staying for a brief meeting lasting less than an hour.