Some people were disappointed by the Pope’s restrained language and the way that he ducked a Jewish request to open up the Vatican archives relating to the full Nazi period.

Yet it remained the most diplomatically significant event in the Pope’s four-day pilgrimage to his homeland. His predecessor, John Paul II — who did most to break down the wall of distrust between Jews and Roman Catholics — had visited the synagogue in Rome in 1987. But no Pope had hitherto set foot in a synagogue in the country where the Holocaust was conceived and organised.

And so it fell to the former Joseph Ratzinger, who grew up in a Bavarian village during the Nazi years, to make the overdue gesture. As a teenager he was obliged for a while to be a member of the Hitler Youth. President Köhler said this week that the 78-year-old Pope had been a member of the “flak-helper generation”, the schoolboys called up to man antiaircraft guns or guard factories in the last days of the war.

The Pope, though untainted by any wartime wrongdoing, had to go some way further than his Polish mentor to reassure the Jewish community. The choice of Cologne itself sent a powerful signal. The city was home to 22,000 Jews before the war; at least half of them were murdered and thousands were forced to emigrate.

The Pope stood in silent prayer yesterday as Rabbi Netanel Teitelbaum recited the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead. The Jewish community in Cologne is growing again, thanks to thousands of migrants from Russia, who crowded into the synagogue to hear the pontiff.

They wanted clear speaking but encountered a man whose natural instinct was caution. Rabbi Teitelbaum gave warning against what he called “Christian anti-Semitism”.

The Catholic Church, the Pope said in reply, condemned every form of discrimination.

“The new indications of anti-Semitism and xenophobia are reason to be concerned and on our guard,” he told the audience. “The Catholic Church stands for tolerance, respect, peace and friendship between cultures, peoples and religions.”

The Jewish representative, however, wanted more: absolute clarity about the Church’s role in the Holocaust. “We urge you to continue the opening of the Vatican archives from the years of the Shoah,” said Abraham Lehrer, the head of the Cologne Jewish community, who lost many relatives in the Holocaust. His mother, Vera, an Auschwitz survivor, her number still tattooed on her arm, sat weeping as she listened .

The Pope’s response to the Jewish initiative was cautious. “We have to get to know each other better,” he said. “That means a full and trusting dialogue between Jews and Christians. Only then will it be possible to reach a mutually acceptable interpretation of our historical differences.”

The opening of the Vatican records — which should shed light on the behaviour of the papacy during the war — is seen by the Pope as the prize at the end of lengthy negotiations rather than as a goodwill gesture at the outset of his papacy.

“To be frank, I didn’t expect any significant change in the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jews,” Michael Fürst, the chairman of the Jewish Community of Lower Saxony, said. “For that you need more than a visit to a synagogue. It is only the first step in the right direction but shouldn’t be overrated.”

The Pope did not make any reference to terrorism. Yet this is a sticking point between the Israeli Government and the new papacy. The Israelis are upset that the Pope, while condemning terrorist acts elsewhere, has failed to speak out against the bombings in Israel.

“It was not the place to do this,” Paul Spiegel, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said.

There was little to be seen yesterday of the Pope’s diffident charm that has captivated the half-a-million young pilgrims who are occupying every niche and cranny of this Rhineland city. Instead, he presented himself as a cool statesman.

Vatican-watchers said that the Pope’s understated visit to the Cologne synagogue should be understood in a wider context: he did not want to present the Jews as being in a privileged relationship with the Catholic Church. After all, the pontiff was due to meet senior representatives of the Protestant and Orthodox churches. Today he is also scheduled to have talks with the Muslim Council of Germany.

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