Stanisława Leszczyńska was a polish midwife in Auschwitz

[JustJohn or JJ]

Stanisława Leszczyńska was a polish midwife who was sent to Auschwitz after her and family were discovered helping Jews in a ghetto in Lodz. While at Auschwitz, Leszczyńska is said to have delivered and cared for 3000 babies.

[karl]

J.J.

What a wonderful presentational story of such a strong and loving lady as Miss Leszczynska. A beautiful story to say the least and one to remember by.

Karl

[pieter]

Very good documentary. One error though. The voice over speaks about an allied army that liberated Auchwitz-Birkenau. Auchwitz-Birkenau was liberated by the Soviet army. The photo shows and US soldier with imprisoned concentration camp survivors. That said I agree with Karl's comment. Stanisława Leszczyńska (1896-1974) was a remarkable great woman. She saved many children and must have had a great inner strength, faith, conviction and humanity in that hell on earth which was Auschwitz.

Liberation

The first in the camp complex to be liberated was Auschwitz III, the IG Farben camp at Monowitz; a soldier from the 100th Infantry Division of the Red Army entered the camp around 9 am on Saturday, 27 January 1945. The 60th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front (also part of the Red Army) arrived in Auschwitz I and II around 3 pm. They found 7,000 prisoners alive in the three main camps, 500 in the other subcamps, and over 600 corpses. Items found included 837,000 women's garments, 370,000 men's suits, 44,000 pairs of shoes, and 7,000 kg of human hair, estimated by the Soviet war crimes commission to have come from 140,000 people. Some of the hair was examined by the Forensic Science Institute in Kraków, where it was found to contain traces of hydrogen cyanide, the main ingredient of Zyklon B. Primo Levi described seeing the first four soldiers on horseback approach Auschwitz III, where he had been in the sick bay. They threw "strangely embarrassed glances at the sprawling bodies, at the battered huts and at us few still alive ...":

They did not greet us, nor did they smile; they seemed oppressed not only by compassion but by a confused restraint, which sealed their lips and bound their eyes to the funereal scene. It was that shame we knew so well, the shame that drowned us after the selections, and every time we had to watch, or submit to, some outrage: the shame the Germans did not know, that the just man experiences at another man's crime; the feeling of guilt that such a crime should exist, that it should have been introduced irrevocably into the world of things that exist, and that his will for good should have proved too weak or null, and should not have availed in defence.

Georgii Elisavetskii, a Soviet soldier who entered one of the barracks, said in 1980 that he could hear other soldiers telling the inmates: "You are free, comrades!" But they did not respond, so he tried in Russian, Polish, German, Ukrainian. Then he used some Yiddish: "They think that I am provoking them. They begin to hide. And only when I said to them: 'Do not be afraid, I am a colonel of Soviet Army and a Jew. We have come to liberate you' ... Finally, as if the barrier collapsed ... they rushed toward us shouting, fell on their knees, kissed the flaps of our overcoats, and threw their arms around our legs."


Soviet soldiers of the Red Army in Auschwitz


A doctor, center, of the 322nd Rifle Division of the Red Army walks with a group of survivors at the entrance to the newly-liberated Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland in January of 1945. The Red Army liberated the camp on Jan. 27, 1945. Above the gate is the motto “Arbeit macht frei,” meaning “Work makes you free.”


The image shows Women and children survivors in Mauthausen whom speak to an American liberator through a barbed wire fence.


U.S. Army Cpl. Larry Matinsk puts cigarettes into the extended hands of newly liberated prisoners behind a stockade in the Allach concentration camp on April 30, 1945, in Germany.Credit...United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park

Stanisława Leszczyńska



Stanisława Leszczyńska (born May 8, 1896 in Łódź, died March 11, 1974 there) - Polish midwife imprisoned in the German Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, volunteer called "Mateczka" and Servant of God of the Catholic Church. She described her experiences in the camp in the work The Midwife's Report from Oświęcim, which was written after Leszczyńska's retirement. The first edition of the memoirs took place in "Przegląd Lekarski" in 1965.

Curriculum vitae

Early years

She was the daughter of Jan and Henryka Zambrzycki. Her father was a carpenter, and her mother worked in the textile factory "I.K. "Poznański". In 1908, Stanisława and her entire family went to Rio de Janeiro, where her close relative on her mother's side lived. She returned to the country in 1910, taking up her studies at a pro-gymnasium, which had been interrupted by her departure, and she graduated in 1914. During World War I, she worked in the Committee for Aid to the Poor.

In 1920 she moved to Warsaw, where she started studying at the Midwifery School, graduating with honors in 1922. Just before the outbreak of World War II, the Leszczyńskis lived in Łódź in Bałuty, at ul. Żurawia 7. When a Jewish ghetto was established in this area, they moved to the nearby street. Wspólna 3.



The Second World War

During the German occupation in Łódź, male members of the Leszczyński family operated in the structures of the National Armed Forces (NSZ) in that city.

The entire family was arrested on the night of February 19-20, 1943, during a major mishap for this organization. Stanisława and her daughter were imprisoned in the women's prison at ul. Gdańska 13, while the father and his sons are in prison at ul. S. Sterlinga (then Robert-Koch-Str.) 16. The women were deported to KL Auschwitz-Birkenau (April 17, 1943), while the men, after an investigation and verdict, were transported to KL Gross-Rosen (here from June 23, 1943) through the Radogoszcz prison ).

She worked as a midwife in KL Birkenau (Auschwitz-Birkenau) (prisoner no. 41335). She performed this function until the camp was liberated by the Red Army (January 27, 1945). In this position, contrary to the explicit orders of the camp authorities, she delivered approximately 3,000 babies.



Last years

She described her experiences from the camp in the book Midwife's Report from Oświęcim, which was written after Leszczyńska's retirement in 1957. The first edition of her memoirs took place in "Przegląd Lekarski" in 1965. The book became the basis for the theater rhapsody Oświęcim Oratorio with music by Anna German and Jerzy Maksymiuk (premiere 1970).

The male members of the Leszczyński family also fortunately survived.

She died on March 11, 1974 of cancer, her funeral took place at the St. Peter's Cemetery in Łódź. Rocha at Zgierska Street in Radogoszcz. In 1996, her remains were moved to the church of St. Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Private life

On October 17, 1916, she married Bronisław Leszczyński (born 1888), a typesetter, with whom she had four children: daughter Sylwia and sons: Bronisław, Stanisław and Henryk.

She was the reat-aunt of Anna Lewandowska.



Anna Lewandowska



Anna Lewandowska (née Stachurska; 7 September 1988) is a Polish karateka, personal trainer and entrepreneur. She is a multiple medalist in the World, European, and national Championships. She is married to the footballer Robert Lewandowski.


Link in Polish: pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82awa_Leszczy%C5%84ska

[pieter]

[pieter]