Maximilian Maria Kolbe (born Raymund Kolbe; also Maksymilian Maria Kolbe, 1894 – 1941), venerated as Saint Maximilian Kolbe, was a Polish Catholic priest and Conventual Franciscan friar who volunteered to die in place of a man named Franciszek Gajowniczek in the Auschwitz concentration camp, located in German-occupied Poland during World War II.
Franciszek Gajowniczek was a captured Polish army argent who was transferred to Auschwitz on 8 October 1940. He and Kolbe met as inmates in May 1941. When a camp prisoner appeared to have escaped, SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch ordered that ten prisoners die by starvation in reprisal. Gajowniczek (prisoner number 5659) was one of those selected at roll-call. When priest Maximilian Kolbe heard Gajowniczek cry out in agony over the fate of his wife and two sons, he offered himself instead, for which he was later canonized. The switch was permitted.
According to an eyewitness, who was an assistant janitor at that time, in his prison cell Kolbe led the prisoners in prayer. Each time the guards checked on him, he was standing or kneeling in the middle of the cell and looking calmly at those who entered. After they had been starved and deprived of water for two weeks, only Kolbe remained alive. Subsequently, Kolbe was put to death with an injection of carbolic acid. Kolbe is said to have raised his left arm and calmly waited for the deadly injection.
As for Franciszek Gajowniczek, he dedicated the remainder of his life recounting the heroic act of love by Maximilian Kolbe. His first wife died in 1977. His two two sons died under Soviet bombardment in 1945. And he passed away in 1995 at age of 93.
Franciszek Gajowniczek was a captured Polish army argent who was transferred to Auschwitz on 8 October 1940. He and Kolbe met as inmates in May 1941. When a camp prisoner appeared to have escaped, SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch ordered that ten prisoners die by starvation in reprisal. Gajowniczek (prisoner number 5659) was one of those selected at roll-call. When priest Maximilian Kolbe heard Gajowniczek cry out in agony over the fate of his wife and two sons, he offered himself instead, for which he was later canonized. The switch was permitted.
According to an eyewitness, who was an assistant janitor at that time, in his prison cell Kolbe led the prisoners in prayer. Each time the guards checked on him, he was standing or kneeling in the middle of the cell and looking calmly at those who entered. After they had been starved and deprived of water for two weeks, only Kolbe remained alive. Subsequently, Kolbe was put to death with an injection of carbolic acid. Kolbe is said to have raised his left arm and calmly waited for the deadly injection.
As for Franciszek Gajowniczek, he dedicated the remainder of his life recounting the heroic act of love by Maximilian Kolbe. His first wife died in 1977. His two two sons died under Soviet bombardment in 1945. And he passed away in 1995 at age of 93.
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