4 Nuns Move From Convent at Auschwitz
Four nuns who lived in the controversial Carmelite convent at Auschwitz moved this week to another convent built across the road and off the grounds of the former death camp in Poland.
It is believed that at least 10 more nuns live in the old convent, and all plan to move by the end of June, according to Bishop Tadeusz Rakoczy, who oversees the archdiocese that includes the convent.
The four who moved took up residence in their new cloister on May 24 and consecrated the convent, participating in the first Mass to be held there.
Plans for the move had been discussed by Catholic and Jewish leaders since 1986. Jews were angered that the nuns had taken over a building at a Holocaust site that held deep significance for the Jewish community.
The old convent had been a storehouse for poisonous Zyklon-B pellets used by the Nazis to gas the Jews during World War II.
News of the nuns’ move was announced by Kalman Sultanik, vice president of the World Jewish Congress. “This marks a new positive chapter in Catholic-Jewish relations,” he said.
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