tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15015603.post-63853937229091040772007-08-09T10:36:00.000-04:002007-08-09T11:07:31.488-04:00<div align="center"><a href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_2s-H0fA6aV8/Rrsn5ayT-NI/AAAAAAAAABU/OEZCI14T1R8/s1600-h/EdithStein.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5096711270696220882" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_2s-H0fA6aV8/Rrsn5ayT-NI/AAAAAAAAABU/OEZCI14T1R8/s320/EdithStein.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><strong><em><span style="font-size:130%;color:#663300;">St. Edith Stein pray for us</span></em></strong><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong><em></em></strong><br /><em>From the Novena in honor of St. Edith Stein</em><br /><br /><div align="justify">The Auschwitz Extermination Camp</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">Auschwitz was at that time a small provincial Polish town, which was to give its name to the notorious concentration camp, opened nearby by order of Himmler for political prisoners on April 27, 1940. The first camp was rather small in size and was called, subsequently, Auschwitz I. In October 1941, a far more extensive camp was set up, named after a neighboring village, Auschwitz II-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Birkenau</span> (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Encyclopaedia</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Judaica</span> Vol. 3, Coll. 854-871). From March 1942, Jews were directed to the second camp. Mass murders of Jewish prisoners by <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Zyklon</span> B (prussic acid) gas was instituted at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Birkenau</span> as from January 1942, at the instigation of Adolf Eichmann, who was in overall command of the execution of the "Final Solution" of the Jewish Problem by genocide, decided on by the Nazis at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Wansee</span> in 1941. The gassing continued for two years and ten months, during which time a million Jews perished in the camp. The convoys arrived at the rate of three or four a day; they were usually met at the platform by the Camp Commandant, Rudolph <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Hoess</span>, later executed for war-crimes, and the infamous Dr. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Mengele</span>, who performed the "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Selektion</span>", strong prisoners being separated for forced labor in mines and factories, the remainder being consigned for immediate "elimination." </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">The first transport of prisoners from Holland arrived in July 1942; the one carrying our Saint was, perhaps, the third, being preceded by a transport of men which had reached the camp that afternoon. The newcomers were taken to barracks and told to leave their clothes on a numbered peg, to be retrieved after the shower, which they were falsely led to believe would follow. Women usually had their hair cut off. The prisoners had then to walk four hundred meters along a path till they came to a large room, with tubes running across the ceiling. Force was used to get them to enter, when necessary. The metal doors were locked, levers operated and the gas introduced into the rooms. Twenty to twenty-five minutes later, electric-pumps evacuated the gas, allowing special commando-units to enter and empty the chambers. Not all the victims were dead. Gold dentures were removed and the corpses carted away to be thrown into a common <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">fosse</span>. Crematoria had not yet been installed at Auschwitz; but, later, to obliterate traces of their crimes, the Nazis exhumed the corpses and had them burnt. From the moment of the arrival of a convoy to the extermination of the victims, no more than an hour and a half would elapse, as a rule. The killing of human beings became a monotonous routine. </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">Saint Edith, her companions and a thousand other Hebrew Catholics died in the gas-chambers of Auschwitz II-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Birkenau</span> on the morning of August 9<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">th</span> from suffocation by prussic acid fumes. She then entered into her glory, accompanied, as we like to believe, by many others. </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">Saint Edith Stein was accompanied by a group of Hebrew Catholics throughout her ordeal; they lived with her, prayed with her, shared her spiritual sentiments, and died, most of them, together with her in the same gas-chamber. They are the rays of light that scintillate around our Saint’s crown of glory. Divine Providence wanted to give the world an example of an ideal Hebrew Catholic Community, though one assembled under duress and for a short period only. </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">We recall a few names, those most closely associated with Saint Edith in her trial:</div><div align="justify">Rosa, Edith’s sister ~ She was the only member of the Stein family to follow Edith into the Church, delaying her entry until the death of her mother, so as to spare the latter the suffering her entry would have occasioned her. She became a Tertiary <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Carmelite</span> and rendered service to the Nuns at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Echt</span>, from where she left with her sister, Edith, for Auschwitz. </div><div align="justify">Dr. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Bromberg</span> and his family ~ The Doctor, his wife, son and daughter travelled in the transport from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Amersfoort</span> to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Westerbork</span>. They survived the war, as by a miracle. Mrs. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Bromberg</span>, who was very close to Edith, left a fine testimony to her bearing during the two days Edith spent in the camp. The son was ordained a priest in the Dominican Order after the war: Fr. Ignatius <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Bromberg</span>, O.P. </div><div align="justify">The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Löb</span> family ~ The father was a Dr. