Jews’ Feelings Not Fully Understood, Glemp Says

Cardinal Jozef Glemp said in an interview that neither he nor the Polish Catholic Church he leads had adequately understood the significance of the Auschwitz death camp as a symbol for Jewish people.

“Yes, there were some mistakes committed by the church. . . . We actually were not aware that there would be such deep feelings on the part of Jews toward this place. We actually did not understand the Shoah (Holocaust) doctrine,” Glemp said at his Warsaw residence.

Remarks by Glemp last month resisting the relocation of a Catholic convent away from Auschwitz offended many Jews and pushed Polish-Jewish relations to a crisis point. About 2.5 million of the 4 million people who were killed by the Nazis at Auschwitz during World War II were Jews, and many Jews have objected to the convent’s presence as an intrusion into what they say should be a Jewish memorial.

In the interview Saturday, Glemp confirmed that he now favors moving the convent and reaffirmed the validity of a 1987 agreement between the Catholic church and Jewish organizations to relocate the convent building. He said that the Carmelite nuns would be moved away from the camp, although he said he could not name the date.

He added that the Jewish people also must understand the importance that Auschwitz has for Poles.

“We know that Jews went through the Holocaust and they sacrificed so many lives, but we also would like them to know that Poles also went through exterminations at Oswiecim (Auschwitz),” Glemp said.

In statements last month, the Polish church leader had sought to annul the 1987 agreement to move the convent, calling the accord unacceptable and declaring that it would have to be renegotiated. Glemp said at the time that Jewish insistence that the church honor its agreement was an affront to Polish sovereignty. He also said that moving the nuns would be too expensive.

The primate’s attempt at conciliation in Saturday’s interview followed a statement by the Vatican last week, which supported the 1987 agreement and offered to help pay for a new convent to be built some distance from Auschwitz.

Glemp said the Carmelite nuns had settled at Auschwitz in 1984 “with good intentions” and that it was not easy for Polish Catholics to understand why the convent’s presence is offensive to Jews. He said it would require work in every Catholic parish to explain the Jewish view that the only fitting memorial at a site where so many Jews were gassed and burned is emptiness and silence.