Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe. Regis Armstrong writes that Fr. Kolbe is known for giving his life to the Nazis at the Horror Camp Auschwitz in place of another on August 14, 1941. What led to this was a camp count on July 29, 1941, revealing that three prisoners were missing from Block 11 and the Camp’s Sub-Commander ordering that ten men suffer reprisal. Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritsch instructed all the men of Block 11 to form a line, which he walked selecting their life or their slow death by starvation, “This one. That one.” Amongst them was Franciszek Gajowniczek, a married family man. Before the group of 10 was marched to Block 13, the starvation bunker, Prisoner Number 16670, Maximilian Kolbe, broke rank and said: “I am a Catholic priest. I wish to die for that man. I am old, and he has a wife and children.” Maximilian and the other nine men went to a slow death of torture and starvation in the notorious Block 13. After three weeks, only four remained alive; among them was Maximilian. On August 14th, the commandant decided the bunker was needed and ordered the prisoners to be injected with carbolic acid. Still conscious, Maximilian looked at the doctor and offered his arm. The body of Prisoner 16670 was removed to the crematorium, and without dignity or ceremony was disposed of, like the hundreds of thousands who had gone before him, and hundreds of thousands more who would follow.” Survivor Jozef Stemler recalled, “In that desert of hatred, he had sown love. There was nothing artificial in his behavior; he was serious but happy and had the smile of a youth. These qualities attracted many people to him. I was coming back from the evening roll call, half-dead from work and hungry, when an SS Guard ordered me to carry two dead bodies to the crematorium. The sight of the body of a young man almost made me faint when I realized it was Father Kolbe.”