Father Maximillian Kolbe, SP3RN is recognized by the Catholic church as the patron saint of amateur radio. After the Polish occupation and in the early years of World War II he used his station to report on the atrocities being committed by the Nazis on the Poles.
I guess he didn't agree that amateur radio is "just a hobby"....
In the end he volunteered to be sent to a concentration camp instead of another man.
From the accounts I read, he and the others were already in Auschwitz.
He volunteered to be one of those slowly killed by starvation and dehydration. After three weeks he was still alive - the last one of the condemned group left - so they killed him with an injection.
He knew from the start that he was volunteering for a slow and terrible death but he did it anyway to save a man with a family.
He died the day before the holy day of the Assumption (of Mary). I suspect that meant something to him.
A true hero.
73 de Jim, N2EY