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For two years she was a midwife in the camp, where thanks to her no child was born still. Stanisława Leszczyńska made it possible for women – in inhumane conditions – to experience the miracle of birth. In her honor, we celebrate the Polish Midwife’s Day – May 8, her birthday.
- Stanisława Leszczyńska was born in 1896 in Łódź. Before the war, she graduated from the Maternity School. For helping Jews, she and her daughter were sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp
- She was a midwife in the camp. She received about 3 thousand. childbirths
- After leaving Auschwitz, she continued to work in the profession. After retiring, she began to write “Report of a midwife from Oświęcim”
- In honor of Stanisława Leszczyńska, on her birthday (May 8), we celebrate the Polish Midwife’s Day
Stanisław’s mother
Stanisława Leszczyńska is a Polish midwife and prisoner of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, where received about 3 thousand. childbirths. She carried hope where it was lacking. She fought for every baby. She took care of children and women preparing for childbirth in the camp. Protecting her charges, she opposed the orders of Josef Mengele himself. That is why she was called “Mother”. She described her experiences in the “Report of a midwife from Oświęcim”, in which she admitted that although all the children were born and alive, their fate was a foregone conclusion.
Until May 1943, children born in the camp were cruelly murdered: they were drowned in a barrel […]. After each delivery […], the ears of the obstetricians could hear loud gurgling and a long splash of water, sometimes lasting. Soon after, the mother was able to see the body of her child thrown in front of the block and being torn by the rats.
Midwife with honors
Stanisława Leszczyńska was born in 1896 in Łódź. At the age of 20, she married the printer Bronisław Leszczyński, who later died in the Warsaw Uprising. They had four children with him: a daughter and three sons. Before the war, she graduated with honors from the Obstetrics School, and during the war, along with her whole family, she was involved in helping Jews organized by the National Armed Forces.. They were all arrested by the Gestapo for this. On April 17, 1943, Stanisława and her daughter were taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the sons were taken to Gross-Rosen.
Childbirth on the camp stove
Stanisław Leszczyńska was assigned the camp number 41335. Almost from the beginning of her stay in Auschwitz, she was a midwife. She applied for this function when a German delivering childbirth fell ill. Leszczyńska’s referral to work put an end to the killing of newborns, which she strongly opposed. The midwife gave births on the chimney running along the barrack. Women gave birth on the stove (burned in it only a few times a year). Leszczyńska had to organize everything herself: water to wash the baby and a cloth or a piece of paper to wrap it after giving birth. She had no dressings at her disposal, but a dirty, lousy blanket instead. She baptized every newborn baby right away.
Despite the terrifying mass of dirt, vermin of all kinds, rats and infectious diseases, lack of water and other inexpressible horrors, something extraordinary was happening there.
Thirty of the children whom Stanisława Leszczyńska welcomed into the world lived to see the liberation of the camp. The rest died of hunger and cold. Several hundred newborns from Auschwitz were transported to Nakło in order to de-nationalize them. German midwives drowned over 1,5 thousand. kids. Leszczyńska never lost the sense of her work.
She survived Auschwitz and became an inspiration
After leaving Auschwitz, the midwife continued to work in the profession until 1958. After her retirement, she began to write “The Midwife’s Report from Oświęcim”, which appeared in episodes in “Przegląd Lekarski”. The camp heroine died in 1974 of an intestinal cancer. The book by Magdalena Knedler, “The Midwife from Auschwitz”, was written on the basis of her story. On the anniversary of Stanisława Leszczyńska’s birth, which falls on May 8, we celebrate Polish Midwife’s Day in her honor.
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