Maximilian Kolbe

Franciscan monk who martyred himself to save a fellow prisoner at Auschwitz. Born in Poland at the turn of the 20th century to devout parents, Kolbe's views on Judaism were marred by the prevailing antisemitic rhetoric of the time, the same virulent hate that gave rise to Nazi ideologies as well. But his treatment of individual Jews did not reflect the same antisemitism. In 1941, his monastery near Krakow was housing 3,000 people displaced by the Nazis during World War II, half of them were Jewish. When the Third Reich invaded Poland, he was arrested and sent to Auschwitz, where he was subjected to backbreaking slave labor. When a man in his barracks escaped, 10 men were selected to starve to death as a punishment. Despite being spared, Kolbe offered to take the place of one of the prisoners – a stranger. Kolbe and nine other men were thrown into a small concrete bunker and forced to slowly starve. Throughout the torture, Kolbe offered support and encouragement to his fellow prisoners, Jews and Catholics alike, firmly anchored to the power of hope. At the end of the second week, everyone was dead – everyone except for Kolbe and one fellow prisoner. The guards inject the men with carbolic acid, killing them instantly. When Kolbe was canonized in 1982, the man he chose to die in place of, Franciszek Gajowniczek, was in attendance. Today, Maximilian Kolbe is the patron saint of prisoners.