Catholic Info
Traditional Catholic Faith => The Catholic Bunker => Topic started by: poche on January 27, 2020, 02:00:52 AM
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A Polish researcher has published the first study of religious practices among Christian prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau (http://auschwitz.org/en/), as the 75th anniversary of the nαzι-run death camp’s liberation was marked in Israel and Poland.
“Although most deportees to Auschwitz from occupied Europe were Jєωs, the camp was originally opened for Polish prisoners and also took in Catholic resistance fighters from France, Germany, Belgium and other countries,” said Teresa Wontor-Cichy, a historian at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
“This aspect of its history has been studied only randomly up to now. But it’s important the world knows more and takes it into account.”
The historian spoke after her study, “Religious Life of Christian Prisoners in KL Auschwitz,” was published by the state museum’s research center.
In a Jan. 23 Catholic News Service interview, she said the fate of some Catholic clergy at Auschwitz-Birkenau, notably St. Maximilian Kolbe (https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=370) and St. Edith Stein (https://www.franciscanmedia.org/the-life-and-legacy-of-edith-stein/), had been extensively docuмented.
However, she said thousands of lay Catholics also had kept their faith at the camp, where 1.2 million inmates were killed by the nαzιs during World War II.
https://thedialog.org/international-news/new-research-details-catholic-inmates-at-auschwitz/
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“Up to now, their religious devotions have been known about only through occasional memoirs and articles — it’s now possible to docuмent them more completely,” Wontor-Cichy said.
“Since 95% of the camp’s archives were destroyed, it’s impossible to state how many Christians were here. But religious affiliations were recorded when prisoners were registered and died, and we know Catholics made up the largest number — mostly from Poland, but also from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Slovakia and the Soviet Union.”
Besides Jєωιѕн inmates, who made up 90% of the victims, around 100,000 Poles were killed by German occupiers in Auschwitz’s gas chambers and execution sites. The nαzιs also killed Russians, Roma and prisoners of other nationalities.
https://thedialog.org/international-news/new-research-details-catholic-inmates-at-auschwitz/