Original subtitles

-These are stories of the saints.

-Maximillian maria kolbe.

Patron saint of prisoners,

And because of his extraordinary,

Extraordinary compassion,

Drug addicts.

He was born with the name raymond in 1894,

During a period when poland just didn't exist as a nation

Because it was split in three ways

By germany, austria-hungary,

And the russian empire.

He grew up in a devout catholic household

Within a devout catholic culture.

-Raymond...

What's the matter? Why do you look like that?

-She came to me.

-Who came to you?

-The blessed virgin.

-What's this?

-I went to her, and oh,

I prayed to know what would become of me.

I wanted to know why I am so sinful, and...

-And what?

She held out her hands...

And offered me two crowns.

-Crowns?

-One was white, for purity...

And the other one was red...

For martyrdom.

martyrdom.

I chose both. I had to.

-Come.

Come, come.

Come.

We must pray now.

Oh, mother of the word incarnate,

We thank you for visiting this house

And appearing before my son

In answer to his heartfelt prayers to you.

-When kolbe was a teenager,

His mother joined an order of benedictine sisters,

His father joined the franciscans in kraków,

And he began his novitiate in lviv...

...And that's where he took the name maximilian,

And the middle name maria,

In honor of his beloved immaculata,

The most blessed virgin.

-Amen.

-Kolbe's father, julius, left the franciscans

After the onset of wwi

And he joined the polish legions,

Which were fighting for the nation's independence.

He went missing in action early in the war,

And it was years before his family learned

That he had been hanged by the russians.

After world war I,

The second polish republic was born.

Kolbe was ordained as a priest.

And he founded an evangelization movement --

The militia immaculata.

And the goal was to convert as many souls as possible.

-O immaculata,

Queen of heaven and earth,

Refuge of sinners and our most loving mother,

God has willed to entrust the entire order of mercy to you.

I, maximilian maria kolbe,

A repentant sinner,

Cast myself at your feet humbly,

Imploring you to take me with all that I am and have,

Wholly yourself as your possession and property.

Please make of me,

Of all my powers of soul and body,

Of my whole life, death and eternity,

Whatever most pleases you.

-He built a publishing house.

He founded a monthly newsletter, "the knight of the immaculata."

He traveled to japan,

He established a mission

And then a seminary in nagasaki.

And he started publication of a japanese version

Of "knight of the immaculata."

And while he was there in japan,

Kolbe learned to meditate,

And he continued the practice.

Kolbe also traveled to india,

And he built another seminary on the malabar coast.

He returned to poland in 1933 --

The same year that hitler came into power in germany

And began persecuting jews, as well as catholic clergy.

-We will use all valid and legitimate means

For the conversion and sanctification

Of men in the different states

And conditions of life

As...

Do you have it? -Yes, father.

-Kolbe suffered from tuberculosis,

And this sent him in and out of sanitariums...

-As occasions present themselves...

-...But he never stopped his evangelical work.

-...The periodical and non-periodical press,

Radio, art, literature, theater, and cinema.

As legislation,

Chambers of deputies,

Senates, and other organizations.

They should have as their purpose the fighting of evil

And the nurturing of fullest development

Of gifts of god to soul and body.

All energy should be devoted...

All energy should be devoted to helping everyone,

In all classes of human society,

In all conditions and circumstances,

From the cradle to the grave,

In accordance with the laws of god.

Yes...

That's it. Do you have it?

-Yes, father.

-In addition to his two publications,

Kolbe founded the first catholic radio station in poland.

-Here in our midst, before our very eyes,

Atheistic communism seems to rage ever more widely.

Its origin can easily be located

In the criminal mafia that calls itself freemasonry,

And the hand that is guiding all that towards

A clear goal is international zionism.

The freemasons' goal is clear --

To destroy the church.

And their master is the jew.

Of this, I have found proof in a remarkable document

That was re-discovered several years ago,

Called "the protocols of elders of zion."

This is a plan that has been hatched in secrecy

At the highest levels,

And not even all jews know this.

Brothers and sisters,

Open your hearts and listen to this broadcast,

Which comes to you from the newly-launched

Radio niepokalanow, the first catholic radio station

In our glorious nation of poland.

