Maximillian Kolbe — fact or fiction?

My photo of cell #18 where Kolbe starved himself to death

You can read the latest information about Saint Maximillian Kolbe, and decide for yourself if his story is fact or fiction: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/2016/04/maximillian-kolbe-and-the-redemption-of-auschwitz.html

Let me say, right off the bat, that I am a heretic. I am going to hell because I don’t believe a word of the Kolbe story.

I wrote about Kolbe on my website at http://www.scrapbookpages.com/AuschwitzScrapbook/Tour/Auschwitz1/Auschwitz06B.html

and I blogged about him at https://furtherglory.wordpress.com/2012/07/22/father-kolbe-the-catholic-priest-who-died-in-place-of-another-at-auschwitz/

The following quote is from the blog, cited above:

We were graced this month to travel to Poland on a parish pilgrimage. It was my first extended visit to the country, so it was therefore a great joy to visit Niepokalanow — the friary of St. Maximilian Kolbe. The visit started with Mass in the simple chapel founded by the saint. We continued by visiting his cell, viewing his relics and then worshipping in the modern basilica that stands on the site.

The next day our pilgrims visited the great Marian shrine of Czestochowa before going on to Auschwitz. The amazing accomplishments of St. Maximilian Kolbe climaxed in his death at the extermination camp, and to visit his monastic cell one day and his death cell the next was an awesome, moving and troubling experience. Here was a man, who, from his early life, decided to live for others and ended his life dying for another.

 

 

An estimated 1.7 million people visited Auschwitz last year.

My photo of the ruins of Krema III where Jews were gassed at Birkenau

I have visited Auschwitz three times; the first time was in 1998, when I was the only person there, besides my private tour guide. I had found this tour guide through a tour company in New York City.

My photo of the infamous gatehouse into Birkenau

I recall that my tour guide, in 1998, would not let me get off the road through the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp; she said that there were “snakes in the grass.” She meant real snakes, not Holocaust deniers.

Since then, I have visited the Auschwitz main camp and the Birkenau camp two more times, in 2005 and 2008. I have also visited the town of Auschwitz twice.

My photo of the dark and dreary Holocaust memorial at Auschwitz-Birkenau

Today, I read a news article about what it is like to visit the Birkenau camp today: http://pilotonline.com/opinion/columnist/guest/annette-finley-croswhite-the-holocaust-still-has-lessons-to-teach/article_b8b9912a-2c1d-53f4-a7aa-486249725360.html

The following quote is from the news article, cited above:

Begin quote

ARMS AND LEGS shoved and kicked me. An elderly woman fell to the ground as people battled their way onto the last bus out of town. Fearful of the crowd’s aggression, I grew protective of my companion, a young pregnant woman. “Be careful,” I called out, “she’s pregnant; please let her on.” At that moment the man behind me wrenched my shoulder backwards and screamed into my ear, “Pregnant, yeah right! Let me on because I’m pregnant too!”

In another situation this hostility might have been insignificant. I was standing just outside Auschwitz-Birkenau, however, and these ill-behaved tourists had just left this infamous site of human depravity. Horror stricken, I could not help but wonder at how quickly the process of dehumanization begins in the sea of anonymity and how urgent the lessons of history are today.

End quote

I think that the problem is that the Holocaust has now become a joke. So many lies have been told in the past about the Holocaust, that now no one believes in it.

The following quote is also from the news article:

“….the recently opened souvenir center just outside Birkenau is a particularly troubling indication of Holocaust trivialization.

In the store, Polish key chains are for sale next to postcards featuring cremation ovens or black refrigerator magnets with the word “Auschwitz” embossed in gray. Next door, pierogies and pizzas are offered within sight of the death gate and ramp where so many victims were sent straight to the gas chambers or admitted into the camp to face slow starvation and death. A few miles from Auschwitz, an amusement park is under construction. One will soon be able to combine a visit to the death camp with roller coaster rides. What a difference more than 70 years makes!