August 14. Maximillian Kolbe. Kolbe was born in the part of Poland that belonged to the Russian Empire. When he was 16, he and his brother stowed away in a hay cart so they could attend seminary on the Austrian side of the country.
From there, he went on to Rome to get doctorates in theology and philosophy. He built robust evangelism and publishing organizations. When the Nazis overran Poland, Kolbe was able to rescue 3,000 persecuted persons. On this date in the year 1941, he was executed by lethal injection for the crime of rescuing Jewish people.
When oppression forces a fearless man to change course, he accepts it as his next assignment.
One day in the year 1939, Poland was suddenly “crowded with Germans … quartered in all the larger houses…. Armed SS soldiers … and ‘blue police’” hunted Jews. They were taken “from their houses, barns, cellars, attics, and other hiding places…. Sometimes hand grenades were thrown into the cellars. Jews were beaten and kicked; it made no difference whether they were men, women, or small children.
By mid-afternoon the Nazis had assembled more than 900 Jews and posted a notice: “All Jews will be shot…. Poles were forced to begin digging graves in the Jewish cemetery.” The penalty for helping the Jewish people was death. This was from an eye-witness report from a prominent Polish physician, who recorded what happened in the public arena.
But in a less public part of life, one humble monk named Kolbe committed his life to overcoming the growing evil with love.
Before sunrise, despite his fragile health from life-long illness, he rose early in the morning to offer a warm breakfast to a mother in peril, a coat to an elderly Jewish man who had run for his life from the Nazis, a blanket to a child who was suddenly an orphan.
The once-silent monastery, which Kolbe had been entrusted with, was now filled with the sounds of gratitude and hope—and this right in the middle of unprecedented suffering. Kolbe worked tirelessly to hide, feed, and clothe 3,000 refugees, 2,000 of whom were Jews.
One bleak winter evening in the year 1941, the infamous Gestapo pounded on the monastery door. They had one agenda, to bring Maximillian Kolbe to justice.
Kolbe assured his friends, “Courage my sons. Don’t you see we are leaving on a mission? They pay our fare in the bargain. What a piece of good luck! The thing to do now is to pray well in order to win as many souls as possible.”
The Gestapo ripped the door from its hinges, exploded into the monastery, and shouted angry commands in German.
“Seize these men, and show them their fate!” shouted the Nazi Commander.
Without another word, Kolbe gave himself up and offered a confident smile of hope to his fellow brothers, as one by one they were bound and dragged away.
The Nazis packed the bound prisoners into the cars of a train, where the stench of human waste and the cries of hungry children tormented Kolbe for the three-day journey.
When they arrived at the camp, an impatient soldier shouted, “Everyone out!” Someone bashed Kolbe in the head for moving too slowly and shoved him along until he ended up in the uniform line, where a soldier tattooed Kolbe common prisoner ID #16670. It was a good sign. Prisoners earmarked for the gas chamber received no tattoo.
The Gestapo immediately sent Kolbe to work and forced him to haul heavy stones for the crematorium wall, breaking down his already frail body. The Gestapo singled him out for extra brutality. A guard known as Bloody Krott pointed to Kolbe. “Double the load on that Polish pig!” he shouted.
After only a few steps, Kolbe buckled under the impossible weight of the stone. The soldiers beat him brutally and left him for dead. But Kolbe did not die. “Bless him, O Lord, he doesn’t understand what he is doing,” Kolbe whispered. He kept hearing prisoners’ confessions and gave them Holy Communion with smuggled bread.
One day, a prisoner escaped, and to retaliate, the Nazis chose ten prisoners to die in the starvation tank. One of the chosen prisoners cried, “My poor wife, my poor children!”
Kolbe forced his way up to the Commander and asked if he could take the poor man’s place.
To everyone’s surprise, the Nazi’s agreed, and guards led Father Kolbe with the other nine prisoners to the starvation bunker.
The ransomed prisoner said, “I was stunned and could hardly grasp what was going on. I, the condemned, am to live, and someone else willingly and voluntarily offers his life for me.”
“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13 ESV).
In the scope of eternity, what choices will you make today that give life to another? When oppression forces a fearless man to change course, he accepts it as his next assignment.
Petttinger, Tejvan. “Biography of Maximillian Kolbe.” Updated March 2, 2019. Biographyonline. https://www.biographyonline.net/?s=Maximillian+Kolbe.
Encyclopedia Britannica. “St. Maksymilian Maria Kolbe: POLISH MARTYR.” Updated January 4, 2020. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Maksymilian-Maria-Kolbe.
Franciscans of the Immaculate. “St. Maximilian Kolbe: The Saint and Martyr of the Immaculate.” Accessed June 16, 2020. https://saintmaximiliankolbe.com/biography/.
Story read by: Chuck Stecker
Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter
Audio production: Joel Carpenter
Story written by: Shelli Mandeville, https://worthy.life/
Editor: Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/
Project Manager: Blake Mattocks
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