Francis' comments to an international conference on Monday comes as the largely Roman Catholic Poland considers legislation that would outlaw blaming Poles for the crimes of the Holocaust.
The proposed legislation has sparked an outcry in Israel.
Francis did not mention that dispute, but spoke of his 2016 visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp which the Nazis set up in Poland during the Second World War, saying he remembered "the roar of the deafening silence" that left room for only tears, prayer and requests for forgiveness.
He called for Christians and Jews to build a "common memory" of the Holocaust, saying: "It is our responsibility to hand it on in a dignified way to young generations."
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