About Me
I was born on January 18, 1894 as Raymond Kolbe in Poland. I am the second son in our family and my parents after having moved to Pabianice owned their own bookstore. Later my father joined the Polish Legions and was captured and executed by the Russians. In 1907 my elder brother and I decided to join the Franciscan Order and after have illegally jumped the border we were able to join the minor-seminary. In 1914 I took my final vows and took the name Maximilian Mary. In 1912,I was sent to Kraków, and, in the same year, to Rome, where I studied philosophy, theology, mathematics, and physics. I earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1915 at the Pontifical Gregorian University, and the doctorate in theology in 1919 at the Pontifical University of St. Bonaventure. During my time as a student, I witnessed vehement demonstrations against Popes St. Pius X and Benedict XV by the Freemasons in Rome and was inspired to organize the Militia Immaculata, or Army of Mary, to work for conversion of sinners and the enemies of the Catholic Church through the intercession of the Virgin Mary. In the conservative publications of the Militia Immaculatae, I particularly condemned Freemasonry, Communism, Zionism, Capitalism and Imperialism. MY STORY OF AUSCHWITZDuring the Second World War, in the Niepokalanów friary, my brothers and I provided shelter to refugees from Greater Poland, including 2,000 Jews. I was also active as a radio amateur, with Polish call letters SP3RN, vilifying Nazi activities by reporting the facts. On February 17, 1941, I was arrested by the German Gestapo and imprisoned in the Pawiak prison, and, on May 25, was transferred to Auschwitz I as prisoner #16670.In July 1941, a man from my bunker had vanished, prompting Karl Fritzsch, the Lagerführer, to pick 10 men from the same bunker to be starved to death in the notorious torture block, Block 11, in order to deter further escape attempts. (The man who had disappeared was later found drowned in the camp latrine.) One of the selected men, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out, lamenting his family, and I volunteered to take his place.After two weeks of starvation, only four of the ten men were still alive, including myself. The cells were needed for other prisoners so myself and three others were executed.