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Löb</span>; of his five children, two became Trappist priests, two <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Trappistines</span>, and one, a Trappist lay-brother. The two priests deployed an admirable ministry amongst the prisoners, proving a benediction to them in their distress. All were to die with Edith and Rosa. </div><div align="justify">Sister Judith Mendez <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">da</span> Costa ~ Her family had left Portugal in the 16<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">th</span> century to settle in Amsterdam. She became a Dominican nun and was <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">conventual</span> in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">Bilthoven</span> from where she was carried off by the Gestapo on August 2<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">nd</span>. Her distant Portuguese origin provided an excuse, so that she was set free for a while and returned to her convent on the 15<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">th</span> August. On the 25<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">th</span> February 1944, she and the entire Portuguese community were transferred from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">Westerbork</span> to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">Theresienstadt</span> camp and from there to Auschwitz (16<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31">th</span> May) where they were all gassed. Her brother and sister died in the torment. Sister Judith managed to send to her Superior a detailed description of her stay in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32">Westerbork</span>, from August 4<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33">th</span> to August 15<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34">th</span>, during which time she met Saint Edith. </div><div align="justify">Alice <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_35">Reis</span> ~ She entered the Church in 1932, Edith Stein standing as her godmother. Two years later she entered the Sisters of the Good Shepherd as a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_36">postulant</span>. Circumstances in Germany being what they were at the time, she was sent to Holland. On account of her asthma, she was not accepted as a religious, but remained on as a lay-helper to the Sisters in several of their establishments. At 5 o’clock on the morning of August 2<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_37">nd</span>, she was snatched from her convent at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_38">Almelo</span> by the Gestapo and sent to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_39">Amersfoort</span> camp, from where she accompanied our Saint on the journey to Auschwitz. </div><div align="justify">Dr. Ruth <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_40">Kantorowicz</span> of the Ursuline Convent at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_41">Venlo</span> ~ She had been an old friend of Edith’s. She was arrested on August 2<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_42">nd</span> and carried off to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_43">Amersfoort</span> and then in a goods-train to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_44">Hooghalen</span>. She was one of those who were forced to walk across fields, woods and hedges to the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_45">Westerbork</span> camp. In answer to an urgent note, the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_46">Ursulines</span> sent her supplies with two gentlemen. They saw her in the camp with Edith Stein, both wearing the yellow star-shaped patch. She remarked that the Trappist priests had not been able to celebrate Holy Mass for them. She left with Edith for Auschwitz. </div><div align="justify">Dr. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_47">Meirowsky</span> ~ Since 1940, she had been resident in the lodge of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_48">Trappistine</span> Abbey near <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_49">Tilburg</span>. She was a medical doctor of Polish-Jewish origin, acquainted with our Saint with whom she had exchanged several letters. At <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_50">Tilburg</span>, she rendered valuable services to the community as doorkeeper and community doctor. She was a member of the Dominican Third Order and was regarded by the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_51">Trappistines</span> as one of themselves. </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">In a letter addressed to Dr. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_52">Meirowsky's</span> confessor from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_53">Westerbork</span>, dated "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_54">Transfiguratio</span>, 6, VIII." Dr. Meirowsky expressed the most admirable spiritual sentiments, showing to what extent our Saint was seconded in her intentions by other Hebrew Catholics. We quote the following passages from her letter: "I want to send you my last greetings and to tell you that I have complete confidence in God and have surrendered myself entirely to His will. Even more — I regard it as a grace and privilege to be driven along this road under these conditions, a witness to the words of our good Fathers and shepherds in Christ. "If our sufferings have been increased somewhat then we have received a double portion of grace and a glorious crown is being prepared for us in heaven. Rejoice with me. I am going forward unshaken, confidently and joyfully — like the Sisters who are with me — to testify to Jesus Christ and to bear witness to the Truth in company with our Bishops. We are going as children of Our Holy Mother, the Church; we will unite our sufferings with the sufferings of our King, our Saviour and our Bridegroom, sacrificing ourselves for the conversion, for the Jews, for those who persecute us, so that all may know the peace of Christ and his Kingdom. Join with me in thanking God for this great favor by singing an exultant <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_55">Magnificat</span>." The letter was signed, Sister M. Magdalena Dominica (in the world, Dr. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_56">Meirowsky</span>). </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">In our humble option, the sentiments that emanate from Dr. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_57">Meirowsky</span>’s letter are no less sublime than those expressed by the early Christian martyrs as they went to their death by fire, by torture and by the lions, in the arenas of the Roman Empire. </div></div>STA - www.stthomasaquinaschurch.orgnoreply@blogger.com