I encountered two thoughtful works recently. One is timely; the other, enduring.
The timely work was a recent essay by Peggy Noonan, “In Love With Death.” In it Noonan muses on the unfolding tragedy of the forced starvation of Terri Schiavo (11 days and counting) and its ominous undertones:
When a society comes to believe that human life is not inherently worth living, it is a slippery slope to the gas chamber. You wind up on a low road that twists past Columbine and leads toward Auschwitz.
Auschwitz. That leads me to the other work, the enduring one. It is a recent music purchase ? Wojciech Kilar’s Requiem Father Kolbe. The music memorializes a martyr of the 20th Century, a Father Maximilian Kolbe, victim of the Gestapo. It is a dark work, imbued with inescapable dread, but it concludes with something approaching prayerful apotheosis, warming as if heaven’s gates were opening to greet the saint. The concluding theme is reminiscent of the hymn “I Surrender All,” which may be deliberate or merely a coincidence, although particularly apt given the subject matter.
For Father Kolbe sacrificed himself in the place of another prisoner ? to be starved to death, at Auschwitz. There are many sites online with the story. Here is an excerpt from one of them:
It was late in July 1941 that a prisoner in his own block escaped. By three o’clock the prisoner was still not found and Fritch selected his victims. One of them, Francis Gajowniczek, cried out, “My poor wife, my poor children! What will happen to my family!”
At that moment Maximilian stepped forward. Fritz bellowed, “What does this Polish pig want?” The reply came: “I am a Catholic priest from Poland. I would like to take his place, because he has a wife and children.” A Witness recalls: “From astonishment, the commandant appeared unable to speak. After a moment he gave a sign with the hand. He spoke but one word: ‘Away!’ Gajowniczek received the command to return to the row he had just left. In this manner Father Maximilian took the place of the condemned man.” He was then sent to the starvation chamber.
The Gestapo did not starve Father Kolbe to death, however. After depriving him of food and water for 10 days, they dragged him out still alive, weakly whispering his prayers, and killed him with an injection of carbolic acid.
