On 14 August 1941, in the bunker of block 11, known as the death block of the German concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Polish Franciscan Father Maximilian Maria Kolbe was murdered by a lethal injection of phenol. He sacrificed his life in exchange for another inmate of the camp.

Rajmund Kolbe was born on 8 January 1894 in Zdunska Wola, the second of five sons of Juliusz and Maria née Dabrowski. After his birth, the parents of the future monk moved to Łódź and later to Pabianice. Two of Rajmund’s brothers died in early childhood. His parents tried their hand at trade, running a small shop, but had to give it up. To support the family, they worked in the Krusche-Ender textile factory in Łódź.

With the support of the local parish priest, young Rajmund became a pupil at the Pabianice secondary school. During his schooling, he showed great interest in mathematics and physics. During this time, he experienced an epiphany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which completely influenced his life.

In 1907, together with his older brother Francis, he left the family home and entered the Minor Seminary of the Franciscans in Lwow. A year later, the third brother Joseph joined them. After his graduation in 1910, Rajmund entered the Franciscan order and took the name Maximilian. In 1912, his superiors sent him to Rome to study.  There, in 1915, he received his doctorate in philosophy, and four years later also in theology. In addition, in his spare time, he deepened his knowledge of physics. He wrote an article, unusual for a monk, titled “Ethereoplan on an interplanetary vehicle”.

In Rome, he took his perpetual vows, additionally taking the name Maria, and was ordained a priest in 1918. During his stay, he witnessed anti-church speeches. This prompted him to found the Knights of the Immaculate to convert people. The members of the association entrusted the fate of sinners to the Immaculate Mary every day. Maximilian remained faithful to this intention until his death.

In 1919, he returned to free and independent Poland, and the superiors directed him to a monastery in Krakow. Here he taught Church history at the monastic seminary. He commenced pastoral work, with the main focus on the cult of the Immaculate Mary. In 1922 he began to publish the periodical “Knight of the Immaculate”, which is still published today. Its initial circulation was constantly increasing: at the beginning, there were 5,000 copies, in 1927 already 70,000, and before the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 it reached 750,000 copies.

Father Maximilian’s pastoral work was interrupted because of tuberculosis. To cure it, his religious superiors sent him for treatment to Zakopane.  In 1922 he was transferred to the monastery in Grodno. From there, with the consent of the religious authorities, in 1927 he moved to Teresin, near Warsaw, where he founded a new monastery, Niepokalanów.

In April 1930, together with several monks, he went to Japan, where he undertook missionary activity. On the outskirts of Nagasaki, he founded a monastery and began publishing in Japanese the “Knight of the Immaculate”. In 1936, he returned to Poland and became superior to the Niepokalanów monastery, which became a thriving centre. In 1939 there were 13 fathers, 18 seminarians, 527 professed brothers, 82 candidates for brothers and 122 boys studying in the Minor Seminary. The Franciscans published a number of press titles, in addition to the “Knight of the Immaculate”. The printed Calendar of the Immaculate alone had a circulation of over 400,000 copies. From 1938, a radio station also began to operate in Niepokalanów.

This dynamic development of Kolbe’s initiatives was brutally interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War. The monastery was occupied by the Germans on 12 September 1939, and a week later Fr Maximilian, together with other monks, was arrested by the Germans. In December he and the others were released and they returned to Niepokalanów. There, Kolbe opened the gates of the monastery to Poles and Jews displaced by the Germans from Western Poland, giving them shelter and care.

On 17 February 1941, Fr Maximilian and his four brothers were again arrested by the German occupiers and sent to the Pawiak prison in Warsaw. From there, the Germans deported him to Auschwitz concentration camp on 28 May 1941. On arrival, he was given camp number 16670. Interestingly, he met there Tadeusz “Tedy” Pietrzykowski, a pre-war boxer who was sent to Auschwitz in the first transport from Tarnów on 14 June 1940.

At the end of July 1941, a prisoner escaped from the camp. The Germans gathered all the prisoners from the escapee’s block on the roll-call square. In retaliation, they selected 10 prisoners and sentenced them to death by starvation. One of them was Franciszek Gajowniczek, who despaired, knowing that he would leave his family. Father Maximilian then approached the camp authorities, asking if he could offer his life for Gajowniczek. The Germans, having learned that Kolbe was a monk, allowed him to make the exchange and took him to a bunker under block 11. There, together with other prisoners, he waited for death by starvation. On 14 August 1941, Fr Maximilian, after two weeks, was killed with phenol injection.

In 1971 Kolbe was proclaimed Blessed and in 1982 a Saint. Franciszek Gajowniczek survived the war, died in 1995 and was buried in the cemetery of the Niepokalanów monastery. Maximilian’s brother Franciszek Kolbe was also sent to Auschwitz in 1943 and died on 23 January 1945 in Mittelbau Concentration Camp.

Saint Maximilian Maria Kolbe is the patron saint of families, electricians and, since 1999, also of honorary blood donors. His statue also adorns the façade of London’s Westminster Abbey.