The Convent at Auschwitz
by Wladyslaw T. Bartoszewski

Our Price: $20.00
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.23 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Book Summary Information

Book Reviews of The Convent at Auschwitz

Book Review: A Must Read for Americans of Polish Heritage
Summary: 5 Stars

This book explains the controversy surrounding a convent of Carmelite nuns who went to Auschwitz to pray for the people who had died there. The seemingly innocent idea became an international news story with Christian and Jewish groups at odds as to whether the nuns should be allowed to stay. All concerned had heartfelt and valid reasons that formed their opinions and the history of Poland and Auschwitz were at the center of the conflict.

Auschwitz was first opened in June 1940 and for the first 21 months only Poles were housed there. They were mostly the intelligentsia and 270,000 of them were killed at the site. Later, it became a death camp for the Jews, and Birkenau, which was nearby, was built for the elimination of the Jews taken there. The Jews of Europe felt that they had been the group who had suffered the most at the hands of the Nazis; however, the Polish people felt that they had also been pin pointed for extermination. Actually, more Jews were killed in the death camps of Germany, but most of those camps were destroyed before the end of the War II. Since Auschwitz is intact, it has become the symbol of Jewish martydom for Jews of the world.

As an American, I grew up seeing films of the holocaust and have always been aware of the terrible sufferings of the millions of European Jews who were killed. I really had no idea that Poland and her people were also chosen to be eliminated.

In 1939, The Boundary and Friendship Treaty was signed between Stalin and Hitler. The Treaty had provisions for the extermination of the Polish people who opposed and fought against either Russia or Germany. Early in 1940, 45% of the officers of the Polish Army were shot and any Pole with a secondary education was considered a danger within occupied Poland. Killing the leaders and anyone with an education was the rule for the subjugation of the Polish people. The penalty for trying to save a Jew was death for yourself and sometimes for your entire family.

Since both the people of Poland and the Jews of Europe suffered within the confines of Auschwitz, all concerned consider Auschwitz their history.

This is an excellent book.

Poland Books

• Books > Subjects > History > Europe
• World
• Religion & Spirituality > Judaism > History of Religion