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Good morning.

I shall never forget my first – and only – visit to Auschwitz Concentration Camp, nearly twenty years ago. I was travelling overnight from Prague back to Poland. The train was hot and airless and I fell into a deep sleep, waking suddenly to discover I’d missed the connection onto a regional line. The next station indicator board said ‘Oswiecim’ which I didn’t recognise at first, but it didn’t take long to realise where I was. The notorious gates of Auschwitz – ‘Arbeit macht frei’ – ‘Work makes you free’ - weren’t far away but they wouldn’t be opened for another hour.

I was the first visitor in the camp – and I stumbled around in the gloom in one of the prison blocks trying to find a light. It was then that I discovered I was in the memorial cell where the Polish Franciscan priest Maximilian Kolbe had died on this day, 14th August, in 1941. Kolbe was accused of sheltering Polish Jews from Nazi persecution, was arrested by the Gestapo and eventually transferred to Auschwitz. At the end of July 1941, three prisoners disappeared from the camp, prompting??the deputy camp commander to pick ten men to be starved to death in an underground bunker in order to deter further escape attempts. When one of the selected men cried out, "My wife! My children!" Kolbe volunteered to take his place. After two weeks of dehydration and starvation, only Kolbe remained alive. The guards wanted the bunker emptied and they gave Kolbe a lethal injection of??carbolic acid. Some who were present say that he raised his left arm and calmly waited for the needle.??His remains were cremated the following day.

It’s a grim tale – but we need to be reminded of the example of those who’ve been faithful unto death – even in the most extreme circumstances. So Lord, strengthen us with your grace and give us like them the courage to conquer evil.

Amen.