Choosing Death to Find Life

By Stephanie Raha, Editor-in-chief, The Christophers
August is a quiet month without any major holidays.  People often take vacations to get away from the heat of summer.  Yet it was in August, 1945, three months after Germany capitulated to the Allies, that World War II reached its hard-fought end when Japan agreed to an unconditional surrender after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

What waste and death over those many years of war…  Not only did death claim the combatants, but civilians in the wrong place at the wrong time often suffered the same fate.  And then there were those men, women and children who were murdered simply because of their heritage, their faith, or their lack of “perfection” – people who got in the way of an ideology that could not tolerate those who were different. 
One of those different people was Father Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish Conventual Franciscan who was renowned for his deep devotion to God through Mary and his use of both print and radio to share that spiritual fervor.  Despite serious health problems, he was arrested by the Nazis in 1941 and imprisoned in Auschwitz where he served his fellow prisoners, even hearing confessions in the dark of night.  One day there was an escape and, in retaliation, the commander of the concentration camp chose ten men to die of starvation.  When one of those chosen cried out that he had a wife and children, Father Kolbe stepped forward and offered to take his place.  The priest was thrown into a cell with the others, but when he was still alive after a few weeks he was given a lethal injection and died on August 14, 1941. 
Another chosen for death was Carmelite Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.  Born Edith Stein to parents who were German Jews, her studies in philosophy as a university student led her to the Catholic Church.  During the 1920’s, Stein was well-known for her writing, speaking and teaching, but she felt a strong call to consecrate her life to God as a nun which she did in 1934.  When the Nazis came to power, fearing that her presence might compromise the safety of the other nuns, she was smuggled into a convent in the Netherlands.  But in the summer of 1942, the Dutch bishops denounced Nazi atrocities.  In response, the Nazis rounded up all the Christians who had been born Jews.  Sister Teresa and her own sister Rosa, who had also converted and was working at the convent, were arrested.  As they were led out, Sister Teresa said, “Come, we are going for our people.”  Like so many of her fellow Jews, she died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz on August 9, 1942. 
Then there was Franz Jagerstatter, an Austrian farmer who refused to serve in the German army.  As a youth, he had been somewhat wild, but after he was married, he drew much closer to his Catholic roots.  Convinced that Nazism was evil and that the war was unjust, this simple man with a profound faith refused to go against his conscience even though family, friends and even church officials tried to get him to change his mind and save his life.  He wrote from prison, “If I must write with my hands in chains, I find that much better than if my will were in chains.  Neither prison nor chains nor sentence of death can rob a man of faith and his free will.  God gives so much strength that it is possible to bear any suffering.”  Tried and condemned to death for sedition, Jagerstatter was beheaded in Berlin on August 9, 1943.  
These extraordinary people refused to back down in the face of evil.  They chose instead to be servants of God despite the cost.  Franz Jagerstatter said that “discipleship to Christ requires heroism.”  Three heroes…three martyrs…three saints said “yes” to their Lord on three August days, not really so long ago.  
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