Maximilian+Kolbe

Though the holocaust was a most devastating tragedy that will never be forgotten, one thing that may be forgotten are the many men and women who did what they thought were right even if it cost them their lives. One of these people was Maximilian Kolbe.

On January 8, 1894, in the Polish kingdom of Zdunska Wola, a baby boy was born to Julius Kolbe and midwife Maria Dabrawska whom they called Raymond Kolbe. He had four brothers Francis, Joseph, Walenty, and Andrew, two of which,Walenty and Andrew, sadly died at a young age, but in 1907 He and his older brother, Francis, illegally left their country in order to become priests. In 1910 Raymond was officially allowed to become an apprentice, and in 1911 he made his first vows finishing them in 1914, meanwhile also changing his name to Maximilian Kolbe. He officially became a priest in 1918. In the many years that followed he went around, spreading his religious beliefs, and founding and supervising a monastery. Between the years 1930-1936 he went on several mission trips to Japan where he founded another monastery that was miraculously not destroyed by an atomic bomb because the side of the mountain opposite of where it was absorbed the worst of the blast.

During World War, 2 Kolbe provided sanctuary to refugees from Poland that included about 2,000 Jews, Unfortunately because of this on February 17, 1941 Kolbe was arrested, and put into the Pawiak Prison by a German by the name of Gestapo.

On May 25 Kolbe was moved to Aushwitz. It was there that a prisoner from his quarters disappeared and it was assumed that he escaped [though later he was found drowned in the camp latrine], so to prevent further escape attempts 10 men were selected to be starved to death. One of them,Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out in remorse for his family so the kind, brave, and noble Maxmilian Kolbe volunteered to take his place. While the 10 men were being starved, Kolbe kept their spirits up with hymns and prayers, but after 3 weeks of starvation and dehydration only 4 men including Kolbe were alive. He ended up getting murdered by lethal injection of carbolic acid.

Though I am sad that Maximilian Kolbe ended up dead. I am very joyful that my prior knowledge was proven wrong, because originally I thought people were too scared to stand up, and do what they knew was right. With all the bad things in the world it is quite easy to forget the good in the world that sometimes just doesn’t seem to be there. It gives me hope that somebody was willing to die in place of somebody they didn’t really even know. I believe that sometimes everybody needs to hear a good hero story so they can remember that there are still some good people in the world.

[|__http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Kolbe.html__] [|__http://www.fatherkolbe.com/__] [|__http://www.marypages.com/KolbeEng.htm__] [|__http://auschwitz.dk/Kolbe.htm__]

Back to the Heroes of the Holocaust
//This page has been revised {$pagerevisions} times. //

//The last revision was {$revisiondate} by {$revisioneditor}. //