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    The Knight of the Immaculate: Father Maximilian Kolbe
    The Knight of the Immaculate: Father Maximilian Kolbe
    The Knight of the Immaculate: Father Maximilian Kolbe
    Ebook305 pages1 hour

    The Knight of the Immaculate: Father Maximilian Kolbe

    By Fr. Jeremiah J. Smith

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    About this ebook

    Includes 204 photos, plans and maps illustrating The Holocaust

    St. Maximilian Kolbe is famous as the saint of Auschwitz who volunteered to die of starvation and thirst in place of another prisoner. But his heroic death in 1941 in the worst of the Nazi concentration camps was only the culmination of an amazing life—for St. Maximilian was fired by the supernatural ideal of conquering for Christ through Mary all souls in the entire world—to the end of time!

    Full of interesting stories, this little book describes his mischievous boyhood, his youthful prophetic vision of two crowns, his dream of martyrdom, his use of modern printing technology to further Our Lady’s work, his agreement with St. Therese the Little Flower, his “Cities of the Immaculata” (the one in Poland grew from 19 members to 762 and was the largest religious community in the world), his knowledge that he was fighting Satan, and his prison abuse for being a Catholic priest.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNormanby Press
    Release dateNov 11, 2016
    ISBN9781787202870
    The Knight of the Immaculate: Father Maximilian Kolbe
    Author

    Fr. Jeremiah J. Smith

    The Reverend Father Jeremiah J. Smith ([?] - Nov. 8, 2001) was a Franciscan priest and author of the twentieth century. He served as chair of the history department at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky from 1951 to 1986. He was ordained in 1941 and received his doctorate in medieval history from The Catholic University of America in 1949.

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      Book preview

      The Knight of the Immaculate - Fr. Jeremiah J. Smith

      This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.pp-publishing.com

      To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books—picklepublishing@gmail.com

      Or on Facebook

      Text originally published in 1952 under the same title.

      © Pickle Partners Publishing 2016, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

      THE KNIGHT OF THE IMMACULATE:

      FATHER MAXIMILIAN KOLBE

      BY

      FR. JEREMIAH J. SMITH, O.F.M. CONV.

      "Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

      —John 13:15

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Contents

      TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

      PREFACE 8

      INTRODUCTION 12

      Chapter 1 — THE KOLBE FAMILY 13

      Chapter 2 — THE TWO CROWNS 14

      Chapter 3 — MINOR SEMINARY AND NOVITIATE 17

      Chapter 4 — STUDIES IN ROME 19

      Chapter 5 — THE MILITIA OF MARY IMMACULATE 21

      Chapter 6 — TRUST IN GOD AND OUR LADY 23

      Chapter 7 — THE EDITOR OF THE KNIGHT OF THE IMMACULATA 27

      Chapter 8 — EDITOR AND REVIEW MOVE TO GRODNO 29

      Chapter 9 — NIEPOKALANOW: THE CITY OF THE IMMACULATA 32

      Chapter 10 — JAPAN 36

      Chapter 11 — THE ORPHANAGE 43

      Chapter 12 — INDIA 44

      Chapter 13 — RETURN TO NIEPOKALANOW 45

      Chapter 14 — THE FIRST ARREST 48

      Chapter 15 — SECOND ARREST 52

      Chapter 16 — AUSCHWITZ 54

      Chapter 17 — THE DEATH HOUSE 61

      REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 67

      Images Of The Holocaust 68

      Views of the Shoah 69

      Transportation 96

      The Ghettos 103

      The Einsatzgruppen 138

      Mauthausen-Gusen 146

      The Aktion Reinhardt Camps 156

      Bełżec 156

      Treblinka 171

      Sobibor 177

      Majdanek 182

      Chelmno 191

      Auschwitz-Birkenau 199

      Dachau 223

      Ravensbrück 231

      The Architects of Destruction 235

      Heinrich Himmler 235

      Reinhard Heydrich 245

      Adolf Eichmann 254

      Josef Mengele 257

      Maps 259

      PREFACE

      Modern times are dominated by Satan and will be more so in the future. The conflict with Hell cannot be engaged by men, even the most clever. The Immaculata alone has from God the promise of victory over Satan.—St. Maximilian Kolbe

      The author of this book declares in everything herein contained his filial submission to the decrees of Pope Urban VIII and to the norms of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, of which he is a devoted subject. He does not allege or exact any other faith than human, based upon the authority of the individual witness summoned.

