The memory of Edith Stein, one of the most important personalities in the history of Wrocław, was commemorated in the city. An intellectual and mystic, Jewish and Christian, venerated in the Catholic Church as the patron saint of Europe, St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross is considered one of the leading thinkers of the 20th century. She died in Auschwitz in August 1942, becoming one of the victims of the German Nazi terror.

On the eve of the 80th anniversary of her death, an exhibition titled ‘Edith Stein – greatness in the everyday’ was opened at Solny Square in Wrocław. An oak commemorating the patron saint of Europe was planted in Edyta Stein’s Park, and a ceremony was held in front of her house to name a tramway of the Municipal Transport Company in Wrocław after her.

A concert “Star of Europe” was scheduled to take place at Wrocław Central Station. It was performed by soloists and ensembles from the National Forum of Music – the NFM Choir and the Wrocław Baroque Ensemble, combined with the reading of excerpts from the works of Edith Stein at the railway station in Wrocław where Edith Stein was probably last seen on 7 August 1942, during a stop on a train to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.

The exhibition “Edith Stein – Greatness in the Everyday” takes the form of three-dimensional cubes, creating a pathway showing individual events in the life of Edith Stein. Its leitmotif is to present Edith Stein from the personal side as a person performing ordinary, everyday activities. The exhibition aims to bring out the contrast between the momentousness of the figure and the message she carried, and the mundane nature of everyday life.

The ceremonies in Wrocław were attended by Deputy Minister of Culture and National Heritage Jarosław Sellin and Paul Gordon – grandson of Elza Gordon, Edith Stein’s sister. Gordon, who was born in Colombia and now lives in Berlin and Hamburg, spoke about the history of his family and the personal significance that the ceremony had for him.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński