On 28 May 1941, Father Maximilian Maria Kolbe was transferred to Auschwitz as a prisoner of 16670. Kolbe volunteered to replace a man elected to starvation, becoming a martyr to German concentration camps and extermination camps. John Paul II canonized him in 1982
Rajmund Kolbe was born on 8 January 1894 in Zduńska Wola. In 1910 he joined the Franciscan order in Lviv, where he received the name Maximilian. In 1912 he began studying doctrine and theology in Rome, obtaining doctorates from these teachings, and besides accepted priestly ordination. He returned to Poland in 1919. In 1927 he founded a monastery in Niepokalanów and a publishing home under Warsaw. He was besides a missionary in Japan.
82 years ago on 29 July 1941, during an appeal at the German Auschwitz extermination camp, Franciscan Maximilian Maria Kolbe voluntarily went to starvation for fellow prisoner Franciszek Gajowniczek, 1 of 10 sentenced to starvation in retaliation for the escape of Polak Zygmunt Pilawski. This prisoner was later captured and shot in camp on 31.07.1942.
Maximilian Maria Kolbe was arrested by the Gestapo on 17 February 1941 and transported to Pawiak, and on 28 May to Auschwitz.
Francisnin died after 2 weeks of martyrdom, on 14 August 1941 completed with an injection of phenol.
A fewer weeks before his martyrdom, Maximilian said to fellow prisoner Joseph Stemler: “Hate is not a creative force. The creative force is love.”
Franciscan Maximilian Maria Kolbe was sent to Auschwitz on 28 May 1941 from Pawiak prison in Warsaw. At the camp, he received number 16670. A historian at the Auschwitz Museum Teresa Wontor-Cichy said that she initially went to work on the gravel slide to build a parkan at the crematorium. He then joined the commandant in Babice, who built a barrier around the pasture.
In Babice, the destiny of the friar encountered him, among others, Tadeusz “Teddy” Pietrzykowski, pre-war Polish deputy champion in boxing, besides prisoner. 1 day he saw an overseer who brutally bullied Father Maximilian Kolb. The pianist decided to teach the torturer a lesson. He offered the SS to fight him with fists. The Germans agreed, after a while the overseer lay on the ground struck down. Beaten Father Maximilian Kolbe then began asking "Teddy" not to beat a man.
In Auschwitz, Father Maximilian was ill. He went to the camp hospital. The prisoners began to care for him.
“When he felt better, he was pushed out of the infirmary in fear of being killed in it,” said Teresa Wątor-Silchy. Later, he went to lighter jobs, initially in the stockings, where clothes were repaired and later in the potatoes close the kitchen.
In late July, Sigismund Pilawski escaped from the camp. Deputy Chief Karl Fritzsch ordered an appeal for punishment. He chose 10 prisoners and sentenced them to starvation.
Among them was Franciszek Gajnicznik.
Then Father Maximilian came out of line and volunteered to die for him. Describing in 1946 the alleged election of Gajniczek said:
The unfortunate destiny fell on me, too. With the words, "Oh, how sorry I feel for the wives and children I orphaned, I went to the end of the block. I was expected to go to death row. That's what Father Maximilian Kolbe heard. He left the ranks, approached "Lagerfuhrer" Fritzsch and attempted to kiss his hand. Fritzsch asked the translator: What does this Polish pig want? Father Kolbe pointing his hand at me, expressed his desire to marry me to death. Fritzsch moved his hand and word to get out, told me to step out of the line of convicts, and my place was taken by Father Maximilian Kolbe. In a moment, they were escorted to death row, and we were ordered to go on the block...
By closing the death row door, 1 of the Germans was expected to say to the prisoners that they would “die like tulips.”
The executions by starvation caused horror among the prisoners. After the prisoner escaped from the block where he was imprisoned, the commandant or camp manager selected 10 or more prisoners during the appeal. They were locked in 1 of the cells in the basement of Block 11. They did not receive food or water. After a fewer days, they died in terrible torment. On the basis of the prisoner registry of block 11, historians have established respective dates of “choice”.
Father Maximilian Kolbe was inactive alive after 2 weeks of torment. On 14 August 1941, he was killed by German criminal prisoner Hans Bock, who injected him with lethal phenol.
Father Kolbe could cheer people up. The prisoners complained and despaired and shouted and cursed. After his words, they calmed down. erstwhile I had his body removed from my cell, he sat on a level based on a wall and had his eyes open. His body was clean and radiant. His face was covered with the brightness of the weather. Father Kolbe's eyes were always strangely perceptive. The SS couldn't stand him and shouted, "Look at the ground, not at us! erstwhile upon a time, admiring his valor during his lifetime, they said among themselves: A priest like this we have not yet had here. He must be an extraordinary man.
(Bruno Borowiec, translator of the Block of Death in Auschwitz)
Francis Gajniczek survived the war. He died in 1995 in Brzeg, Opole at the age of 94. He was buried in the Franciscan monastery cemetery in Niepokalanów.
Rajmund Kolbe was born on 8 October 1894 in Zduńska Wola. In 1910 he joined the order where he accepted the name Maximilian. He studied in Rome, where he founded the Association of the Immaculate Knights in 1917. He returned to Poland 2 years later. In 1927, he founded a monastery-release of Niepokalanów under Warsaw. 3 years later, he left for Japan, where he returned in 1936. He took the leadership of Niepokalanów, which became the world's largest Catholic monastery.
In September 1939, the Germans first arrested Father Maximilian Kolbe and the Franciscans. The clergy regained their freedom in December. On 17 February 1941, Maximilian was arrested for the second time. He went to Pawiak and then Auschwitz.
The Polish Franciscan was beatified by Pope Paul VI in 1971 and canonized by John Paul II eleven years later. He became the first Polish martyr during the Second War, which was elevated to altars.
Teresa Wontor-Silchy mentioned that St Maximilian Maria Kolbe had 2 brothers. Joseph was besides a Franciscan. He died in 1930 during a failed appendectomy. In turn Francis was a legionary and veteran of the war with Bolsheviks. In 1943 he went to Auschwitz for his conspiracy activity. He was transferred to another camps. He died on 23 January 1945 in KL Dora-Mittelbau.
The Germans founded the Auschwitz camp in 1940 to hold Poles in it. Auschwitz II-Birkenau was created 2 years later. It became the site of the extermination of the Jews. The camp complex besides had a network of subcamps. In Auschwitz, the Germans killed at least 1.1 million people, mainly Jews, as well as Poles, Roma, russian POWs and people of another nationalities.
sources:Adam Cyra in the blog, IPN, radio maryja.pl niepokalanów.pl
