March 19th, 2018

Father Maximilan Kolbe was arrested by the German Gestapo on February 17, 1941, from his monastery in Poland, the same monastery used to shelter and feed and protect thousands of Jews.

Locked up in Pawiak Prison, he was transferred to Auschwitz on May 28, 1941, where he was renamed Prisoner 16670, and often received violent beatings.

After 10 prisoners escaped, Karl Fritzsch, the deputy camp commander, ordered 10 men be starved to death, as a deterrent to others.

When one of the men selected cried, "My wife! My children!" Father Maximilian offered to take his place.

In the underground bunker, where the 10 men were kept, Father Maxilmilian led the others in prayers, until after two weeks of starvation and dehydration, he was the only alive.

But the guards wanted the bunker, so they hastened his death with a lethel injection of carbolic acid, for which he calmly raised his left arm.

Father Maxilimilian died on August 14, 1941, and his remains were cremated on August 15, the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

VIVA CRISTO REY! Niech żyje Chrystus Król!