ROME – Commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27), the German Embassy to the Holy See and the World Jewish Congress (WJC) Representative Office to the Holy See on Tuesday hosted a Holocaust remembrance gathering focused on the research project Asking the Pope for Help.
The event, co-sponsored by the WJC, took place within the framework of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and brought together key attendees including:
- Ambassador Christian Heldt, Germany’s Special Representative for Holocaust Remembrance and Antisemitism;
- Ambassador Bernhard Kotsch, Germany Embassy to the Holy See;
- Cardinal Walter Kasper, President emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity;
- Representatives from the Erinnerung, Versöhnung, Zukunft Foundation; SAP; the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach Foundation and the University of Münster.
- Officials from the Catholic Church and the Holy See.
Led by Professor Hubert Wolf from the University of Münster, and funded by the German Federal Foreign Office with the Erinnerung, Verantwortung, Zukunft (EVZ) Foundation, the initiative investigates petitions sent to the Vatican by persecuted Jews during the Holocaust, aiming to restore the names, faces, and stories of those who sought help from Pope Pius XII, who was head of the Catholic Church in the 1930s and ‘40s.
Addressing the crowd, Viktor Eichner, Head of the World Jewish Congress Representative Office to the Holy See, emphasized the urgency of Holocaust remembrance amid rising antisemitism after October 7 and highlighted the WJC’s work with the Holy See. “The echoes of those atrocities live on in every survivor’s testimony, in the pain and loss that still linger today,” he stated. “We must never forget the faces of the victims—their names, their stories, and the lives that were stolen.”
The World Jewish Congress remains steadfast in its fight against Holocaust denial and distortion, a challenge intensified by the surge of online antisemitism, by publishing and circulating Holocaust-educational resources through its partnership with TikTok. In collaboration with the Holy See and other key institutions, the WJC works to preserve historical truth, promote interfaith dialogue, and ensure that future generations understand the Holocaust’s enduring lessons.
