St. Maximilian Kolbe was born on January 8, 1894 in Poland. He became a Conventual Franciscan and in 1918 was ordained a priest in Rome. Out of deep filial devotion to Our Lady, he established sodality called the Militia of Mary Immaculate and promoted its growth in Poland and other parts of the world. After serving as a missionary in Japan, he returned to Poland and during World War II was imprisoned and suffered great hardship, including beatings and lashings, in Auschwitz. At the end of July 1941, three prisoners disappeared from the camp, resulting in the deputy camp commander to pick ten men to be starved to death in an underground bunker to deter further escape attempts. One of selected prisoners cried out, “My wife! My children!”, Kolbe volunteered to take his place.
According to a witness, St. Maximilian led the prisoners in prayer to Our Lady in his prison cell. After two weeks of dehydration and starvation, only St. Maximilian remained alive. The guards wanted the bunker emptied, so they gave him a lethal injection of carbolic acid on August 14. His remains were cremated on August 15, the feast day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.
I find it interesting that less than a year later, August 9, 1942, Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross suffered her martyrdom at this infamous concentration camp. Saint Maximilian led the way.