Despite the horror that unfolded around her, Polish midwife Stanislawa Leszczynska helped pregnant women in Auschwitz deliver their children as comfortably as possible. At times she saved both the mothers and babies from certain death. While Leszczynska and the Nazi doctors who supervised her believed few babies would survive a full-term pregnancy because of rampant disease and malnutrition, she didn't lose a single baby the entire time she practiced midwifery in the camp. Young StanisBawa LeszczyDska
Leszczynska was a Polish Catholic woman born to a carpenter in 1896. As a child, Leszczynska's mother worked long shifts at a factory while her father was away at war in Turkestan. Leszczynska was able to attend school and completed high school in 1914 just as World War I broke out. In 1916 Leszczynska married a printer, BronisBaw LeszczyDski, and by 1919 she had a son and daughter. In 1920 her family moved to Warsaw and she began to study midwifery. By 1923 she had given birth to two more sons and began working full-time as a midwife.
Auschwitz Nazi Germany invaded Poland at the start of World War II, and the Leszczynska family was forced to move when their neighborhood was transformed into a Jewish ghetto under Nazi occupation. The family was sympathetic towards the Jewish community and was caught delivering food, false documents, and other items needed for survival to Jewish families. Leszczynska was brought to the Gestapo in 1943, and her young children were also arrested. Her husband and oldest son were able to avoid capture, but her husband eventually died in the Warsaw Uprising before Leszczynska could see him again.
Gates of Auschwitz
After Leszczynska was interrogated by the Gestapo, they sent her and her 24-year-old daughter to Auschwitz and tattooed them with the numbers 41335 and 41336. Leszczynska's daughter had been a medical student before her capture, so both Leszczynska and her daughter were sent to work in the maternity ward. There they met Dr. Josef Mengele, Auschwitz's notoriously evil prison doctor. Leszczynska's experience as a midwife soon became one of her most valuable assets, and is quite possibly what helped save her and her daughter's lives.
Poster Comment:
As I said, the writer is Jewish. But 3,000 babies being delivered and surviving the war is the real story.