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Father Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish-born priest who affected the lives of thousands around the world through a ministry he founded within the Roman Catholic Church. But his real legacy centers on a selfless act for one man named Francis…at a place called Auschwitz.
Not long after the Nazis rampaged across Poland’s borders in September of 1939, Father Kolbe was carted off to Auschwitz, the Holocaust’s most notorious death camp. The middle-aged priest was never short on work at Auschwitz; he preached the Gospel to his fellow prisoners, served Communion, and encouraged them on a daily basis. He heard their confession and taught them to live like Christ in spite of their circumstance. But those were just his priestly duties….
He was also a prisoner himself, and the Nazis took great joy in persecuting him because they desperately wanted to break him. They assigned him the most grueling manual labor possible, and then set dogs on him to make him work faster. Time and time again, they beat him mercilessly. The Nazis’ violence against Kolbe was so great, that on one occasion, his tormentors left him under a bush thinking he was dead.
The harsh treatment he suffered landed him in one sick ward after another. But in every way, Father Kolbe led by sacrificial example. He offered his portions of food and drink to fellow prisoners and made sure the doctors cared for others before him.
Even though the priest was still weak from his beatings, he was released from the infirmary and ordered to join a work force operating outside the camp’s walls. Father Kolbe’s situation was gradually improving until one of the prisoners from the labor crew seized the opportunity to escape.
At Auschwitz, one escapee meant ten prisoners must die.
Commandant Karl Fritsch, the camp deputy, personally visited Block 14 to select the condemned men. He arrogantly moved through the ranks of prisoners, pointing to one man here and another man there, until the grim quota had been met. Only human, those not selected for execution were relieved.
But Polish army sergeant Francis Gajowniczek had been selected. He wailed loudly, “My poor wife! My poor children! What will happen to my family?” The grief of the condemned man prompted Father Kolbe to one last act of sacrifice.
The godly priest quietly stepped out of line, took off his cap, and stood before the commanding officer. “What do you want, you Polish pig?” demanded Fritsch.
“I am a Catholic priest. I would like to take his place, because he has a wife and children.”
The uncanny selflessness startled Fritsch for a moment, but eventually he waved his hand in compliance, and said, “Away.” That one word sealed the fate of Maximilian Kolbe.
As Sergeant Gajowniczek was shoved back into the ranks of astounded men who had just witnessed the supreme act of sacrifice, Kolbe and the other nine men were marched to the underground cells of Block 11. There they would be totally stripped of all their clothes, and subjected to execution by starvation.
For days, the men languished in their shared cell. Father Kolbe heard confession and prayed with the men, but one by one, they died. Three weeks later, only Father Kolbe and three others remained alive. However, the cells were needed for a fresh batch of condemned prisoners, so the four prisoners were injected with a lethal dose of carbolic acid.
In August of 1941, in a place where death seemed to reign unchecked, one man gave another life by giving up his own.
This is what Jesus has done for all of us.
Resource’s Origin:
Best Little Stories from World War II by C. Brian Kelly. Cumberland House, 1998, Pages 74-77.
Topics Illustrated Include:
Catholic
Christ’s Example
Death
Execution
Holocaust
Legacy
Persecution
Priest
Prisoner
Sacrificial
Save
Selfless
Torture
Violence
War
World War II
(Resource cataloged by David R Smith)
