Fifty years ago died one of the most remarkable women of the 20th century. You have probably never heard of Stanisława Leszczyńska. Few people have. Yet she was a model of heroism and humanity who should be acclaimed around the globe.
Stanisława was a Polish midwife who worked for two years in the maternity ward at Auschwitz. Yes, there was such a place. Most pregnant women who arrived at the death camp were sent straight to their death. But not all of them were and some women became pregnant in the camp. As a result, thousands of babies were born in a place that has become a byword for cruelty.
The maternity ward was a small part of the blocks for women prisoners. It consisted of about 30 bunks near a brick stove which served as a bed for childbirth. There might have been three or four women in each bunk. Conditions were indescribably foul. Most women had dysentery; rats as big as cats swarmed in the unheated sheds, devouring corpses. Every day 10 or 20 women died. There was almost no fresh water.
In this place of torment Stanisława Leszczyńska delivered 3,000 babies.
As she recalled later on, “Contrary to all expectations and in spite of the extremely inauspicious conditions, all the babies born in the concentration camp were born alive and looked healthy at birth. Nature defied hatred and extermination and stubbornly fought for her rights, drawing on an unknown reserve of vitality.
Stanisława was born in the city of Łódź in 1896. She married a printer, Bronisław Leszczyński, during World War I and they eventually had four children. She qualified as a midwife in 1922. She was deeply religious — which may help to explain her resilience and courage in the death camp. According to a profile in Church Life Journal, “After graduating with honors, Stanisława knelt in a church and consecrated her work as a midwife to the Blessed Mother, vowing that if ever she lost a baby she would give up midwifery.”
When the Germans invaded Poland, the Leszczyński family became involved in the Polish resistance. Bronisław died in the Warsaw uprising; Stanisława and her children helped Jews in the Łódź ghetto by delivering food and false documents but in 1943 they were caught by the Gestapo. Two of her sons were sent to a slave labor camp; she and her daughter Sylwia were sent to Auschwitz. The numbers tattooed on their forearms were 41335 and 41336.