“Self-sacrifice is the way to saving yourself." ~ Mark
8:35
During WWII, the death camp
Auschwitz became the killing epicenter where the largest numbers of European
Jews were murdered by the Nazis. In
order to discourage escapes, Auschwitz had a rule that if a man escaped, ten
men would be killed in retaliation. In
July 1941, a prisoner escaped from the camp.
What followed became . . . well you
can decide for yourself.
When the fugitive had not been found, the commandant announced
that “Ten of you will be locked in the starvation bunker without food or water
until you die.” The prisoners trembled
in terror as ten were selected, including a member of the Polish Resistance.
“My wife, my children,” he sobbed in anguish. “What will they do?”
Just then a Catholic Priest stepped silently forward, took
off his cap, and stood before the commandant.
“I’m old; let me take his place.
He has a wife and children.”
The commandant remained silent for a moment. Nazis had more use for a young worker than for
an old one, and so he gladly made the exchange.
Weeks of unimaginable horror followed as the men suffered
the pains of dehydration and starvation. Some drank their own urine; others licked mold
off the damp walls.
The holy man not only offered to be one of the suffering, he
ministered to them as well. He encouraged
the others with prayers, psalms, and meditations on the Passion of Christ. The priest never asked for anything and didn’t
complain. He even pleaded with his fellow
prisoners to forgive their persecutors and to overcome evil with good.
One by one the captives died until only the starving priest
remained alive. This annoyed the SS guards
as they needed the cell for new victims.
So it was on that day at the age of 47 years, Prisoner 16670, Father
Maximilian Kolbe looked cheerfully in the face of the SS men and was executed by
a lethal injection of carbolic acid.
Father Kolbe's body was removed to the crematorium, and
without dignity or ceremony was disposed of, like hundreds of thousands who’d
gone before him, and hundreds of thousands more who would follow.
Father Kolbe's incredible deed became an inspiration for all
mankind. In that desert of hatred he’d
sown love. In the harshness of the abattoir
Father Kolbe maintained the gentleness of Christ. His legacy serves not as an ode to the past,
but rather as a beacon of hope for the future.
The cell where Father Kolbe died is now a shrine. He was beatified as Confessor by Paul VI in
1970, and canonized as Martyr by Pope John Paul II in 1981. The prisoner, whom St. Maximilian saved,
Franciszek Gajowniczek, attended his canonization.
Bless us O Lord, that we too may give ourselves
entirely without reservation to the love and service of our Heavenly Father in
order to better love and serve our fellow men in imitation of your humble
servant, Maximilian. Amen
