Heroism and sacrifice: The Catholic history of Auschwitz

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Maximilian Kolbe, Edith Stein. Public Domain via Wikipedia.

By Ann Schneible

Rome, Italy, Jul 29, 2016 / 12:20 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis sat quietly in one of Auschwitz's most ominous prison cells, praying in what had been the inhumane living space of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Catholic priest martyred during the Holocaust.

St. Maximilian was one of over a million people estimated to have died in the Auschwitz concentration camps, where the Pope paid a visit on July 29 during his trip to Poland. This August marks the 75th anniversary of his death.

Although the majority of those incarcerated in the death camps were Jews, targeted by the Nazi regime for extermination, many of the victims were Catholics, including priests and religious sisters. St. Maximilian, a Franciscan friar, died in 1941 after asking to take the place of another prisoner who was destined for execution. The following year, Edith Stein, the German Jewish philosopher turned Catholic Carmelite nun, was also killed at Auschwitz, most likely in the gas chambers upon her arrival.

They are joined by countless other Catholics who lost their lives during the Holocaust, many of them for trying to rescue Jews from the Nazis.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/heroism-and-sacrifice-the-catholic-history-of-auschwitz-97544/