Upfront, a small but important correction as I am shipping you Part II of the "Polish Crosses War." I said that Poles wanted to honor the memory of their own Auschwitz victims who had been "gassed" by planting Christian crosses. Ms. Alvi, who had sent me the information on this spiritual war of Jew versus Gentile, informed me that the Poles who are locking horns with Shalom International no longer talk of "gassings" - they talk of "executions."
As I briefly mentioned yesterday, as soon as the "Polish Crosses" rhetoric was heating up, a man named Bob Kunst spotted an opportunity to enhance the victim status of his tribe. He started corresponding - a bit off-center grammar-wise but with a lot of confidence at first, then ever greater anger.
I don't have his first letter to the Archdioce of Los Angeles, but I do have their response and follow-ups by Mr. Kunst:
March 7, 1999
From: Gregory Coiro <GregOFMCap@aol.com> To: Bob Kunst <bobkunst@mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: what is:is
Dear Mr. Kunst:
If what you are referring to is the crosses erected at Auschwitz, this is being done by rebellious Catholics against the wishes and directives of Catholic Church authorities. Members of the Society of St. Pius X, which is in schism and whose founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefevbre [sic.], was excommunicated, are responsible for putting up the crosses at Auschwitz, not Catholics who are in communion with the pope.
Sincerely yours,
Father Gregory Coiro, O.F.M. Cap.
Media Relations Director
Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
====
Immediately, Bob Kunst shot back:
March 9, 1999
>From BOB KUNST <bobkunst@mindspring.com>
To: Gregory Coiro <GregOFMCap@aol.com>
Subject: Re: what is:is
Dear Archbishop:
While I appreciate your clarification, I see absolutely no action with any other Catholics to stop this atrocity and provocation of over 300+ crosses and crass commercialism at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
This is the world's largest Jewish Cemetary with millions of Jewish men, women and children murdered there in the Holocaust only because they were Jews.
The 'silence' from the Vatican and other Catholic leaders is deafening.
An 'SS' barracks at Birkenau, where 97% of the victims murdered were Jews, has been converted to a Church.
Also fastfood, banking and postoffice crass commercialism is being built to turn Auschwitz-Birkenau into a tourist destination and Disneyland, showing total disregard for what heppened there, as well as defaming the victims. The terrible anti-Semitic signs from Poles in NYC opposing us, is the party line from the Polish Government and Catholic Church in Poland. Imagine "TAKE YOU ASHES FROM POLAND", FROM THESE MONSTERS.
So we have this dehumanizing impact from both the Polish Government, as well as Cardinal Glemp charging last year, that "Jews were molesting Poles", for even protesting against this outrage on our sacred ground.
The point is that the pain is so deep that 'talk' instead of action is just more salt in our wounds.
Will you join with us to stop this sacrilege ?
Two weeks ago I passed through Wash., D.C. area to hear that a Catholic cemetery with 400 gravesites had been desecrated. I felt terrible, for this is my own struggle in Auschwitz-Birkenau and the other death camps.
So the issue for us is simple. Join with us to:
1. Remove the Church in SS barracks in Birkenau.
2. Remove all crosses, including 26ft. Papal cross from this world's largest Jewish cemetary-Auschwitz-Birkenau and all other death camps, where Jews were exterminated in.
3. Remove all commercialism. Both crosses and commercialism are in total violation of UNESCO agreement, Poland signed with in 1972, let alone the immoral violation and desecration.
4. Help have this sacred ground returned to the Jewish community for proper respect for all victims, Jews and non-Jews alike. We wouldn't allow this desecration at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetary and it isn't acceptable at Auschwitz or the other death camps.
5. Use your influence to get the Vatican to move with us on this level as well as all Catholic Institutions.
6. Use all influence to get the Polish Government and all other governments to follow suit on this vital matter.
Join with us in protest in NYC at the Polish Consulate on April 18, and May 16 at 1 P.M. at 37th and Madison Ave.; or at the Polish Embassy on those days in London. Or help us to organize one at the Polish Consulate in L.A.
Bottom line is that the Catholic Church's role in the Holocaust, allowed it and the murderers to go free, and Nazi gold and monies stolen from survivors to go through the Vatican, slave labor companies to go free, and new and dangerous rise in Nazism across Europe and around the world and a pathetic response from the Vatican on all of this.
Even the Bishops of France and Germany were stronger in denouncing their participation in the Holocaust and their desire to atone for it, than what has come from the Vatican.
None of this has come forth from the Vatican itself, which is why it is deep in the complicity of what is happening at Auschwitz-Birkenau, again.
There is a long and terrible history of Catholic Anti-Semitism which is why Jews have suffered at the hands of the Church for such a long period of time and so many millions were murdered from the Crusades, to the Inquisition, to the Pogroms, to the Holocaust.
We cannot turn a blind eye to history or attempts to cover it up or to repeat it.
If you are sincere, then let's address and 'act' on the above issues. Otherwise, while you claim being different from the other group, won't really matter, with being indifferent to our suffering, once again.
This latest attack upon the Jewish people, is totally anti-real people of Faith.
Yours Faithfully,
Robert P. Kunst
Shalom Int'l. 305-864-5110
Tomorrow: The Polish Ambassador is asked to take sides
=====
Thought for the Day:
"Judaism: Judaism denotes the Jewish faith in its extravagant form of blind attachment to rites and traditions, and national exclusiveness."
(The Popular and Critical Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. II, (1901), p. 999).
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