Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Franciscan priest who created a very effective friary outside the city of Warsaw, Poland, in 1936. When the Nazis invaded Poland three years later, Kolbe knew it was only a matter of time before he was tracked down by the German authorities. On May 28, 1941, he was sent to Auschwitz. While there, he continued to spread the Gospel. Some of the inmates attempted an escape, and, after they were caught and killed, the camp leaders picked ten men at random to be starved to death to show others what happens to those who attempt to escape. One of the randomly condemned ten was husband and father of two Franciszek Gajowniczek, and Kolbe volunteered to take his place. He truly laid down his life for his brother, so Pope John Paul II made Father Kolbe a saint. Today there stands a shrine in his cell at Auschwitz.
