Maximilian: Saint of Auschwitz

"This drama points out the great life of Fr. Maximilian Kolbe, the Franciscan Friar of Poland, who, already as a child, consecrates his life to the Our Lady. Martyrdom and Purity are the two crowns shown to him when he is only 10 years old and, from then on, become the aim of his life. After his theological studies in Rome, Br. Maximilian is ordained a priest in Rome in 1918. This period, the end of World War I, is when masses of people in Europe are lead against the church by the very popular movement of freemasonary. Fr. Maximilian returns back to Poland where he suffers from tuberculouses, loses one lunge and has, thus, no chances to live any longer. But he doesn't give up and works as hard as before, founds the movement ""M.I."", ""Milicija Immaculatae"" - ""The Army of Our Lady""- and the family magazine ""The Knight of the Immaculata"" that is soon spreading all over Poland and into other countries. As a ""driven"" man, giving everything as a ""knight"" to his ""Lady"", he can never rest and has always new dreams, such as the building of the ""City of the Immaculata"" - ""Niepokalanow"".
His great call for a spiritual life and his actions bring many vocations and soon his monastery is full of young people. Missions of the Knights are set up in other countries, he himself goes as a missionary for some years to Japan. When he returns back, the German armies of the Nazi-regime are trying to conquer Poland. Refugees, ten thousand in Niepokalanow alone, among which many of Jews, are welcomed as brothers. As a consequence,the priests of Niepokalanow are caught and imprisoned, brought to concentration camps that are built everywhere in Poland. Fr. Maximilian Kolbe is imprisoned and held in the concentration camp of Ausschwitz. There again he gives hope and love to all his fellow prisoners, strengthens them by his words and the sacraments of the Catholic Church, Confession and Communion.
In August 1941 Fr. Maximilian offers himself in the place of a married man condemned to death by starvation with nine other men to make up for one who has fled their block. As he is one of four who are still alive after some weeks of starvation, Fr. Maximilian dies of a lethal injection on August 14, 1941."