Despite progress, Auschwitz still in shadow of the cross

"The Jewish side has made it clear it will agree for the papal cross to remain."

The Rev. Adam Schulz, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church in Poland, made this shocking statement following the removal by the Polish government of the 300 crosses set up in Auschwitz.

To the casual observer, the removal of these 300 crosses may appear to be a noble effort on the part of the Polish government to put to rest an ongoing dispute with the Jewish community concerning the future of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. But to those who have been involved in efforts to preserve Auschwitz-Birkenau intact, the latest Polish action is, in fact, a step backward.

These 300 crosses were put up by Polish ultranationalists led by Kazimerz Switon in response to news leaks that the Polish government was prepared to remove the large 26-foot "papal" cross near the old convent site in Auschwitz I. Now that the smaller crosses have been taken down, the Polish government has decreed that the large cross will remain.

From this perspective, Switon has achieved victory: By protesting the imminent removal of the "papal" cross, he has now succeeded in forcing the Polish government to declare that it will not be relocated.

This tactic of upping-the-ante is reminiscent of what the Soviet Union used to do. The Soviets would add human rights violations to the ones already existing, and then, yielding to strong international protest, would remove the new violations to the applause of the world, leaving extant the original offenses.

But what is most distressing here is the collusion of the "Jewish side" in the desecration of the memory of the dead.

In agreeing "for the papal cross to remain," as the Polish Catholic spokesman has asserted, the "Jewish side" contributes to the distortion of history by sanctioning the Christianization of Auschwitz, where over 90 percent of the victims -- or 1 million people -- were Jewish.

My information is that Jewish leaders, headed by Miles Lerman, chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which is a federal and not a Jewish institution, will sign an agreement with the Poles. The agreement will forever enshrine these violations: the "papal" cross along with the church in Birkenau, or Auschwitz II, with its two large crosses looming over the killing complex in a building where Jewish women were raped and tortured, the only building that remains of Nazi headquarters.

Instead of making deals, it would have been far more honorable for the "Jewish side" to heed the words of Elie Wiesel, who has declared that there can be no negotiations "in the shadow of the cross."

Those like Lerman who are intent on signing agreements with the Poles should remember that one of the foremost goals of the Holocaust museum is to recall the sin of the bystanders as 6 million were murdered. How ironic that museum officials now make the same mistake by standing by as the memory of the 6 million is violated.