More Crosses Put Up Near Auschwitz

Conservative Roman Catholics have erected 10 more wooden crosses next to the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, despite calls by church officials for them to stop. The new crosses were set up before a Mass celebrated at Auschwitz in memory of the Rev. Maksymilian Kolbe, a priest who took the place of an Auschwitz prisoner and was killed by the Nazis in 1941. Cardinal Jozef Glemp, Poland’s top Catholic figure, and other clergymen called this week on conservative Catholics to stop putting up crosses near a 26-foot cross in a small field next to Auschwitz. Jewish groups want the large cross removed, saying it violates the memory of the more than 1 million Jews killed at Auschwitz and nearby Birkenau.