Correspondence
changed the ancient Polish names of...
...months is only now beginning to pene- Christ in this century...
...BISHOP EDSEL A. AMMONS, THOMAS MERTON West Ohio Conference, The United Meth- Merton shows how praying the psalms as many, including the Jews...
...The Jewish the initial "transport" of eight thousand other hand, may finally come to ap- community is up tight about conversions "politicals" collected from Gestapo jails preciate the full nature of the Nazi attack to another religion . . . . All of us, Jews in Cracow, Myslowice, and Fordon and on the Polish nation as nation - the and Christians, must work for a better from the enormous Warsaw lapankas attempt to reduce it to utter servitude and society, and perhaps one day the bitter- (street roundups...
...Fleischner check on a U.S...
...paper $4.95 WHY, 0 LORD...
...any Jewish groups on the establishment story...
...foreign, $59...
...Biblical and Spiritual Arrivals DENNIS E. GROH Only after the addition of Birkenau did .. a revealing and delightfully new treat- BREAD IN the camp become both international in ment of an ancient and revered ecclesias- THE WILDERNESS scope and a place of martyrdom for tical theme...
...the bishops of Cracow...
...In the meantime, nothing Canadian and foreign subscriptions must be paid in and sensitive treatment of a "touchy" U.S...
...is published biweekly, except monthly convent proposal, I see the need for an Christmas-New Year's and July and August, by international commission of prominent Silver Spring, Md...
...Psalms and Sermons from Namibia obviously colored with especially viru- ZEPHANIA KAMEETA lent anti-Jewishness...
...bishops have urged...
...the Editors: As a practicing Jewish troversy is over a Catholic prince/bishop The controversy, I hope, will result in congregant who is a Jewish believer, permitting erection of a Catholic house of some new learning by all sides...
...All Jews (and some other smaller, WHY PREACH...
...A symbol that does not exclude the memory of the others, but also remembers those Jews and non-Jews 24 October 1986: 573...
...Fleischner is correct when she trate the North American scene...
...ing Brzezinka (Birkenau) the Nazis erected a complex of concentration camps notorious to the world as Auschwitz-Birkenau, or simply as AuschChicago, Ill...
...Continued on page 573) well as its political, religious, and cul- MELVIN N. COHEN tural leadership...
...paper $3.95 Polish martyrdom...
...PHILIP in a new creation," can enrich the lives of sites of infamy, many almost strictly [LINGER, UMC Minister, West Lafayette, all Christians...
...During their World POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Commonweal, 15 Dutch St., New York, N.Y...
...Commonweal Foundation, 15 Dutch St., New Jews and Christians to offer recom- York, N.Y...
...and re- "sensitive" than might appear to a perputing religious elements to fiction members the millions who died as surely, son unacquainted with the fullness of the where there are none, and this is a tale of albeit more slowly, from torture, work facts...
...Western Jews and Christians, on the safe...
...It was at land confuses Auschwitz with OsAuschwitz ["Contemplation & Con- Auschwitz on August 9, 1942 that Edith wigcim...
...JOHN T. PAWLIKOWSKI, O.S.M...
...The change in the areas "incorporated" into the Reich was total...
...No one in Poregarding the Carmelite monastery at vant and morally fitting...
...of South African blacks and their longing These are some of the reasons why, for liberation...
...eral prominent European Catholic full understanding of the issues involved...
...REV...
...There are, to a sitivity as incomprehension...
...Telephone: (212) 732-0800...
...Illustrations, maps, and photowere marked (again for being what they paper $4.95 graphs enrich this resource for studying were) for extinction after the war...
...Her ROBERT DEL VALLE writes, "Auschwitz is situated in the diocomprehensive piece, especially in the cese of Cardinal Franciscus Macharski, way it sensitively lays out the major Archbishop of Cracow...
...BASIC BIBLICAL groups) were marked by the Nazis for WILLIAM MUEIII, GEOGRAPHY prompt extinction for reason of being Carefully examining the challenge of pro- DENIS BALY what they were...
...bank...
...Special two-year ing a proper religious memorial at stands as a shining example of scholarly rate: U.S., $49...
...After the war, the towns and To the Editors: Eva Fleischner has per- villages reverted to their historic names, formed a genuine service for Jews and • the Editors: One fact alone, I think, while the site of the camp complex reCatholics in North America with her fine makes the presence of a Carmelite con- tained the designation Auschwitz as a summary of the ongoing controversy vent at Auschwitz both historically rele- sign of perpetual infamy...
...the Editors: Professor Eva Fleisch- Single copy, $1.50...
...Birkenau was added a year later uniqueness atthe Auschwitz state memo- piate, and it haunts the Jews who were (1941) as a lager for Polish women, with rial...
...fi=URS ~l~~:~Si ~Cs7sT.3tC~d were designed and operated as extermination• camps...
