Father Kolbe was a Catholic priest and Franciscan friar in Poland. During the German occupation, he stayed at Niepokalanów, a monastery with 650 friars

Every year this week, I remember Maximillian Kolbe. Whether you know his story well or not at all, it is always the right time to remember.

Father Kolbe was a Catholic priest and Franciscan friar in Poland. During the German occupation, he stayed at Niepokalanów, a monastery with 650 friars. Many Polish refugees and Jews came there for safety, and Kolbe and the friars helped hide, feed, and care for 3,000 people.

On February 17, 1941, Kolbe was arrested by the Gestapo for helping Jews. After being held briefly in a harsh Polish prison, he was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp and given prisoner #16670. On June 15, he wrote a letter to his mother: “Dear Mama, At the end of May I was moved to Auschwitz. Everything is fine with me. Do not worry about me or my health. God is everywhere and cares for everything with love.”

One month later, three prisoners were said to have escaped. As punishment, the deputy commander of Auschwitz ordered 10 men to be starved to death in a bunker. One of the selected men, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out, “My wife! My children!”

Kolbe immediately offered to take his place. The Nazi commander said, “What does this Polish pig want?” Kolbe pointed to Gajowniczek and said, “I am a Catholic priest from Poland. I want to take his place because he has a wife and children.” Surprised, the commander agreed.

Gajowniczek later said: “I could only thank him with my eyes. I was stunned. The enormity of it: I, the condemned, am to live, and someone else offers his life for me—a stranger? I was returned to my place without even speaking to Kolbe. I survived because of him. The news spread quickly through the camp. It was the first and last time such a thing happened in Auschwitz.”

Kolbe never complained. He led the prisoners in prayer and hymn singing. After two weeks, most of the men were dead, but Kolbe stayed kneeling in the center. One SS guard said, “This priest is a great man. We have never seen anyone like him.” Finally, to empty the cell, the guards killed Kolbe with lethal injection and he was cremated in August 1941.

He was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church in 1981. At the ceremony, one man was present who was largely unknown to many—Franciszek Gajowniczek, who survived Auschwitz to tell the world about Maximillian Kolbe.

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