&quot;Edith Stein was born to a Jewish family at Breslau on 12th October 1891.  Through her passionate study of philosophy she searched after truth and found it in reading the autobiography of St. Teresa of Jesus.  

In 1922 she was baptised and in 1933 she entered the monastery of Discalced Carmelite nuns in Cologne where she took the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. During the Second World War Edith was sheltered from the Nazi persecution of Jews at the Carmel in Echt, Holland. Because of her refusal to deny her Jewish heritage or abandon her sister who was sheltering in the same Carmel, Edith was deported, gassed and cremated at Auschwitz concentration camp on 9th August 1942 and died a martyr for the Christian faith after having offered her holocaust for the people of Israel. 

A woman of singular intelligence and learning, she left behind a large body of writing notable for its doctrinal richness and profound spirituality. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II at Cologne on 1st May 1987, and canonised by him in 1998. In 1999 she was declared one of the six patron saints of Europe...&quot;

-The British Province of Carmelites

Edith Stein

Rome, likely early 1944. A completely black-dressed woman, likely a widow according to Italian use of this time, transit in front to two German AFV, in foreground a Stug perhaps of the Sturmgeschütz Abteilung 242, in Piazza del Popolo, corner Via di Ripetta. The pillar is one of them of the façade of the Santa Maria dei Miracoli church, one of the Piazza del Popolo’s “Twin Church” (the other is Santa Maria in Montesanto, corner Via del Babuino-Via del Corso). Glued of the pillar a poster, probably backing up to few time ago, announcing the exhibition of a Presepio (Christmas nativity scene in Italian) on a Roman church, with the name of the Magi: Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar, a typical tradition of Catholic Church during the Nativity’s celebrations. In background the banner of “Dal Bolognese”, still today one of most famous Rome’s restaurant and well known for the Emilia’s cooking, and, behind the German soldiers the corner of Via dell’Oca with store’s banner, “Arredamenti” (Furniture). Also this store is still existing but with another wares category (Oriental furniture… Rome is by now a multiethnic town…). Best regards and good promenade… Victor Sierra

A day at Piazza del Popolo

The residents of Burgsteinfurt are forced by the British to watch a film about Bergen-Belsen and Buchenwald, 30 May 1945. Let's just say that the forced 'de-nazification' didn't go down all that well.