Word: germanically
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...sight of a German Pope crossing into the death camp beneath the infamously false Nazi sign, "Arbeit Macht Frei? (Work Will Set You Free), is arguably the most striking image of Benedict?s 14-month-old papacy. Walking alone with his hands clasped in front of him, an utterly grim expression fixed across his face, the 79-year-old pontiff entered as both the leader of the billion-strong Roman Catholic Church, and a World War II-generation German citizen. ?To speak in this place of horror, in this place where unprecedented mass crimes were committed against...
...Despite the moving words, the news about this new Pope continues to be that he is not quite like the old Pope. Unlike the Pole, for instance, this German pontiff made no mention of his personal experience during the war; the then Joseph Ratzinger was an unwilling member of the Hitler Youth as a teenager in his native Bavaria. He also did not explicitly ask for forgiveness on behalf of Catholics or Germans. Some Jews will likely be left unsatisfied by Benedict?s avoiding the topic of his homeland's potential collective responsibility for the Holocaust, placing the blame...
...Rabbi David Rosen, who heads the American Jewish Committee?s interfaith office, said he was ?disappointed? that there wasn?t a more explicit reference to German responsibility. ?He speaks like [the Nazis] just dropped in out of nowhere,? Rosen said. ?That?s just a little bit facile.? But the rabbi ultimately thinks this pontiff is committed to keeping strong ties to Jews, judging by his presence here and words that were ?saturated with his sense of bonding with the Jewish people...
...Pope?s physical presence at Auschwitz - his gestures - were really the news. His deep prayers in front of the wall of death where prisoners were regularly executed; the two-cheeked kiss he shared with a Jewish survivor; his using German for the first time all trip to say a prayer at Birchenau. The visit followed two trips Ratzinger made to the camp a quarter-century ago as a Cardinal...
...reporters noticed that across the broad field of half-standing brick barracks of Birkenau, a vivid rainbow had appeared. The editors of TIME, like those who A. M. Rosenthal worked for back in the 1950s, would surely not normally consider this news. But on a day that the German Pope came to Auschwitz to ponder God?s silence, that surprising explosion of colors seemed well worth reporting...