The Priest Who Stepped Out of Line

In late July 1941, a prisoner escaped from Auschwitz. As retribution, deputy commander Karl Fritzsch lined up the men of Block 14 and selected ten to die by starvation. When Franciszek Gajowniczek was chosen, he cried out for his wife and children. From the ranks, a gaunt, bespectacled Franciscan friar stepped forward. "I am a Catholic priest," Maximilian Kolbe said. "I wish to die for that man."

Fritzsch paused, then accepted the exchange.

Kolbe, prisoner 16670, was led to the starvation bunker beneath Block 11. For over two weeks he sustained the other condemned men with prayers and hymns, until he was killed by lethal injection of carbolic acid on August 14, 1941. Gajowniczek survived the war and lived another fifty-three years, never forgetting the priest who took his place.

1 John 3:16 tells us, "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters." Most of us will never face a death line. But every day presents moments where we can step out of the safety of our own comfort for someone else's sake — absorbing a cost, bearing a burden, giving up what we would rather keep. Kolbe's sacrifice reminds us that Christian love is not merely a feeling we hold. It is a step we take.