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The Auschwitz cross is a
cross A cross is a religious symbol consisting of two Intersection (set theory), intersecting Line (geometry), lines, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of t ...
in front of the
Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...
, in
Oświęcim County __NOTOC__ Oświęcim County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, southern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in ...
,
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, which was erected to commemorate the spot where 151 prisoners (including 80 Poles) were shot by Gerhard Palitzsch on 11 November, 1941.


Catholic presence and opposition

Carmelite nuns opened a convent near the camp in 1984 and have been major supporters of keeping the cross on the grounds, despite opposition. Prominent Jewish organisations attempted to pressure Poland to remove the cross. Edgar Bronfman, president of the
World Jewish Congress The World Jewish Congress (WJC) is an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations, founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in August 1936. According to its mission statement, the World Jewish Congress's main purpose is to act as ...
called for the removal of the convent. Public statements from Theo Klein, president of the Council of Jews in France, Jewish activist Serge Klarsfeld, and Gerhard Riegner, representative of the World Jewish Congress, also demanded the removal of the convent. The American branch of the World Jewish Congress also protested with statements from chairman Wolfe Kelman and the Orthodox faction representative Zvi Zakheim. Representatives of the Catholic Church agreed in 1987. One year later the Carmelites erected the large cross, previously used to celebrate
Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...
's 1979
Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...
for some 500,000 people on the grounds of the Auschwitz II (Birkenau) extermination camp, to commemorate the spot where 151 prisoners (including 80 Poles) were shot by Gerhard Palitzsch on 11 November, 1941. This Mass took place just outside Block 11, a torture prison in Auschwitz I, visible from within the camp. Tensions escalated into 1989 when two notable protests occurred. In May 1989, the Women's International Zionist Organization led a protest of 300 members carrying signs and Israeli flags. In July 1989, New York City Rabbi Avraham Weiss traveled with six supporters and led a protest that earned international notoriety. Weiss and his supporters scaled the fence of the convent wearing concentration camp uniforms. The group then harassed the nuns with banging and shouting until local Polish workers ran them off with buckets of water. Representatives of the Council of Jews and the World Jewish Congress stated that mostly Jews were killed at Auschwitz and demanded that religious symbols be kept away from the site. Ian Kagedan of
B'nai Brith Canada B'nai Brith Canada ( ; BBC; from ) is a Canadian Jewish service organization and advocacy group. It is the Canadian chapter of B'nai B'rith International and has offices in Toronto, Winnipeg, Montreal, and Vancouver. Mission The organizatio ...
called the erection of the cross, "an obvious gap in understanding." The Carmelites remained in their convent until 1993 and relocated a few hundred meters away from the site. In March 1998 the Plenipotentiary for Relations with the Jewish Diaspora, , was quoted in a French newspaper as saying that the cross would be removed, because its presence was disrespectful of the Jewish legacy at Auschwitz. By the end of March 1998, a large group of government and nongovernment leaders, including then Chief of the Prime Minister's Cabinet , 130 Sejm deputies, 16 senators, former President
Lech Wałęsa Lech Wałęsa (; ; born 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as the president of Poland between 1990 and 1995. After winning the 1990 Polish presidential election, 1990 election, Wałę ...
, Cardinal
Józef Glemp Józef Glemp (18 December 192923 January 2013) was a Polish Cardinal (Catholic Church), cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was List of bishops and archbishops of Warsaw, Archbishop of Warsaw from 1981 to 2006, and was elevated to the cardinalate ...
, and Gdańsk Archbishop Tadeusz Rakoczy, went on record as opposing the removal of the cross. The leader of the ''Defenders of the Pope's Cross'', , and Mieczysław Janosz, leader of the ''Association of War Victims'', which leased the land on which the cross stood, distributed leaflets opposing the removal of the cross. Kazimierz Świtoń died in 2014.


New crosses

In August 1998, the erection of some hundreds of additional smaller crosses outside Auschwitz, despite the opposition of the country's bishops, sparked intense controversy in the Polish Catholic and international Jewish community. Government efforts to resolve the situation in the fall of 1998 through the courts by revoking the lease on the land held by the Association of War Victims was met with little success. The government wanted the local courts to agree to appoint an administrator for the former convent site pending a legal decision on the validity of the lease revocation. In October 1998, the local court refused the request to appoint such an administrator, a decision upheld in December 1998 by an appeals court in
Bielsko-Biała Bielsko-Biała (; ; , ; ) is a city in southern Poland, with a population of approximately 166,765 as of December 2022, making it the List of cities and towns in Poland#Largest cities and towns by population, 22nd largest city in Poland, and an a ...
, which returned the lease issue to the local court. At the end of 1998, complicated legal maneuverings continued, and two separate cases were before the local court—the government's effort to break the lease and the tenants' effort to have the government action ruled illegal. In May 1999, the Parliament passed a government-sponsored law to protect the sites of all the former camps in the country. The government consulted with international Jewish groups in preparing the law, which gave the government the power it needed to resolve the issue of the "new crosses". In late May 1999, Świtoń announced that he had laid explosives under the site where the crosses were erected, and that he would detonate them if the government attempted to remove him or the crosses. Police officers quickly arrested Świtoń for possessing explosives and making public threats. After Świtoń's arrest, local authorities removed the crosses to a nearby Franciscan monastery, under the supervision of the local bishop, and sealed off the site to prevent the erection of additional crosses. The large cross is not to be removed from the site for the time being. An elderly man from the far-right organisation Telewizja Narodowe had built a 2-story tall wooden cross beside a temporary campground on the highway on the day of the 70th anniversary. He denied an interview while sitting by a wood-burning fireplace under a blue cover.


See also

* Cross in front of Presidential Palace in Warsaw


References


Further reading

*


External links


''Voices on Antisemitism'' Interview with James Carroll
from th
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Auschwitz Cross
Cross A cross is a religious symbol consisting of two Intersection (set theory), intersecting Line (geometry), lines, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of t ...
Catholicism and Judaism Christian and Jewish interfaith dialogue Persecution of Poles Religious controversies in Poland Holocaust commemoration Memorial crosses