Five European Chief Rabbis Urge Pope to Reconsider Plans for a Convent at Auschwitz Camp Site

Five chief rabbis from four European countries have urged Pope John Paul ## to reconsider plans by the Roman Catholic Church to establish a convent at the site of the Auschwitz death camp in Poland.

A letter to the Pontiff was signed by Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits of Britain; Chief Rabbi of Alsatia; Chief Rabbi Moses Rosen of Rumania; and Chief Rabbi Mordechai Piron of Zurich.

They stated in their letter, “The site of the former concentration camp has become synonymous with the Holocaust (of the Jewish people)” and “turning it into a religious pilgrimage would be both painful and injurious.” The proposed convent would house nuns of the Carmelite order from a half dozen countries, including Germany and Poland.

The Archbishop of Cracow, Cardinal Franciszek Marcharski, has defended the project as “proof that goodness is stronger than evil.” In a letter published in the Vatican newspaper I’Osservatore Romano on February 21, he maintained that Auschwitz has become “a holy place for all of humanity and belongs to all nations.”

Several Catholic organizations have launched fund-raising drives for the project convent. But a number of ranking Catholic clergy on Belgium, France and other countries have forcefully objected to the campaign and the idea of a convent at Auschwitz.

The five chief rabbis noted in their letter to the Pope that the Polish authorities had rejected a request to build a synagogue at the site on grounds that Auschwitz symbolized universal pain and suffering and could not be reserved for the use of any single faith. The letter argued that a Catholic convent at the site would be contrary to that ruling. They recalled also that “most of the Nazi criminals practiced this same religion.”