'THE SAINT AND HERO AT AUSCHWITZ' AND HIS VISITS TO SRI LANKA IN THE 1930S

This is the final article in the series of articles written about St. Maximilian Kolbe—The Saint and Hero at Auschwitz in view of his 84th death anniversary.

- By Prabhath de Silva

Visit to Nippon Restaurant (now Nippon Hotel) in 1933

“We wanted, however, to visit also a Pole who had been residing there for a long time, Mr. Roszkowski, proprietor of the Nippon Restaurant. We left the harbour, therefore, turned right, and, after some minutes of walking in the midst of the continuous importuning of the merchants, we arrived at a row of small, waiting buses. We looked for one of the fullest-close, therefore, to departing-marked Slave Island, and we climbed up through the back door, into the middle of dark-skinned people, more or less dressed, residents of the area. Barefoot and indistinguishable from the other travellers, the conductor or the owner collected 3 cents from each person, and so, without losing time bothering with tickets, which in any case are a sign of mutual distrust, we get off in front of a recently constructed church, and from there, after barely 15 steps, we reach the Nippon Restaurant.”

Vases of flowers in front of the restaurant. We entered. On the wall, a picture of Our Lady of Czestochowa, and in front of it a small lamp; it was clear that it was the house of a Pole. Then, on top of a small cabinet, there was a statue of the Immaculata sent over from Niepokalanów: he was, therefore, also a reader of Rycerz. The proprietor was seated at a table and was finishing his midday “dinner” (the evening meal is called “supper”), a red dish of a gelatinous type. He immediately stood up: we greeted him and he invited us to eat with him. We drank coffee, ate some sweets, and lost ourselves in conversation. He tells us that he had just returned from hunting.

[When asked] “What kind of game is there in Ceylon?”

[Mr. Roszkowski, proprietor of the Nippon Restaurant, had replied]: