Kolbe, Saint of Auschwitz- 65 years ago... (1 Viewer)

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Captain
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Nov 9, 2005
Cracow
The deathcamp Auschwitz became the killing centre during WWII where the largest numbers of European Jews were murdered by the Nazis. One Christian man who died here became a martyr to the truth of evils of Nazism - a true hero for our time, a saint who lived what he preached, total love toward God and man ...
In May 1941 the friary was closed down and Maximilian and four companions were taken to the deathcamp Auschwitz, where they worked with the other prisoners.
Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish priest who died as prisoner 16770 in Auschwitz, on August 14, 1941. When a prisoner escaped from the camp, the Nazis selected 10 others to be killed by starvation in reprisal for the escape. One of the 10 selected to die, Franciszek Gajowniczek, began to cry: My wife! My children! I will never see them again! At this Maximilian Kolbe stepped forward and asked to die in his place. His request was granted ...
.... more and more about Father Kolbe:
Kolbe, The Saint from Auschwitz
Father Maximilian Kolbe
 
It is a very moving story about a great Saint, and it makes me think about how for one man to die, the other had to live in his place. Gajowniczek had to learn to acept that someone gave his life for his, and yet ideally still feel no guilt or unworthiness for himself that he got to stay alive, since Kolbe did it voluntarily as he could in that Nazi camp.


Even though Gajowniczek didn't ask Kolbe to die, I would still feel very strange in his place. I guess gratefulness, the gratefulness he paid at his graveside, was the best he could do and I'm sure God would find it enough.


Thanks for posting it.
 

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