Aunt Edith: The Jewish Heritage of a Catholic Saint

AUNT EDITH - THE JEWISH HERITAGE OF A CATHOLIC SAINT (1998, second edition 2003) is about Saint Edith Stein (1891 - 1942). The book is written by Susanne M. Batzdorff nee Biberstein, daughter of Edith Stein's next older sister Erna. As we learn from AUNT EDITH, Erna was only 16 months older than Edith and the two were raised almost as twins. Having lost their father early on, Erna and Edith were the only two of numerous siblings to attend University, Erna in only the second year in which it was possible for women to attend Prussian universities. ***The book contains 20 black and white photos. The book cover for the 2nd edition (2003) shows teenage Edith Stein in Hamburg holding a 2-year old niece (not Susanne Batzdorff), daughter of Edith's oldest sister Else. The cover photo is cropped from a photo reproduced in the book's interior. Is it meant to suggest, misleadingly, that the cover shows the young, future Saint and another niece, the author of AUNT EDITH? *** The book explores the Jewishness of Edith Stein, PhD, Catholic convert, Carmelite nun, murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942 and since 1999 one of three female Patron Saints of Europe. Batzdorff denies that a baptized Jew like Edith Stein can be a model for Jews, including Jewish women and girls. The best thing for Jews about her 1987 beatification and 1998 canonization may be simply that, thanks in part to her, Pope John Paul II and other Catholic leaders, today's Catholics in ever greater numbers are studying and honoring their Jewish roots. -OOO-