Inspiring Christian Lives

Maximilian Kolbe, 1894-1941

31st July 1941 Auschwitz, Poland
A camp siren screams out announcing that there has been an escape from the Nazi death camp. A roll call is ordered. Three prisoners are discovered missing. Deputy Camp Commander Fritzsch announces that 10 prisoners will be picked in reprisal for the missing 3. They are to be incarcerated in Bunker 11, the underground starvation cell. 10 prisoners are duly selected at random from a line of prisoners. Fritzsch commands them to step forward. One of them, a Polish officer, Franciszek Gajowniczek cries out: 'O my poor wife, my poor children. I shall never see them again.' Then, strangely, from out of the line of the other prisoners, a bedraggled figure steps forward. He is prisoner 16670. He walks over to Fritzsch, talks to him and points out the prisoner who had cried out in despair. Fritzsch gives a nod of assent. Prisoner 16670 substitutes himself for the man who had cried out in despair. They are marched off to Bunker 11, the underground starvation chamber. Nine of the men die within 2 weeks. Prisoner 16670 clings on. So, to speed up the process a lethal injection of carbolic acid is pumped into the vein of his left arm. He slumps against the wall, his eyes open, his head drooping sideways. His face, calm and radiant. His name is Maximilian Kolbe - he has sacrificed his life for the life of the Polish officer. According to one witness, Kolbe's life in the camp had been a powerful ray of light in the darkness of the camp.

Some time after the war, news of Maximilian's sacrifice on behalf of others spreads. Ceremonies are held in honour of this martyrdom at St Peter's in Rome in the 1970s, a long time after the war. In the audience is a certain Franciszek Gajowniczek, now reunited with his wife (until her death in 1977) and children. He was the prisoner that Maximilian had saved. Gajowniczek reads out a statement expressing his thanks for the 'gift of life' that Maximilian had given him and declares that "so long as he ... has breath in his lungs, he would consider it his duty to tell people about the heroic act of love by Maximilian Kolbe". Gajowniczek passed away peacefully in 1995, some 54 years after being earmarked for death by starvation.

And what became of Deputy Camp Commander Fritzsch, the man who ordered the killings? Well, he grew impatient with the shootings, lethal injection and starvation. So, he set out to devise a more efficient method of killing. In late August 1941, just after the starvation and lethal injection that killed Maximillian, 600 Russian POWs were herded into the tiny underground starvation bunker where Maximilian Kolbe had met his end and were sealed in. Fritzsch wished to experiment with a new, industrialised method of mass killing: gas. For the first time in history, 'Zyklon B' gas cannisters were thrown into the confined space, gassing all to death. Thus, the future method of mass murder was devised, the method that would kill some 10 million Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, communists and Christians within the space of 3 years.