Every history enthusiast and, dare I even say, well, anybody who’s ever taken a history class; know of the atrocities committed by the NAZI regime during the 1930s and early 40s. Concentration camps designed to organize people based on their ethnic and disability traits and proceeded to then either exterminate them, or- use them for slave labor.
But, question, what about the ladies who arrived at the camps pregnant? Well, they would be sent to the infirmary, a small wooden cabin barely able to house 50 people, let alone several thousand. Here, they were met by Stanislawa Leszczynska. a barely 5 ft Polish midwife of 20+ years, who was there because her and her family were caught smuggling gypsies and Jews out of Poland.
Once there, they would be subjected to very poor conditions, wet dirt floors, rats the size of large cats, barely a days worth of food rationing and all kinds of other torturous nonsense. here, stanislawa would care for the women as they gave birth. often giving them her portion of food. Then, this turns my stomach just typing it but, she would give the newborn immediatly after birth to 2 other midwifes, who would then proceed to either drown them outside, or feed them to the rats.
The pregnant mothers, who were slighted for death anyway, would then be executed mere moments after. out of 3000 births stanislawa midwifed between 1943 and 1945, no deaths or miscarriages occurred under her watch. occasionally, a baby would be born with Aryan, or Germanic traits, IE: blond hair, blue eyes, etc. out of 3000, roughly 40 displayed these traits. if so, these babies would be sent to foster homes in Germany to be “Germanified”.
Stanislawa worked under the infamous Dr Joseph Mengala. Once he asked her how many babies died she lose? Believing German birthing to be superior to others. He was astounded to hear that out of the 3000 births, absolutely 0 had died in birth.
in 1970, Poland would house a European midwife and childbirth symposium. Their honored guest, well- you guessed it, Stanislawa. There, she revealed how during every birth, she would hold the mother tight and pray with her and for the child. once the war was over and the camps liberated, Stanislawa returned to Poland were she continued being a midwife in Lodz.
Upon every birth, stanislawa would pray over that child, loudly, thanking God that that child would live.
Upon Stanislawa’s death in 1974, she was honored with several roads throughout Poland being named in her honor. Although 3000 lives were lost during her time at Auschwitz, over 100,000 lives today its estimated, can thank her for assisting in their births.
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