Pope honors Slovak Holocaust victims on site of demolished synagogue

Pope Francis speaks during a visit to the Bethlehem Center in Bratislava, Slovakia, September 13, 2021. REUTERS/Remo Casilli

BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Pope Francis, at a memorial to the more than 100,000 Slovak Jews killed in the Holocaust, said on Monday that it was shameful how people who said they believed in God perpetrated or permitted "unspeakable acts of inhumanity".

At a somber ceremony at a spot where a synagogue wasdemolished during the post-war communist era, ostensibly to make room for a bridge, the pope said the real reason was because "they wanted to cancel every trace of the (Jewish) community."