Glemp’s Remarks on Auschwitz

We, the Council of Post-War Jewish Organizations, Survivors of the Nazi Holocaust, representing the vast majority of the survivor community of Southern California, are disturbed and outraged by the news that Cardinal Franciszek Macharski of Kracow intends to renege on the agreement reached between four prominent Catholic cardinals (including himself) and Jewish representatives. This agreement stipulates that the Carmelite convent established at Auschwitz some years ago will be moved to a new place in the vicinity of Auschwitz, which will also serve as a Holocaust study center.

We have among our numbers, survivors of Auschwitz, who spent three years of their lives in this infamous camp. They know the facts of Auschwitz.

Approximately 2 1/2 million Jewish men and women, among them close to 1 million Jewish children, were mercilessly annihilated at Auschwitz. Auschwitz is the graveyard of European Jewry. They all perished for one reason only; they were Jewish. Among us, the approximate 15,000 Jewish survivors of the Holocaust in Southern California, there is not even one who does not mourn a father, mother, brother, sister or a child who perished at Auschwitz.

All of us are united in our appeal to all people of good will, and in particular to our Christian brothers, to implore the Polish authorities and the Vatican to respect the feelings and wishes of the approximately 150,000 Jewish survivors who are still alive today. The sacred grounds of Auschwitz must become an eternal place of silence where every human being, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or Buddhist, can say a silent prayer, and mourn the greatest inhumanity ever perpetrated by one human being on another in all of human history.

The agreement reached between four cardinals of the church and Jewish representatives must be implemented for the sake of the dead. The convent and the cross must be evacuated to a more appropriate place without delay.

LIDIA BUDGOR

President

F. DIAMEMT

Vice President

Council of Post-War Jewish Organizations

Southern Calif. Region