Glemp’s Remarks on Auschwitz

I am a Jew. My parents died at Auschwitz. The remainder of the two sides of both large families died there too. They weren’t special, just your usual middle-class Jews. A few among millions. But it is our duty to remember their suffering; it was the most important thing they ever did.

Thanks to the risks and sacrifices of certain Catholics who took the message of Jesus personally, I remain the one survivor of this vast clan. Catholics--laypersons, priests, nuns--saved the lives of many Jews. Thereby risking their own imprisonment and death. Many suffered such a fate. It is just as necessary to remember them.

What can be wrong about the presence of the silent nuns at Auschwitz? The Jewish presence is represented by our dead; that of the Catholics by the praying living who constantly praise God, which can only help to heal this Jewish wound.

We both worship the same God. Divisions are created by human ignorance, but God loves us all equally.

The objections of some Jews to the presence of the nuns at Auschwitz are but one more manifestation of the human capacity for divisiveness and hatred.

Let us try to honor those who suffered and sacrificed by loving one another rather than by our pettiness.

MARK HONNET

West Hollywood