Maximilian Kolbe

Maximilian Kolbe (1894–1941) was a Polish Franciscan friar and priest who volunteered to die in place of another prisoner at Auschwitz. The Catholic Church canonized him in 1982.

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Auschwitz concentration camp: A Nazi concentration and extermination camp complex in occupied Poland during the Second World War. Kolbe died in its starvation bunker after volunteering to replace fellow prisoner Franciszek Gajowniczek.
Pope John Paul II: The Polish pope who led the Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005. He canonized Kolbe in 1982, presenting him as a martyr of charity.
Zduńska Wola: A town in central Poland where Maximilian Kolbe was born in 1894. Kolbe’s childhood began in this Polish industrial town.
Martyrdom in Christianity: The death of a Christian for refusing to renounce faith or for bearing witness to it. Kolbe’s canonization raised questions about how voluntary self-sacrifice relates to martyrdom.
Franciszek Gajowniczek: A Polish prisoner at Auschwitz whose life was spared when Kolbe volunteered to die in his place. His desperate reaction to the selection prompted Kolbe’s offer.
Franciscan Order: A family of Catholic religious communities founded in the tradition of Francis of Assisi. Kolbe belonged to the Conventual Franciscan branch and lived as a friar and priest.
Conventual Franciscans: A branch of the Franciscan order whose members live in community and serve through ministry. Kolbe joined this branch and took the religious name Maximilian.
Canonization: The Catholic Church’s formal declaration that a deceased person is a saint. Kolbe’s canonization made his life and death an official model of holiness.
Auschwitz starvation bunker: A punishment cell block at Auschwitz where prisoners were left without food or water. Kolbe endured starvation there before Nazi guards killed him with an injection.
Francis of Assisi: An Italian Catholic friar who founded the Franciscan movement in the early thirteenth century. Kolbe’s vocation belonged to the religious tradition Francis founded.