The Nazi-Fighting Bravery Of Maximilian Kolbe
Wikimedia CommonsMaximilian Kolbe gave his life to save an Auschwitz prisoner.
After becoming a Catholic monk at 16 and undergoing a lengthy tutelage in Rome to be ordained as a priest, Maximilian Kolbe returned to his native Poland. He opened a friary outside Warsaw in 1919. When the Nazis invaded in 1939, he not only housed, clothed, and fed Jewish refugees — but sacrificed himself to spare one from execution.
Born on Jan. 8, 1894, in Zduńska Wola, Poland, Kolbe was an ethnic German with a Polish mother. In an alleged vision of the Virgin Mary at age 12, he had to choose between one of two crowns: the white one would see him “persevere in purity,” while the red crown would see him die as a martyr. Kolbe chose both.
Kolbe’s answer was a promise to live righteously and die for a moral cause. Fulfillment of those vows became harrowingly available after Germany’s invasion. Kolbe selflessly used his friary to shelter the persecuted and publicly denounced the Nazis in an illegal 1941 radio broadcast and a magazine.
Sent to Auschwitz as a result, Kolbe not only shared his meager rations with fellow prisoners but regularly wandered the barracks at night to console those in despair. His true test came in July 1941, after prisoner Franciszek Gajowniczek failed to escape — and his Nazi captors prepared to execute him.
Gajowniczek begged for mercy in hopes of one day seeing his wife and children again. Unable to ignore his suffering, Kolbe volunteered to die in Gajowniczek’s place. While he rationalized it by explaining that he was older than Gajowniczek and didn’t have a family, Kolbe knew he was merely keeping a childhood promise.
The Nazis surprisingly agreed to the idea and threw Kolbe into a bunker to die with 10 others who were allegedly also part of the escape attempt. Many tried drinking their own urine to stave off dehydration or licked the walls to salvage its moisture. Kolbe never wavered and spent his time singing songs and leading prayers.
When the Nazis opened the bunker three weeks later, only Kolbe was still alive. The Nazis killed him with lethal injection — and he died a martyr who persevered in purity.
