Pope Fails to Mention Jews at Nazi Camp; Rabbi Upset

Pope John Paul II visited a former Nazi death camp today and angered Austria’s chief rabbi by not making any specific reference to the Jews, hours after telling Austria’s Jewish leaders that Palestinians have a right to a homeland.

At Mauthausen, the most infamous Austrian concentration camp where 110,000 people died, including 14,000 Jews, the Pope said:

“Here in Mauthausen were people who, in the name of a lunatic ideology, set into motion a whole machinery of contempt and hatred of others.”

However, while the pontiff mentioned Marcel Callo, a Roman Catholic activist who died at the camp, and other Catholics persecuted in Nazi camps, he made no reference to Jews.

That infuriated Chaim Eisenberg, Austria’s chief rabbi, who told reporters in Vienna: “A visit to Mauthausen without mentioning the word Jews once is not satisfactory. Absolutely not.”

Right to a Homeland

“The only Jew he mentions who suffered is Jesus Christ, and he didn’t die in Mauthausen,” Eisenberg added.

The 68-year-old pontiff told Austria’s Jewish leaders earlier in a meeting that was described as basically friendly that Palestinians have a right to a homeland, and he did not respond to their call for the Vatican to give full diplomatic recognition to the state of Israel.

“The Jewish people has the right to a homeland, as any other nation has according to international law,” John Paul said. “The same goes for the Palestinian people, many of whom have become homeless and refugees.”

Paul Grosz, the head of Austria’s Jewish community of 6,000--all that remains of the prewar population of 200,000--called on the Pope to establish diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Israel, which he said “would represent a clear rejection of Palestinian terrorism, whose declared intention it is to destroy Israel.”

But the pontiff indicated that full Vatican-Israeli relations depend on a solution to the Palestinian question and international status for Jerusalem.

Condemns Anti-Semitism

The Pope also condemned anti-Semitism and said Christianity cannot be blamed for the Nazi extermination of Jews during World War II.

“Fifty years ago in this city the synagogues were burning, thousands of men in this country were sent to their deaths,” he said. “Those sufferings, that pain and those unspeakable tears are before my eyes, and are deeply engraved on my soul.”

But he added: “It would be unjust and not truthful to charge Christianity with these unspeakable crimes.”

The pontiff also traveled to within sight of the border with East Europe today. At an outdoor Mass near the Hungarian border, he warned communist governments dedicated to atheism that man is impoverished without God.