St. Edith Stein
† 9. AUGUST 1942 – AUSCHWITZ
On August 2, 1942, members of the German State Security Service (SS) stormed into the Carmelite convent in Echt, Holland, demanding that Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross and her sister Rose be handed over immediately. Confusion reigned in the convent. Only Sister Teresa remained calm. "Come, Rose," she said quietly. "We will go for our nation."
„Ak sa rozhodneš pre Krista,
môže ťa to stáť život.“
Childhood in a Jewish Family
Edith was born on 12 October 1891 in what is now Wrocław, Poland, the eleventh child of Augusta and Siegfried Stein. Her birth fell on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. Her father died when she was just two years old, and her mother took over the family timber business, which soon began to prosper. Although Augusta had to manage both the business and her large household, she attended the synagogue regularly, observed all the Jewish festivals, and was known for her generosity and hospitality towards anyone in need.
Encounter with the Cross
Na sklonku roku 1917 padol na fronte vo Flámsku Editin profesor a blízky priateľ Adolf Reinbach. S manželkou Annou boli spolu takmer päť rokov a obaja prestúpili zo židovskej viery na kresťanskú. Anna požiadala Editu, aby jej pomohla urobiť poriadok s jeho papiermi a Edita sa tejto úlohy obávala. Ako môže ona, zmietajúca sa v toľkej neistote, utešiť mladú vdovu? No Edita zažila prekvapenie – Anna nebola ani nahnevaná, ani nešťastná.
A Share in the Passion
Niekoľko mesiacov po krste stála Edita pred najťažšou úlohou - povedať to matke. Čakala hnev, no aké bolo jej prekvapenie, keď sa matka rozplakala. Edita bola oddanou dcérou, naďalej sprevádzala matku do synagógy, no žalmy čítavala zo svojho misála.
„Môže ťa to stáť život.“
Keďže v Nemecku rástlo prenasledovanie Židov, karmelitánky v decembri roku 1938 poslali Editu do kláštora v Echte, v Holandsku, aby „zmenila prostredie“. Len o niekoľko mesiacov neskôr, na Kvetnú nedeľu roku 1939, píše Edita predstavenej kláštora: „Prosím, ctihodná matka, dovoľte mi zasvätiť sa Ježišovmu Srdcu ako spásna obeta za skutočný mier; aby sa skončila vláda Antikrista, pokiaľ možno bez ďalšej svetovej vojny… Rada by som tak urobila dnes, lebo je najvyšší čas… Viem, že som bezvýznamná, no Ježiš si to tak želá.“ Edita veľmi silno cítila, že aj ju si Boh vybral podobne ako Ester, aby sa prihovárala za svoj ľud a dobrovoľne obetovala svoj život, aby získal Božiu milosť.
The Final Sacrifice
In July 1942, the Dutch Catholic bishops issued a pastoral letter condemning the Nazi regime. The response was swift and brutal: the authorities turned immediately against Catholics of Jewish origin. On 2 August, state security officers arrived at the gates of the Carmelite convent in Echt. The sisters had already made strenuous efforts to secure papers that would allow Edith and Rosa to be transferred to Switzerland, but the documents did not arrive in time. Edith and Rosa were therefore handed over to the Nazis for “deportation”. They were loaded into cattle wagons and transported for days by train.