Police blocking rabbis from protesting against Auschwitz-Birkenau church
The rabbis claim that the existence and presence of the church is a slight to the memory of those who perished and fell victim to the Holocaust.
Rabbi protesters gathering at the gates of the infamous Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau are allegedly being blocked by Polish police from entering the compound to demonstrate against the presence of the church situated on site.
According to the rabbis, the presence of the church violated the 1987 agreement signed in Geneva between European Cardinals and Jewish leaders and additionally violates the 1972 UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Culture and Natural Heritage sites.
“There will, therefore, be no permanent Catholic place of worship on the site of the Auschwitz and Birkenau camps," the agreement stated.
Despite the "threats" and paths blocked by police vans, four rabbis, including Rabbi Avi Weiss are continuing the protest to remove Christian symbolism from "the largest Jewish cemetery in the world."
“This church is housed in a building that once served as the Nazi commandant’s headquarters, where Jewish inmates, especially women, were tortured and raped," Weiss explained. "Allied photos clearly show that the Church is within the perimeter of the camp. From just about anywhere in Birkenau, looking up, one sees the Church's towering crosses, casting their shadows over the death camp."
The rabbis claim that the existence and presence of the church is a slight to the memory of those who perished and fell victim to the Holocaust.
"The Birkenau Church, with its inescapable Christian presence, represents one of today's most imminent threats to the integrity of Holocaust memory," Weiss believes. "Visitors and the world will come to believe that the Holocaust was an attempt at Christian genocide, when it was in fact an effort to completely and systematically wipe out all of the Jewish people.”
za Jerusalem Post
