Memory Offended: The Auschwitz Convent Controversy

(Paperback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Auschwitz is almost synonymous with the Holocaust, the systematic attempt of the Nazis to destroy Jewry. In the 1980s, Polish Carmelite nuns, with the approval of both Polish Church and government officials, moved into a red-brick building, once a storehouse for the poisonous Zyklon-B used in the gas chambers. Situated on the perimeter of the barbed wire boundary surrounding the original part of the Auschwitz camp, the nuns established a convent. That move has provoked heated controversy among Jews and Christians. "Memory Offended" speaks of this situation. Using the Auschwitz convent controversy as a prism, the book seeks to refract light to illuminate the facts surrounding it and to identify, analyze and comment on the long-range issues, questions and implications that lie hidden within the controversy.

Reviews

"The Auschwitz convent controversy put postwar Christianity and Judaism and all their attempts at repentance and reconciliation to the test. This book sheds light on this conflict which is one of the most painful, indeed agonizing, public religious controversies of recent years. The book is marked by candor and integrity. The essays are consistently full of insights and self-revelation with very little special pleading. The key documents are included. This book deserves wide reading."- Irving Greenberg, President The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership
"This is a book of extraordinary power. The essays are written by eminent Christian, Jewish, and gentile scholars and thinkers....[A]nyone conversant with the Christian/Jewish dialogue knows that even twenty-five years ago such a book could not have been written or published. The dialogue has moved beyond civil conversation and mutual commiseration. Fundamental feelings are being expressed in the confidence that no offence will be taken, and basic convictions are being affirmed in trust that the other party will make an honest effort to understand and interpret fairly. The essays are excellent, the documentaries are indispensable to the student of a landmark event, and the editors are due a rousing vote of gratitude."-Franklin H. Littell President, The Philadelphia Center on the Holocaust
This book is a helpful, insightful, and provocative resource for all who seek to understand current issues in Christian-Jewish conversations.-Religious Studies Review
"This book is a helpful, insightful, and provocative resource for all who seek to understand current issues in Christian-Jewish conversations."-Religious Studies Review

Author Bio

CAROL RITTNER, formerly Director of The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity in New York, is a Roman Catholic Sister of Mercy who has written extensively. Her previous books include The Courage to Care (edited with Sondra Myers, 1986) and Elie Wiesel: Between Memory and Hope (1990). JOHN K. ROTH is Pitzer Professor of Philosophy at Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, California. In addition to lecturing widely throughout the United States and the world, Roth has published more than 175 articles, reviews, and 17 books. His most recent books are Approaches to Auschwitz: The Holocaust and Its Legacy, The Questions of Philosophy, American Ground: Vistas, Visions, and Revisions and Holocaust: Religious and Philosophical Implications.