St. Max was a Franciscan priest who was arrested by the Nazis because he was a combination of some very bad things in their eyes. He was a Polish Catholic priest who protected Polish Jews during WWII. Because of this, he was arrested and carted off to Auschwitz, where he was imprisoned in 1941.
One day, there was a prison escape and the Kommandant ordered that 10 prisoners be placed into a starvation bunker as an example to anyone else who might be thinking of planning another escape. One of the 10 men cried out that he had a wife and children and pleaded to be spared. Fr. Kolbe stepped forward and volunteered to take his place. Most of the men were dead within 10 days expect for Fr. Kolbe and a few others. On August 14th, 1941, they were all given injections of carbolic acid in order to finish the sentence.
Fr. Kolbe was canonized as a saint in the Catholic Church in 1982 by Pope John Paul II. Present at the ceremony was Francizek Gajowniczek, the man whose life was spared because of St. Max's selflessness..
A group of Catholic Hams get together every Sunday to form the St Max Net - to honor him, his memory and his sacrifice. Information about the net can be found here - https://www.saintmaxnet.org/
There are various movies about the life of St. Max, but a new one is coming out this September, titled "A Triumph of the Heart". A trailer for it can be found here - https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1C476bFqd3/
Although it's a very unofficial title - St. Max is honored as the Patron Saint of Amateur Radio Operators by those of us Hams who are also Catholic. St. Max, pray for us.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
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