Listen to the message of the militia immaculata!

-Antisemitism was not uncommon in europe,

And its origins go back

Thousands of years.

This was the world that kolbe was born into.

Across europe,

"the protocols of the elders of zion" --

A fraudulent text filled with antisemitism --

Influenced many, including kolbe,

To spread and repeat virulently antisemitic lies.

-Take courage, dear brothers.

Inside each of us lies the struggle between sin and love,

Between good and evil.

Nothing else matters if we are defeated in our own souls.

The thing to do now

Is to pray well,

To tell the blessed virgin that we are content,

And that she can do with us whatever she wants.

Come,

To die of hunger, of fatigue,

Of humiliation,

And of suffering for the immaculate.

-On September 1st, 1939,

Everything changed.

The nazis invaded poland from the west

And the soviets came in from the east.

Once again,

Poland was occupied by the germans and the russians.

Kolbe was arrested by the german army within weeks,

And he was detained for three months.

He returned to niepokalanow

To find his offices completely ransacked...

...The new reality of life under nazi occupation.

-Father kolbe!

Father kolbe! Father kolbe.

Father kolbe. Oh, bless me father.

Thank the lord.

I have flour and salt enough for the winter.

I kept my hens and roosters hidden away.

-Glory be to god. -Father kolbe...

-Yes?

-Something plagues me.

What is it?

I have people coming to my door begging for food and...

Many of them are jews.

Is it right for me to give them food

When I might not have enough left for a christian?

-Of course, it's right, mrs. Haba, they are hungry.

-But you've warned us about the jews...

-Mrs. Haba... Um.

You see,

These are only certain jews

Who have banded together to fill their pockets

And increase their power.

-They killed our lord!

-Yes, but we must all remember

That jesus christ, our lord, was born a jew,

And so was his blessed mother, the immaculate.

Mrs. Haba.

When a man comes to you clothed in power,

Beware.

When a man comes to you begging for food,

He is your brother.

He is always your brother,

No matter what his faith or his appearance.

You must remember this.

-Yes, father, thank you.

-Thank you.

Have a blessed day, mrs. Haba.

-Kolbe and his brethren sheltered and cared for

Over 3,000 displaced people,

Including 1,500 jews.

father, you can hide among us.

-I have to go with them.

They just want to interrogate me again, I'm sure.

God is always by your side, everywhere.

Remember that. All of you.

-Kolbe was arrested by the gestapo

In February of 1941,

And held at pawiak prison,

Where he was tortured

Before he was sent to his final destination in may --

Auschwitz.

My beloved mother, toward the end of may,

I came by train to the auschwitz camp.

All is well with me.

Beloved mama, do not worry for me and for my health,

Because the good god is in every place,

And with great love, he thinks about everyone

And everything.

It would be best not to write to me

Before I send you another letter

Because I do not know how long I will remain here.

With warm greetings and kisses,

Raymond kolbe.

-It's jerzy.

-Too bad for him. Get back in the bunk.

-Stop crying or you'll be clubbed over the head!

I'm sorry, I'm --

What's troubling you, my son?

-I miss my mother.

-She's with you.

She's with you now and always.

I have a mother, too.

-Praise be jesus christ, true god --

-I'm a jew.

-You are my brother.

Get off the ground, priest, and get back to work!

Now!

You! Get back to work!

-Are you alright?

-You're hurt!

-My son.

You've given me a great gift

And I'm beholden to you.

-A gift? -Yes.

You've allowed me to see by the light of your soul.

When you're in need, I'll be here for you.

Go back to work, go back to work.

-I'm sure you are all wondering

Why you have been standing here all day.

Last night,

One of your fellow prisoners escaped from this block.

He is now being hunted down and will soon be dead.

As you know, you are all held responsible.

Poles and jews alike.

You can continue to stand here

Until you're all dead...

Or I can help the process along.

10 of you must die.

So...

Out of the goodness of my heart,

I have decided to let you...

Starve in the bunker

Of block 13.

You.

You.

You. -Oh, no, no! I can't die.

Please don't let me die! Please, please!

