Pope meets Auschwitz survivor highlighting importance of memory

By Vatican News staff writer

An hour-long conversation, full of warmth and respect, took place on Thursday afternoon between Pope Francis and Hungarian writer and Auschwitz survivor, Edith Bruck.

A Holy See Press Office statement said the meeting, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, took place at the Pope’s residence in the Vatican, the Casa Santa Marta.

It is the second time Pope Francis spends time with Bruck, after visiting her at her home in Rome last February.

He had expressed his desire to meet with her after reading an interview in “L’Osservatore Romano” marking the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

The statement said that Pope Francis and the 90-year-old author focused on the “priceless value of passing down the memory of the past to young generations, including its most painful aspects, so as to avoid falling into the same tragedies.”