A surprising miracle of Divine Mercy in Auschwitz

I only visited Auschwitz once.

It is not a place I would like to return to soon.

Although that visit was many years ago, Auschwitz is a place not to be forgotten.

Whether it's the large silent rooms with glass screens, behind which lie the piled-up remains of confiscated clothes and luggage, glasses and ID cards or (worse still) the teeth or hair extracted from the prisoners of that concentration camp; or, the persistent smell of gas around the camp incinerator chimneys; or the fact that what is said about birdsong is not heard in Auschwitz is true - whatever it is, Auschwitz is not an easy place to forget. Like a bad dream, he lingers in the memory of his awakening. This alone was a far too real nightmare for those unfortunate enough to be jailed inside his barbed wire fences.

St. Maximilian Kolbe

One of these inmates was the Polish priest, now a holy martyr, Maximilian Kolbe. He arrived in Auschwitz on May 28, 1941. No longer a man with a name, he had instead become prisoner no. 16670.

Two months later, Kolbe offered his life to save another prisoner who was previously unknown to the priest but who had been sentenced to death by starvation. Kolbe's offer has been accepted. It was handed over to the hunger bunker in the basement of Block 11, known as the "Death Block". Eventually, Kolbe died on August 14, 1941, after receiving a lethal injection.

After visiting the block where the saint had given his life, it was time to leave Auschwitz. In fact, if the truth were known, I couldn't get away quickly enough from that place.

The fall of Rudolf Höss

Years later I heard an unexpected story about Auschwitz. Yet perhaps it is not that unexpected. In that field where so much evil abounded, there was also grace.

Rudolf Höss, a former Auschwitz commander, was born into a devoted German Catholic family. World War I followed an unhappy childhood. Aged only 17, Höss served in the German imperial army as an admitted officer. In the national chaos that followed the defeat of his country, Höss returned home. He was soon involved with right-wing paramilitary groups.

It was in Monaco in March 1922 that his life was changed forever. It was then that he heard the voice of a "prophet", calling him once again to the cause of the Fatherland. It was a decisive moment for the future commander of Auschwitz, since the voice that pierced him was that of Adolf Hitler.

It was also the time when 21-year-old Höss renounced his Catholic faith.

From that moment on Höss's path was clear. His involvement in a Nazi-inspired murder followed - then in prison, before his eventual release in 1928 as part of a general amnesty for prisoners. Later, he met the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler. And soon Höss celebrated in Hitler's death camps. Another world war led to the eventual destruction of the homeland. A failed escape attempt by the allies in progress led Höss to a Nuremberg court to face charges of perpetrating war crimes.

"I commanded Auschwitz until 1 December 1943, and I estimated that at least 2.500.000 victims were executed and exterminated there by gas and burns, and at least another half a million succumbed to hunger and disease, for a total of about 3.000.000 .XNUMX dead, "Höss admitted to his captors.

The verdict has never been in doubt. Nor was it worth it: in that same courtroom, 45-year-old Höss was sentenced to death by hanging.

The salvation of Rudolf Höss

The day after the verdict, former Auschwitz inmates petitioned the court to execute Höss on the basis of the former extermination camp. German prisoners of war were instructed to erect a gallows there.

Somewhere, buried under the debris of his years adoring a false prophet, the fact of his baptism, of his Catholic education and, some say, of his first desire to become a priest remained. Whether it was the remnant of these things or simply fear, Höss, knowing that he was going to die, asked to see a priest.

His captors have struggled to find one. In despair, Höss remembered a name: Father Władysław Lohn. This Polish Jesuit was the only survivor of a Jesuit community who had died in Auschwitz years earlier. The Gestapo had arrested the Krakow Jesuits and sent them to Auschwitz. Superior Jesuit p. Lohn, finding out what had happened, went to the camp. He was brought before the commander. The priest, who was later allowed to leave unharmed, had impressed Höss. Now that his execution was approaching, Höss asked his captors to find the priest.

It was April 4, 1947 - Good Friday.

In the end, and just in time, they found him. April 10, 1947, p. Lohn heard Höss's confession and the next day, on Friday of Easter week, the condemned man received Holy Communion.

The following day the prisoner wrote to his wife:

“Based on my current knowledge, I can see today clearly, severely and bitterly for me, that the whole ideology of the world in which I believed so firmly and relentlessly was based on completely wrong premises. ... And so my actions in the service of this ideology were completely wrong. … My departure from my belief in God was based on completely wrong premises. It was a tough fight. But again I found my faith in my God. "

The last run in block 11

On the morning of April 16, 1947, military guards stood around Auschwitz when Höss arrived. He was taken to the building that had once been the commander's office. There he asked and was given a cup of coffee. After drinking it, he was taken to a cell in Block 11 - the "Block of Death" - the same block in which St. Maximilian Kolbe had died. Here Höss had to wait.

Two hours later he was led from Block 11. His captors noticed how calm the handcuffed prisoner was as he walked briskly across the field to the waiting gallows. The executioners were to help Höss climb the stool above the gallows hatch.

The sentence was read while the executioner placed a noose around the neck of the condemned man who, in this place, had ordered the death of so many others. Then, when silence fell, the hanged man withdrew and took off the stool.

After his death, a letter written by Höss was published in Polish newspapers. It reads like this:

“In the solitude of my prison cell, I came to bitter recognition. . . I caused unspeakable suffering ... but the Lord God has forgiven me ".

The greatest attribute of God

In 1934 Höss had joined SS-Totenkopfverbände. These were the SS Death Head Units, charged with the administration of the Nazi concentration camps. Later that year, in his new designation, he began his first assignment in Dachau.

In 1934 her sister, later a saint, Faustina Kowalska began keeping a diary detailing the revelations she was experiencing on what would become the devotion known as Divine Mercy.

In his diary these words are attributed to Our Lord: "Proclaim that mercy is the greatest attribute of God."

When in April 1947 the Höss kidnappers went to look for Fr. Lohn, they found him in nearby Krakow.

He was praying in the Shrine of Divine Mercy.