Please, my wife will be a widow,

And my children... My children will be fatherless!

Please!

-Excuse me, sir.

I'm a catholic priest.

I would like to take the place of this man.

-Move.

Stand back, priest.

You will speak when you're spoken to.

-Sir, I would like to take the place of this man.

-In the bunker?

I thought that your job was to comfort the living.

-No, this is what I'm here for.

He has family sir.

I have no one.

Please,

I would like to die in place of this man.

-Alright.

Alright, priest.

I will allow you that privilege.

-Thank you, sir.

-You.

You.

You.

Amen.

-Another dead pollack!

-Take...

My hand...

Father.

-I'm here.

I'm here by your side, my brother.

-How could I...

Be dying, father?

How is that...

Possible?

-We are all here together,

We are all...

Here together.

We are all in the hands of god.

It's a mystery.

But he is with us...

My brother.

He is with us.

-This is the last time you look at me.

-Bless you.

-Kolbe was beatified in 1971 by pope paul vi,

And he was canonized by pope john paul ii in 1982.

Franciszek gajowniczek,

The man whose life he saved,

Was present on both occasions.

Kolbe's body was incinerated at the crematorium in auschwitz

On August 14th, 1941.

So, the controversy here with kolbe,

Because, you know, he preached

"the protocols of the elders of zion,"

And made pronouncements about

Zionist conspiracy. -Right.

-It's an interesting thing because he,

Politically and culturally,

Seems to be antisemitic.

-I think it shows the saints are very complex.

They do sinful things, even after their conversion.

But I think it also shows that kolbe was able to be...

Changed in his thinking.

He provides refuge to large groups of people,

Including jews.

I mean, as you say, marty, in the intro,

This is the culture that he was raised in.

This is what he would've been imbibing, you know,

Throughout his whole life, you know, as a catholic.

I mean, in a sense that the miraculous people

Are ones the who aren't antisemitic at that time,

But he does, I do see a conversion in his life

And really, at the end to... You know, as jesus said,

Greater love has no man

Than the one who gives his life for the other.

That, to me, it's an incredible story.

So, he's a really complicated

But extraordinary and inspiring saint for me.

-I was so struck by the fact that kolbe,

Profoundly shaped by poland and polish catholicism,

Went to nagasaki and founded an outpost of his movement there.

And I have to believe that to be a polish catholic

In japan at that time

Is to get some sort of education

In the social construction of reality

And to know that our categories

Are provisional and much more relative than we might think,

You know, if we live in one society all our lives.

The connection I'm trying to make is that I imagine

That that somehow shaped his later openness

To sheltering jews in the convent.

That he'd broken out of polish catholicism,

If only for a short time.

-Yeah, and the key is meeting people, right?

You go from ideas, and theologies, and doctrines

To experiences and individuals.

You know, for example, don't just talk about the poor,

Meet people who are poor.

Don't just talk about homeless people,

Meet someone who is, you know, unhoused.

I mean, that's what jesus does in the gospels, right?

It's not just the leper, or the samaritan, or the centurion.

It's a person, right?

And to get people from his time to understand their stories,

Their experiences, and to meet them as people,

Not just as categories.

And that's what I see in his story.

-I mean, it really starts, too,

When the woman stops him in the street.

-And says, should I feed the jewish people, too?

-Yeah. The man's hungry, feed him.

-And she was surprised, too. -Yeah, and she was surprised.

-To me, the final conclusion of his life

Ratifies everything that came before.

Not that it says antisemitism is okay,

But that this journey that he was on,

Which ultimately leads to his complete sacrifice,

His complete self-gift,

You know, tells us a lot about the spiritual life,

In general, right?

-Basically, his life was life during wartime.

-Yeah. -There was world war I...

His father died...

There was a little break, and they went to war again.

-Exactly. -They were thinking about death

And what you would do in those circumstances all the time

Because that period was a relatively constant war.

-Yeah, I think it's important to see that this culture,

Which I think is so foreign to people today,

This really intense,

Almost overheated catholic culture

Where everything was about the church

And everything revolved around the church...

-How was it overheated, though? Help me understand...

