The Polish religious affairs minister said Friday that the controversy over the presence of the Catholic Carmelite convent at Auschwitz will be resolved to the satisfaction of both the Church and the international Jewish community.
Wladyslaw Loranc, the first Polish cabinet minister to visit Israel in an official capacity in more than two decades, offered the assurance during a discussion here with his Israeli host and counterpart, Zevulun Hammer.
Meanwhile, reports reached Israel that the Carmelites have erected a large cross over their mission at the camp.
The World Jewish Congress expressed shock at this development, accusing “the Vatican and the Catholic Church in Poland of betraying a clear pledge made in formal negotiations.”
Dr. Avi Beker, executive director of WJC in Israel, intends to tell Loranc of the “great disappointment and anguish which is shared by the world Jewish community” as a result of the convent’s presence in defiance of a previous accord between representatives of world Jewish organizations and the Church.
The agreement, signed in Geneva on Feb. 22, 1987, mandated the nuns’ departure from the grounds of the camp by Feb. 22 of this year.
The Church claims that Polish administrative difficulties have so far caused the delay, but even the latest Jewish demand, that the Carmelites be transferred to temporary quarters outside the camp, pending completion of the new convent, apparently has not been met.
Last Wednesday, a group of students attached to the World Union of Jewish Students protested outside the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial over the convent at Auschwitz as Loranc was visiting the shrine.
Next Wednesday, the European Union of Jewish Students, a constituent group of WUJS, and the Alliance of Jewish Youth Movements are planning a silent protest march in Brussels in order to reaffirm their demand for relocation of the convent.
(JTA correspondent Yossi Lempkowicz in Brussels contributed to this report.)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
