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Ordained a full priest in 1919, Maximilian returned to Poland. There
he taught church history in a seminary, and founded a Franciscan
friary, which soon had over 700 members. He also established a printing
press publishing a number of magazines and a daily newspaper. Eventually,
he travelled to India and Japan, and set up friaries there, but
eventually returned to Poland.
When the Nazis invaded his country in 1939, Maximilian rightly expected
that they would eventually seize his friary, and sent most of the
brothers home. Soon, he was arrested and imprisoned for a short
while, but immediately on release, he used his friary as a safe
house for refugees.
Over 3,000 of them passed through the gates of Maximilian’s
friary, 2,000 of whom were Jews. Although he had been ordered to
cease production as soon as the Nazis invaded, the friary’s
printing presses were turned to producing pamphlets and newspapers
protesting against the Nazi regime. In 1941, the Nazis shut the
community down and Maximilian was arrested again. This time he was
sent to Auschwitz.
Here, despite his ill health, Maximilian was put on a detail carrying
logs, along with a number of other clergymen. If he slackened his
pace, the guards set the dogs on him. If he fell over, he was beaten
up.
Throughout this time, Maximilian made a point of continuing to act
as a priest to the other inmates, hearing confessions, sharing what
little food he had, and giving comfort in every way he could, even
though there were many who were not suffering as badly as he was
himself.
Even when he had been beaten up, Maximilian used his time in the
infirmary to encourage the people there and to hear their confessions.
He even made sure that he was always the last to receive treatment
in the infirmary. Rudolph Diem, the Protestant doctor in the infirmary,
was later to recall:
“I can say with certainty that
during my four years in Auschwitz, I never saw such a sublime example
of the love of God and one's neighbour.”
Next: Taking
a condemned man's place
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