Auschwitz and Absolution

Few people know that in the face of his execution, the notorious Rudolf Höss, the Commandant for Auschwitz, met with a Polish Jesuit priest, Fr. Wladyslaw Lohn. Höss made a confession to Fr. Lohn for approximately four hours, and from Fr. Lohn he received communion. This compelling account of a secret and sacramental meeting not only tells what happened but seventeen Christian and Jewish scholars offer a critical challenge to, or celebration of Christian notions of forgiveness. We have access to Höss’s confession by way of selections from his published memoirs. Fr. Lohn said almost nothing about his encounter and certainly nothing about the confession itself. In addition to writing a thorough introduction to this encounter, in order to contemplate the priest’s thoughts, James Bernauer has composed a work of imagination, a diary of how this Jesuit might have scrutinized this meeting. Bernauer’s hope is that, in addition to giving a sense of a historical encounter, the reader will perform their own imaginative reflection on the issues. Throughout the work, the limitations on religious absolution of sin are heightened by recall of alternative Christian practices (historical and contemporary), as well as Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s warnings about “cheap grace.”

Table of Contents:
Contents Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xi Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv Part One The Confession of Rudolf Höss Selections from Death Dealer: The Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 The Diary of Władysław Lohn, SJ: An Imaginative Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 james Bernauer Part Two Commentaries on the Confession, Sin, Absolution, and Reconciliation 1. Complicit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 winnifred fallers sullivan Provost Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Affiliated Professor of Law, Maurer School of Law, Indiana University Bloomington 2. “Führer, You Order. We Obey”: A Historian’s Approach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 beth a. griech-polelle The Kurt Mayer Chair of Holocaust Studies, Associate Professor of History, Pacific Lutheran University 3. Extraordinary Situations Demand Extraordinary Action. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 christian m.rutishauser, sj, Theologian, Munich 4. What Does It Mean for a Christian to Forgive?. . . . . . .62 firmin debrabander Professor of Philosophy, Maryland Institute College of Art. 5. A Critique of Auricular Confession. . . . . . . . . . . . . .68 martín bernales-odino Professor of Philosophy, Alberto Hurtado University, Santiago, Chile roberto saldías, sj Professor of Philosophy and Director of Institute of Theology and Religious Studies, Alberto Hurtado University, Santiago, Chile 6. Political Reconciliation, Relationality, and Absolution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75 serena parekh Professor of Philosophy, Northeastern University 7. The Freedom of a Catholic Man? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 robert p. burns Professor of Law Emeritus, Northwestern University 8. Auschwitz Absolution: A Confessor Reflects in Fear and Trembling. . . . . . . . .86 david neuhaus, sj, exegete Jesuit Community in the Holy Land 9. The “Absolution” of Höss: A Contemporary Catholic View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91 walter f. modrys, sj Priest in Pastoral Ministry, New Jersey 10. The Karmic Debts of Rudolf Höss, Mass Murderer. . . . .96 francis x. clooney, sj Parkman Professor of Divinity, Harvard University 11. The Priority of Interhuman Confession and Reconciliation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108 ruth langer Professor of Theology, Jewish Studies, Boston College 12. Unforgivable Sins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .114 kenneth seeskin Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, Emeritus Philip and Ethel Klutznick Professor of Jewish Civilization, Northwestern University 13. Is Absolution Possible for Genocide?. . . . . . . . . . . . .120 david biale Emanuel Ringelblum Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of History, University of California, Davis 14. Forgiveness and Self-Knowledge in the Imagined Case of Höss’s Confession . . . . . . . . 124 marina berzins mccoy Professor of Philosophy, Boston College 15. Binding and Loosing: The Search for Penitential Practice Adequate to Grave Scandal. . . . .. . . . . . .133 bruce t. morrill, sj Edward A. Malloy Chair in Roman Catholic Studies, Vanderbilt University Divinity School 16. An Auschwitz Absolution—A Moral Scandal. . . . . . . .142 stanislaw obirek Professor of Cultural Anthropology, University of Warsaw Chronology of Władysław Lohn, SJ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Chronology of Rudolf Höss. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151 Rudolf Höss: Final Declaration: (April 12, 1947). . . . . .153 Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155

About the Author :
James Bernauer, SJ, is Emeritus Kraft Family Professor at Boston College where he was in the Philosophy Department. He was also director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning. His fields of interest include Holocaust Studies, German Jewry, and the philosophies of Michel Foucault and Hannah Arendt. He has published many essays for many volumes including “A Catholic Conversation with Hannah Arendt” in Friends on the Way: Jesuits Encounter Contemporary Judaism and “Philosophizing after the Holocaust” for Jesuit Postmodern: Scholarship, Vocation, and Identity in the 21st Century.