Pope says he's still pained by Kristallnacht

Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Germans to stand together against racism and anti-Semitism as the nation marked the 70th anniversary of the Nazi pogrom known as Kristallnacht or Night of Broken Glass, after the smashed windows of the thousands of Jewish businesses and synagogues that were attacked and torched by Adolf Hitler's followers in 1938.

A memorial concert and other events were held Sunday to mark the anniversary of the Nazi-incited riots that killed more than 91 Jews and damaged some 1,000 synagogues. About 26,000 Jews were rounded up and sent to concentration camps.

The chancellor took part in an official ceremony later Sunday along with Charlotte Knobloch, the director of the Central Council of German Jews.

Merkel has stressed that it is not enough to remember the events of November 9, 1938 through memorials and ceremonies, but "we must always think how it was that it could come to this singular event, the Holocaust."

Knobloch said she hoped a reminder of the atrocities 70 years ago would rekindle Germans' commitment to tolerance.

"This important day heavy in symbolism is an opportunity to show that Germany is a diverse and vibrant democracy," said Knobloch, who was six on Kristallnacht.

'Such horrors must never be repeated'

In the Vatican, German-born Pope Benedict voiced his lingering pain over the night when the Nazis whipped up anti-Jewish riots.

"Still today I feel pain over what happened in those tragic events, whose memory must serve to ensure such horrors are never repeated and that we strive, on every level, against all forms of anti-Semitism and discrimination ...," said the pope.

"I invite people to pray for the victims of that night and to join me in expressing profound solidarity with the Jewish world," the pontiff told crowds at the Vatican after his regular Sunday Angelus address.

Pope Benedict, born Joseph Ratzinger in Bavaria in 1927, was forced to join the Hitler Youth as a teenager, though both his parents opposed the Nazis.

Earlier this year the pontiff spoke in New York about his teenage years being "marred by a sinister regime".

The pope is currently being lobbied by Holocaust survivors and their descendants to halt the process of making his wartime predecessor Pius XII a saint.

Some Jews accuse Pius, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, of turning a blind eye to the Holocaust. The Vatican says he worked behind the scenes to help save many Jews from certain death.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report