Pope Benedict XVI on Friday became the second pope to visit a synagogue, stopping to pray and remember Holocaust victims with Cologne's Jewish community.
Benedict stood quietly with his hands clasped during a Hebrew prayer before a memorial to the six million Jews killed by Nazi Germany, and strode into the main hall as the choir sang, "Shalom alechem," or "peace be with you."
A shofar, or ram's horn, sounded as Benedict sat at the front. He then listened intently to the cantor's singing in the blue-domed Roonstrasse Synagogue, home to the oldest Jewish community in Germany.
Rabbi Natanel Teitelbaum said the pope's visit was "a step toward peace between the peoples of the world."
Benedict, who was enrolled in the Hitler Youth but later deserted the German army at the end of World War II, made the visit to underline his commitment to continue the path followed by his predecessor John Paul II, who visited the Rome synagogue in 1986.
The German-born pope has been praised by Jewish leaders for laying much of the theological groundwork for John Paul's outreach while he was a Vatican doctrinal official.
The visit had a special significance, taking place in the country that produced the Holocaust, Hitler's attempt to wipe out Europe's Jews during World War II.
A spat with Israel over Benedict's failure to mention the country in a list of places hit by terrorism this summer had raised the stakes for the visit. Israel sharply criticized Benedict last month after he deplored the recent terrorist attacks but did not mention a suicide bombing in Israel that killed five Israelis.
The Israeli government summoned the Vatican envoy and charged that the pope "deliberately failed" to condemn terrorist attacks against Israel. Tensions worsened with a harshly worded Vatican statement telling Israel to stop trying to give the pope lessons on what to say.
Benedict's membership in the Hitler Youth as a teenager produced some unflattering headlines after he was elected April 19. In his memoirs, the pope says he was enrolled by local officials — a common occurrence at the time — and got a sympathetic teacher to help him skip the organization's functions.
He recounts his own disgust for the Nazis several times, including an incident in which a shouting SS officer tried to browbeat him into volunteering for Hitler's fanatical elite troops, and then heaped scorn on him when told he was studying for the priesthood.
He was drafted at 18 and underwent basic training, then risked execution by deserting and returning home a few days before the war ended. U.S. occupation forces took him prisoner when they discovered he had been a soldier and released him after several weeks.
He has said he saw providential design in the fact that a Polish pope who lived under Nazi occupation was succeeded by a German one.
"Both popes in their youth — both on different sides and in different situations — were forced to experience the barbarity of the Second World War," Benedict said in May.
The 78-year-old German pontiff said Friday that the history of relations between Christians and Jews had been "complex and painful" but dialogue was more important than ever in the face of resurgent anti-Semitism.
The pope said cooperation between the two religions had improved over the past 40 years, but much remained to be done.
"We must come to know each other much more and much better. Consequently I would encourage sincere and trustful dialogue between Jews and Christians, for only in this way will it be possible to arrive at a shared interpretation of disputed historical questions, and above all, to make progress towards a theological evaluation of the relationship between Judaism and Christianity."
19 Aug 2005