WARSAW (CNS): A Polish researcher has published the first study of religious practices among Christian prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau, as the 75th anniversary of the Nazi-run death camp’s liberation was marked in Israel and Poland.
“Although most deportees to Auschwitz from occupied Europe were Jews, the camp was originally opened for Polish prisoners and also took in Catholic resistance fighters from France, Germany, Belgium and other countries,” Teresa Wontor-Cichy, a historian at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, said, adding, “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 centre. In a January 23 interview, she said the fate of some Catholic clergy at Auschwitz-Birkenau, notably St. Maximilian Kolbe and St. Edith Stein, had been extensively documented.
However, she said thousands of lay Catholics also had kept their faith at the camp, where 1.2 million inmates were killed by the Nazis during World War II.
