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by Tiziana Di Giovannandrea

20 February 2021 Pope Francis read the interview with Edith Bruck released on 26 January - Day of Remembrance - on the Osservatore Romano, in which the writer told of the horror experienced by her and her family in the time of persecution Nazi and was strongly impressed by it.

He thus wanted to meet the poet in person by visiting her in her home.



On Saturday afternoon, at 16.00, the Pope left the Vatican and headed to the center of Rome, for a private visit to the home of the Jewish writer of Hungarian origins who spent two thirds of her life in Italy.



Pope to Bruck, I ask forgiveness on behalf of humanity


"I came here to thank you for your testimony and to pay tribute to the people martyr to the madness of Nazi populism. And with sincerity I repeat to you the words I spoke from my heart to Yad Vashem and which I repeat in front of every person who like you he suffered so much because of this: Forgiveness, Lord, in the name of humanity ".

These are the words with which the Pope addressed Edith Bruck in greeting her.

He spent about an hour with her and then returned to the Vatican.

The director of the Osservatore Romano, Andrea Monda, accompanied the Pontiff on a touching visit to the poet who survived Auschwitz.



The Holy See reported that "the conversation with the Pope retraced those moments of light that marked the experience of the hell of the concentration camps and evoked fears and hopes for the time we live in, underlining the value of memory and the role of the elderly in cultivating it and passing it on to the youngest ".

Edith Bruck dedicated her life to witness what she saw.

It was two strangers, whose last rumor in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, asked her to do so: "Tell them, they won't believe you, but if you survive, tell us, too". 



Leaving the house, the surprised Romans greeted affectionately the Holy Father 

Bergoglio came out in a mask from the house of the poet who survived the concentration camps and was welcomed by many Romans surprised at his sight.

The exit did not naturally go unnoticed and many greeted him: "How nice, the Holy Father", they say of the boys.

He returns the greetings and immediately gets in the car to avoid crowds.