On this day in ...… 1942, Edith Stein (left), known as St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, was executed in Auschwitz. (photo credit) Born in 1891 to a Jewish family, Stein converted to Roman Catholicism in 1921. She took the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross in 1933, and entered the Discalced Carmelite monastery, where she wrote her metaphysical masterwork Finite and Eternal Being. On July 20, 1942, the Dutch Bishops' Conference had a public statement read in all the churches of the Netherlands condemning Nazi racism. On July 26, 1942, all Jewish converts, who had previously been spared, were ordered arrested. Stein was among those who died in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Stein was beatified as a martyr on May 1, 1987 by Pope John Paul II, and canonized by him on October 11, 1998.
… 1942, Indian leader, Mohandas Gandhi (far right) was arrested in Bombay by British forces, launching the Quit India Movement. (photo credit) By 1942, Indians were divided over World War II, as the British Governor-General of India had unilaterally and withou
t consultation entered India into the war. On July 14, 1942, the Indian National Congress, including Gandhi (and Jawaharlal Nehru, near right), passed a resolution threatening massive civil disobedience if their demands for complete independence from Britain were not heeded. On August 8, Gandhi told Indians to follow non-violent civil disobedience and to act as an independent nation. Less than twenty-four hours after Gandhi's speech, almost the entire Congress leadership was put into confinement.(Prior August 9 posts are here and here.)
