Outrage at Auschwitz

A history of the controversy around the Carmelite convent at the site of Auschwitz from 1984-90. Its establishment in 1984-85, without consulting with the Jewish side, was followed with requests on the part of Jews and non-Jews to relocate the convent. Compares the conduct of two Jewish leaders in their struggle for moving the convent: Rabbi Avi Weiss from New York in 1989 tried to demonstrate at the convent site with six of his supporters; Sir Sigmund Sternberg from England tried to heal the rift between Jews and Polish Catholics and to solve the problem by negotiation. Weiss's abortive demonstration provoked the two Polish hierarchs Cardinal Macharski and Cardinal Glemp to make statements having antisemitic overtones. Presents a lenghty excerpt from Glemp's controversial homily, held in Czestochowa in 1989. The homily did not prevent Sternberg from establishing a dialogue with Glemp. Consenting with Glemp that Auschwitz should never be a place of controversy, Chomet presents (pp. 135-138) the text of "The Yarnton Declaration by Jewish Intellectuals on the Future of Auschwitz, " which takes into account sentiments of both Jews and non-Jews. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)