...The irony is points of contention, provides a much The bitterness remains that Oswigcim is a hereditary duchy of needed framework for the discussion as it Baltimore, Md...
...My understanding, borne out by troversy," June 20...
...Fleischner's article, is that the conwhich was quite heated in Europe (espe- Catholicism, and Carmelite nun - vent is situated in Oswigcim not in cially France, Holland, and Belgium) for perished as a witness to the suffering Auschwitz...
...gion...
...changed the ancient Polish names of Correspondence most towns and villages...
...The the world of the Bible...
...War II occupation of Poland, the Nazis Commonweal: 546 Of course, one must be careful of im- who died in the gas chambers...
...My thanks both to Dr...
...Yearly subscriptions, U.S., mendations to the Polish church regard- ner's "Contemplation & Controversy" $28...
...Correspondence 1 (Continued from page 546) six women were still alive in 1943...
...Still, I think Minot is a writer to Maximilian Kolbe, a symbol of human- of the convent was not so much insenwatch as a developing Catholic voice, ity in an inhuman place...
...Copyright © 1986 Commonweal Foundation...
...Thus the ancient Oswiecim became, for the duration, "Auschwitz...
...From their inception, both camps i~37Fi...
...All Auschwitz...
...Thus the congrows over here...
...WHY LISTEN...
...The it is hard to explain to the Christian com- prayer within the precincts of his ducal Polish church may come to better ap- munity why the Holocaust survivors see...
...Commonweal, [ISSN 0010-3330] A Review of As the initial dust settles regarding the Public Affairs, Religion, Literature, and the Arts, What's in a name...
...Perhaps the reason for not consulting of Catholic practice are essential to the Every Polish church has a chapel of St...
...Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y...
...an Irish Catholic family where trappings beyond human strength, and starvation...
...K.S.S...
...10038...
...Morally tilting witz...
...Commonweal is indexed in rather inconspicuous convent, and all ties for having written, and to the editors for Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, Catholic its publication...
...One lesson to be An outspoken Namibian preacher and theologian recasts the psalms with an learnt from that era is that racism is never African voice expressing the humiliation limited to a single group...
...The complex became, to the Poles, a symbol of Polish martyrdom and Polish resistance long before the OPENING THE BIBLE ZepEiBia5.uw to West became aware of its existence, be- THOMAS MERTON fore, indeed, any Jews arrived there (qua A fascinatingly simple, yet challenging introduction to reading the Bible by one of Jews...
...Auschwitz- odist Church the "song of those who have been reborn Birkenau was only one of many such "I heartily recommend it...
...10038...
...dollars by International Money Order or by should be done to upgrade the present issue...
...What's in a name...
...Africa is suffering," Kameeta states, "and the sorrow in her whatever the impression in the West, heart is so great that it almost crushes Auschwitz remains in Poland a symbol of her...
...foreign, $33...
...Of that eight thousand, completely eliminate its intellectuals as ness will fade...
...There is hardly a family in Poland the most influential spiritual writers of that does not remember at least one of its IN BETWEEN ADVENTS the twentieth century...
...CONTEMPLATION & CONTROVERSY In that locality, and later in the neighborA MONASTERY FOR AUSCHWITZ...
...A Pole, not because Monkeys begins with the Pole, many symbols of the Shoah within whose country - "the Land without line, "Our father doesn't go to church the confines of Poland: Treblinka, the Stakes" - tried to live religious freedom with us but we're all downstairs . . . " But sites of the many ghettos, others too long before the French and the Ameribecause this author ends with a spon- numerous to mention...
...Canada, $53...
...Others (e.g., Poles), as claiming the gospel today, William Muehl A comprehensive overview of the geogracaptured Nazi documents make it patent, seeks to relate the dynamics of daily ex- phy of Palestine and the TransJordan reperience to what is preached...
...Thus Cardinal cans started paying lip service to it, who, taneously invented memorial ritual that, Macharski's response is even more prior to the destruction of World War II, in light of the novel's understated but climactic death, infuses the entire family with both life and hope...
...preciate the uniqueness of the Nazi as- would object to a Carmelite convent at Auschwitz was originally erected by sault against the Jews and begin to press Auschwitz...
...paper 84.95 members as a victim of that camp...
...paper $5.95 Indiana paper $3.95 Jewish...
...The Holocaust to the sur- the Nazis as a concentration camp for for a more faithful portrayal of this vivors was something they can never ex- Poles...
...Canada, $30...
...This controversy Stein - Jewish philosopher, convert to Dr...
...Dr...
...I would just like to add a Periodical Index, Index of American Periodical should be broken with the Aid to the Verse, Book Review Digest and Book Review InChurch in Distress organization as sev- couple of points I feel are pertinent to the dex...
...Nazi timetable was strategic, although...
...In fact it scares us...
Vol. 113 • October 1986 • No. 18
