The Holocaust Remembrance Day

Nazi soldiers rounded up Jews and kept them in different concentration camps in several countries of Europe for later extermination

Jews kept in crowded wooden-bunks before killing them by poisonous gas and other deadly means. This photo is from Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany.

Many of the Jews were starved like this in different camps. This photo is from the Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Austria.

Photos courtesy: Different websites

Today, April 28, was the Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this day, Jews in Israel remember six million Jews systematically exterminated by Adolf Hitler-led Nazis of Germany and their collaborators in about a dozen countries in Europe during the German occupation. 

Although presently some people disagree with the exact number of six million Jews killed during the Second World War, but their number would be in several millions. This systematic mass murder, called the Holocaust, of Jewish babies to the old, was, no doubt, a grave crime against humanity.

To know more on this subject, you may visit the following sites:

• The Holocaust Explained
• Holocaust Facts
• Holocaust Encyclopedia
• The Holocaust
• Nazi anti-semitism and the origins of the Holocaust
• Holocaust Pictures
• Holocaust Photographs
• The Holocaust Pictures & Galleries
• 20 Photos That Change the Holocaust Narrative
• The Holocaust -- Youtube
• A Holocaust Photo Essay
• Yad Vashem: World Center for Holocaust Research, Education, Documentation, and Communication
• Has historian finally discovered real reason for Hitler's obsessive hatred of Jews?

The Quotation of the Week (April 27 - May 3, 2014)

A quotation of John Keats on 'nature,' compiled by Jerome D'Costa

Photo (A scene near the Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada: August 1, 2013) © Joachim Romeo D'Costa

Pope Francis Canonizes Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II

L-R: Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII were declared saints today

Photo courtesy: www.presentationbrothers.org/

Pope Francis in a solemn ceremony in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican canonized Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II today the Divine Mercy Sunday, dear to both the newly proclaimed saints. Pope John XXIII had died fifty years ago and Pope John Paul II nine.

Present for the ceremony today were almost a million spectators and devotees as well as about a hundred foreign delegates ranging from heads of state, government and royal dignitaries and ecclesiastical officials, including Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, reports news.va.

In his homily, Pope Francis “highlighted the importance of the Second Vatican Council. How these two Popes had cooperated with the Holy Spirit in renewing and updating the Church while keeping the features which the saints have given Her down the centuries.”

Pope John XXIII hails from Sotto il Monte in the Diocese of Bergamo in northern Italy and Pope John Paul II comes from Wadowice in the Archdiocese of Kracow in Poland. 

For details of the canonization ceremony and lives of these popes, you may visit the following:

• Pope Francis makes history with dual canonization of Pope John XXIII, Pope John Paul II
•  John XXIII, John Paul II declared saints in historic canonization
• The day of four popes: John XXIII and John Paul II raised to the altars in historic first
• Sainthood for John Paul II and John XXIII, as crowds pack St. Peter's Square
• Pope John XXIII
• Pope John XXIII (1958 - 1963)
• The life of Pope John XXIII
• Pope John Paul II
• John Paul II 
• John Paul II: His Life and Papacy
• Flirting With the Past: Pope John Paul II Visits Bangladesh on November 19, 1986

Happy Easter to Our Readers!

Photo (An electrical outlet in a student residence in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: March 16, 2014) by Jerome D'Costa

The Quotation of the Week ( April 20 - 26, 2014)

A quotation of Jacques Deval on 'God and Man,' compiled by Jerome D'Costa

Photo (Dancing Light in Toronto: November 1, 2013) © Jerome D'Costa

The Quotation of the Week (April 13 - 19, 2014)

A quotation of John F. Kennedy on 'leadership,' compiled by Jerome D'Costa

Photo (A bunch of roses at a store in Toronto: Feb. 17, 2013) © Jerome D'Costa

The Quotation of the Week (April 6 - 12, 2014)

A quotation of Charles de Montesquieu on 'happiness,' compiled by Jerome D'Costa

Photo (Snow pile on a roadside in Toronto: Feb. 16, 2013) © Jerome D'Costa