Thursday August 14, 1941. The Murder of St. Fr. Maximilian Kolbe

 

Fr. Maximilian Kolbe in 1936.

Father Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish Franciscan friar, was murdered by the Germans at Auschwitz.  He had taken the place of a stranger when a group of men was picked out to be starved to death in an underground bunker as a German act of reprisal for an escape attempt.  Men had been picked out at random to serve as an example, and when one man who was chosen cried out about his children, Fr. Kolbe volunteered.  After a prolonged period of starvation, in which he was found to be constantly leading the victims in prayer, he was given a lethal injection as he remained alive, and the Germans wanted to clear the bunker.

Kolbe had entered religious life after having been profoundly impacted by a vision of the Virgin Mary when a child.  In the vision, the Blessed Mother offered Kolbe a white crown for purity or a red one for martyrdom, and he responded that he'd take both.  Both he and an elder brother became Franciscan.  

Kolbe served in Asia as a Franciscan missionary, but had returned to his native Poland prior to World War Two.  He was imprisoned after the German invasion for refusing to sign the document which would have recognized him as being of German ancestry, as his father was an ethnic German.  In February 1941 the Germans shut down his monastery, which had served to house displaced Poles including Jews, and he was sent to Auschwitz.

He was canonized in 1982.  The man whose life he saved, Franciszek Gajowniczek, was in attendance.

The Atlantic Charter, which was signed on the 12th, was released.  Here's an entry here for the day it was signed, which set the text of the document out.

Somewhat ironically, on this day Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt signed, but did not release, the Atlantic Charter. The document read, as  Churchill's hand edited version below sets forth, as follows:

The document was not issued to the public until two days later:

Set out here, the document states:

The President of the United States and the Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, representing His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom, have met at sea.

They have been accompanied by officials of their two Governments, including high-ranking officers of their military, naval, and air services.

The whole problem of the supply of munitions of war, as provided by the Lease-Lend Act, for the armed forces of the United States, and for those countries actively engaged in resisting aggression, has been further examined.

Lord Beaverbrook, the Minister of Supply of the British Government, has joined in these conferences. He is going to proceed to Washington to discuss further details with appropriate officials of the United States Government. These conferences will also cover the supply problems of the Soviet Union.

The President and the Prime Minister have had several conferences. They have considered the dangers to world civilization arising from the policies of military domination by conquest upon which the Hitlerite government of Germany and other governments associated therewith have embarked, and have made clear the steps which their countries are respectively taking for their safety in the face of these dangers.

They have agreed upon the following joint declaration:

"The President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, representing His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom, being met together, deem it right to make known certain common principles in the national policies of their respective countries on which they base their hopes for a better future of the world.

First, their countries seek no aggrandizement, territorial or other;

Second, they desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned;

Third, they respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self-government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them;

Fourth, they will endeavor, with due respect for their existing obligations, to further the enjoyment by all states, great or small, victor or vanquished, of access, on equal terms, to the trade and to the raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic prosperity;

Fifth, they desire to bring about the fullest collaboration between all nations in the economic field with the object of securing, for all, improved labor standards, economic advancement, and social security;

Sixth, after the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny, they hope to see established a peace which will afford to all nations the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries, and which will afford assurance that all the men in all the lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want;

Seventh, such a peace should enable all men to traverse the high seas and oceans without hindrance;

Eighth, they believe that all of the nations of the world, for realistic as well as spiritual reasons, must come to the abandonment of the use of force. Since no future peace can be maintained if land, sea, or air armaments continue to be employed by nations which threaten, or may threaten, aggression outside of their frontiers, they believe, pending the establishment of a wider and permanent system of general security, that the disarmament of such nations is essential. They will likewise aid and encourage all other practicable measures which will lighten for peace-loving peoples the crushing burden of armaments.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL.

Notable, the document referenced "the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny", committing the Administration publically to the destruction of Nazi Germany even though the US was technically a neutral at the time.

The charter would be one of the various items used as the source of posters during the war.

Also, on this day, the Administration announced an application of the Monroe Doctrine, and provided that German submarines would not be allowed to attack shipping in the Western Hemisphere.