More than a thousand residents of Oswiecim, the Polish city near the former Auschwitz death camp, reportedly have expressed their opposition to the removal of a Carmelite convent from the camp.
In addition, the 1,375 citizens of Oswiecim who signed an open letter published last week in a Catholic weekly denounced what they termed the “intolerable pressures” exerted by “groups of Jews” in order to force the nuns to leave the convent.
The Poles, whose letter was printed in “Slowo Powzechne,” called demands to oust the nuns from the convent “illegal” because, they said, the building that houses the convent was legally leased to the nuns by the local authorities.
They also asserted that the convent is located outside the compound of the concentration camp.
The convent building straddles the fence that forms the death camp’s perimeter. The building itself, a former theater, was used by the Nazis to stock the Zyklon B gas used for mass extermination of Jews and others deported there.
Catholic leaders who signed a Feb. 22, 1987, accord with Jewish representatives calling for the convent’s relocation to a site away from the camp agreed with the Jews that, for all purposes, the building is on the Auschwitz site.
The letter’s publication, in a pro-government Catholic newspaper, is seen as another sign that local Polish authorities are responsible for the delay in the convent’s removal. Under the agreement, it was to have been removed by Feb. 22.
Earlier this year, the head of the Jewish delegation that signed the accord, Theo Klein of France, referred to “internal Polish Church difficulties” as being the main reasons why the Carmelite nuns had not yet vacated the convent.
Jewish visitors to the site in recent weeks reported that the nuns have erected a 23-foot cross alongside the convent, which they described as “looming” over the site of the death camp.
Jewish groups, supported by many Catholic leaders, feel that a Catholic presence on the site is inappropriate, considering the overwhelming number of Jews who died at Auschwitz.
The situation has been aggravated further by what is regarded as strident Christian language used in a fund-raising appeal on behalf of the convent.
A statement by the founder of the Church in Distress in Konigstein, West Germany, the Rev. Wilfried van Straaten, described the convent as “a spiritual fortress and a guarantee of the conversion of strayed brothers from our countries, as well as proof of our desire to erase outrages so often done to the Vicar of Christ.”
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.
