Some Nuns Leave Auschwitz Convent, Jewish Leader Says
A majority of the nuns at the disputed Carmelite convent at Auschwitz have left, and the Polish government has said that all of them could be moved out before an alternate facility is built, a World Jewish Congress official said Friday.
WJC vice president Kalman Sultanik said that he learned on a recent trip to Warsaw that eight of the 15 nuns have already left.
Polish church officials last month agreed to move the nuns to an interfaith center outside the death camp grounds after months of international controversy.
Jews wanted the convent moved to keep Auschwitz as a silent tribute to the 4 million people, more than half of them Jews, who were killed there by the Germans during World War II.
The Polish church decision came after the Vatican intervened in the dispute and sided with church and Jewish officials who two years ago agreed that the nuns should leave. Pope John Paul II is a former Polish cardinal.
Sultanik said that Polish government officials told him it was possible that the nuns would be completely relocated soon at their own request.
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