-Well, I mean overheated in the sense --

Just really intense, right?

And constantly talking about the saints, and suffering,

And the sacraments,

I think, in a way that is hard

For modern day catholics to understand,

You know, what that world was like.

And so, for a kid to have an experience like that,

They would have been involved in the lives of the saints.

In a sense, this is a world that is almost as distant from us as,

You know, the world of the early christian church.

-So, I think children now,

Even not in a "overheated" environment,

Have spiritual opinions and spiritual callings.

Do you think, in a way, it's possible for all of us,

Or even in this more secular age?

-Yeah, I mean, I think children are naturally religious,

But I guess what I'm saying is the difference is

You're not telling your son

Everyone outside of the catholic church is going to hell.

You know what I mean? -Not so far...

-There was a pretty common idea in european

Christianity at that time that

Jesus kind of paid a debt by going onto the cross.

"in adam's fall, we sinned all."

And that the sin of adam had to be kind of canceled out

By the crucifixion of jesus.

That's the kind of thinking that kolbe

Would've been familiar with,

That he offered his life as a kind of payback, almost.

Jesus gave his life for us.

Now, it's up to us to give our lives

To kind of balance things out.

-Well, I mean...

-We don't think that way so much anymore,

But it was pretty common at the time, I think.

-Well, and also the way the gospels were interpreted, right?

You know, the so-called blood libel,

Let his blood be upon us as the crowd says.

-Exactly. The sins of the father.

-Yeah, and it wasn't until the second vatican council

Where they finally said

That the jewish people were not responsible,

Then or now, for the death of jesus.

It takes a while, and I think it's important to see,

Without excusing it, where he's coming from

And what he was taught and what his theology was.

And you know, thank god we've moved past that.

-There's no consideration on kolbe's part,

"do I deserve to be in this camp?"

He's already so far past that by the time we see him in the camp.

-Oh, yes.

-Instead of bewailing his fate, he...

Resigned isn't the right word.

A recognition that he's unlikely to leave this place.

And so, how can he live most authentically while he's there?

-I think a lot of people think the martyrs court death,

They want death, they seek death.

-They don't. -They don't.

And there's a sense of, I mean,

The piety at the time would've been,

That was a kind of triumph, but we see what he's doing.

I mean, he's not dying just for the sake of dying.

He's dying for the sake of another person.

It's a sacrifice, and he's doing it,

You know, out of love for this other person,

Which I think really helps us understand, like,

The root of martyrdom, which means witness.

And he is really witnessing the love.

-And witnessing with all nine others in that cell,

You know, dying together.

-There's also a sense in martyrdom, I think,

Where it's a desire to stay with people.

But also, you know, contemporary martyrs

Like the jesuits in el salvador,

The american women in el salvador,

That they're standing with people who are suffering.

And the net result of that is their death.

Right? So, it's not that, again, they choose this death.

It's that by aligning themselves,

And being with, and being in solidarity with people

Who are struggling, they die.

And it's unthinkable for them to leave.

-It's amazing.

-It's not like thomas becket, who tells henry

That he's got to go think it over.

-Exac-- maybe!

-In this moment the commandant says, we're taking 10 of you.

And in that two minutes, the rest of his life is decided.

He is prepared for it,

But it happens more or less instantaneously.

-Yeah, instantaneously.

I mean, one has to understand, too,

That vision that he had as a child,

He understood the two crowns, one is martyrdom.

And in a sense, steeling himself through his life

To be ready when the time comes, if it comes,

For martyrdom.

I think it's something where you think about it a great deal.

You think about death, you think about the pain of it.

You think about the circumstances

In which you should submit yourself to it.

And I think he was probably...

I really don't know, but I'm just saying,

If you're that...

If you have such conviction at such an early age

And it stays with you,

Don't forget his mother was with the benedictines,

His father was franciscan... This is different.

When you're talk about a serious catholic.

This is very, very...

This is the foundation of their lives.

There is no other life.

-He could've picked, you know,

He could have picked self-preservation, right?

But my sense was that at that moment,

For him, there's only one decision to make --

To sacrifice himself.

-Right. -That's right, that's right.