      INTRODUCTION

      ANOTHER name can be inscribed on the list of great Apostles of Our Lady. Side by side with such illustrious devotees of the Blessed Mother as St. Bernard, Duns Scotus, St. Louis Grignion De Montfort and Ven. William Chaminade stands also St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Friar Minor Conventual. His distinct contribution to the spread of Mary’s glory is characterized in a title which he gave to one of his publications: The Knight of the Immaculata. In this title is marvelously epitomized his life’s work, as well as his ideal.

      In his actual accomplishments, he spread the glory of Mary Immaculate with a chivalry worthy of the most ardent of medieval knights. He had one fixed idea: to show all men in all places how to love the Immaculata without limit. To realize this ideal, no sacrifice was too difficult: hard work, sleepless nights, misunderstanding, persecution, and even death itself.

      In one of his writings, St. Maximilian has left us a biographical note in which he says: I was still a young boy when I promised myself to take the field for the Blessed Virgin, without knowing then how I would do this or what arms I would use. This took place when he was thirteen or fourteen years old. When he died in 1941 on the vigil of the Assumption in a concentration camp at Oswiecim—Auschwitz—he could look back over his life with satisfaction and realize that he had fulfilled this promise as faithfully as possible. His death itself was martyrdom, not in the usual sense of the word, but a martyrdom of charity. Following the example of Christ, he gave his life for his neighbor: Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13).

      In his lifetime of forty-seven years, St. Maximilian Kolbe founded two cities which he dedicated to the Lady of his love, the Immaculata. Following his contagious example, hundreds of young men dedicated their lives to Mary’s Divine Son in poverty, chastity and obedience. He spread the glory of the Immaculata not only among souls consecrated to God, but also in the hearts of millions of the laity by establishing his Militia of Mary Immaculate. He wrote about her in his numerous newspapers and reviews. He preached about her in Europe and Asia. Above all, he ardently gave only what he himself felt. He was the Knight of the Immaculata.

      Here is his story, the story of a meek and insignificant figure amid the giants of our generation, the story of a chronic victim of tuberculosis, the story of a pair of empty hands holding limitless ambitions, of a short lifetime marked by incredible deeds and climaxed with an heroic death in the foulest of all Nazi concentration camps.

      SAINT MAXIMILIAN KOLBE

      Chapter 1 — THE KOLBE FAMILY

      JANUARY 8, 1894, was the birthday of Raymond Kolbe, the future Franciscan who would be known to the world as St. Maximilian Kolbe. There were four other boys in the Kolbe family, two of whom died at an early age. The other two were Francis, older than Raymond, and Joseph, the youngest in the family, who as Father Alphonse became the constant companion and co-worker of Father Maximilian.

      At the time of Raymond’s birth, the family was living at Zdunska Wola, a small village near Lodz, Poland. Shortly after this Julius Kolbe, the father, a weaver by trade, moved with his family to Pabianice in search of better living conditions. However, the weaving business prospered no better there, so the Kolbes opened a delicatessen store, which for the most part was run by Mrs. Kolbe and her boys.

      Both Mr. and Mrs. Kolbe were solidly religious people. In fact, Mrs. Kolbe, born Maria Dombrowska, as a young girl several years before her marriage had intended to become a nun. As it was, after their sons were well on their own, both mother and father made a pilgrimage to the famous Polish shrine at Czestochowa and there by mutual agreement made a vow of chastity at the foot of the Immaculata’s statue. It was, however, only after the First World War that Mrs. Kolbe could see her way clear to become part of a religious congregation of sisters. Until her death in March, 1946, she could still be seen begging for her community along the streets and in the offices and workshops of Krakow. Mr. Kolbe went to live with the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor Conventual, probably becoming a secular oblate. But he left for the First World War, and it seems that he was mistakenly executed as a traitor in 1917 or 1918.

      Chapter 2 — THE TWO CROWNS

      RAYMOND’S boyhood days were not much different from those of any normal Polish youth. He was a lively boy, quick-witted and just a trifle headstrong. But his mother at one time pointed out that, of all her sons, Raymond was the most obedient, humble and submissive to her

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