11/14/2025
Auschwitz, 1943: Dr. Mengele ordered her to kill the babies she delivered.
She looked him in the eye and refused.
Over two years, she brought 3,000 babies into hell—and never lost a mother.
The Arrest
Stanisława Leszczyńska was 47 years old, a Catholic midwife from Łódź, Poland, when the N***s arrested her in 1943.
Her crime? Helping Jewish families and Polish resistance members.
On April 17, 1943, she arrived at Auschwitz with her daughter Sylwia. Prisoner number 41335.
Most people sent to Auschwitz were murdered within hours.
But Stanisława had a skill the N***s needed: she was an experienced midwife.
They assigned her to the maternity ward.
The "Ward"
Calling it a "maternity ward" is grotesque.
It was a filthy wooden barrack called Block 24, with three-tier wooden bunks where pregnant women—starved, sick, terrified—waited to give birth.
There was no medicine. No clean water. No anesthesia. No surgical instruments. No diapers or blankets for newborns.
Just wooden boards, darkness, and the smell of death.
Stanisława was expected to deliver babies in conditions where survival was impossible.
And then came the orders.
The Orders
N**i doctors—including Dr. Josef Mengele, the "Angel of Death"—had specific instructions for babies born in Auschwitz.
Jewish babies: Kill them immediately. Usually by drowning.
Polish babies: If they looked "A***n," they might be taken for "Germanization." The rest? Kill them too.
Stanisława was ordered to kill the babies she delivered.
The Refusal
She refused.
"No," she told the N**i doctors. "I will not kill babies."
It should have been a death sentence. Prisoners who refused direct orders were shot, beaten to death, or sent to the gas chambers.
But the N***s had a problem: there were hundreds of pregnant women in the camp. Someone had to deliver those babies. Stanisława was the only trained midwife.
So they let her live.
But they made sure she understood: if she didn't kill the babies, someone else would.
Two Years in Hell
For two years, Stanisława Leszczyńska delivered babies in hell.
She worked with her bare hands, no gloves, no sterilization. She tore strips from her own clothing to tie umbilical cords. She used cold water from the camp's contaminated supply.
She had no pain medication—women gave birth in agony, trying not to scream because screaming could bring guards who would beat them.
She delivered babies in the dark, by feel.
She delivered babies while guards stood nearby, mocking, threatening.
She delivered babies knowing most would die within hours or days.
The Conditions
The conditions made survival almost impossible:
Starvation: Mothers were malnourished, producing little or no breast milk
Cold: Wooden barracks in Polish winter. Newborns froze
Infection: No clean water, no sanitation
Murder: Guards routinely drowned newborns in buckets, in front of their mothers
Of approximately 3,000 babies Stanisława delivered, only a few hundred survived the camp.
Most died within days. Some within hours.
But Stanisława fought for every single one.
The Miracle
She baptized babies in secret when mothers requested it—a dangerous act. She kept hidden records of births. She did everything she could to give these children a chance.
And she achieved something medically extraordinary:
Despite delivering 3,000 babies in the most horrific conditions imaginable—no medicine, no equipment, in filth and darkness, with malnourished mothers—Stanisława never lost a mother during childbirth.
Not one.
Every woman she attended survived the delivery itself.
That doesn't mean they survived the camp. Many were murdered later. Many died from disease or starvation.
But during labor, during those crucial hours of delivery, Stanisława's hands kept them alive.
The Guardian Angel
One survivor, Anka Nathanson, later testified: "She was our guardian angel. In Auschwitz, where there was only death, she brought life."
Another survivor remembered: "She would whisper to us during delivery, 'Think of something beautiful. Think of your baby's future. Don't let them take your hope.'"
Stanisława maintained her humanity in a place designed to destroy it.
The Confrontation
When Mengele came to inspect the maternity ward and demanded to know why she wasn't killing babies, she told him:
"I am a midwife. I bring life. I do not take it."
He could have killed her on the spot.
He didn't.
She delivered babies while her own daughter Sylwia was imprisoned nearby. She didn't know from day to day if Sylwia was alive.
She delivered babies while surrounded by gas chambers and crematoriums.
She brought life into the worst place humanity has ever created.
Liberation
January 1945. The Soviet Army approached Auschwitz.
Stanisława and Sylwia survived. They were liberated and returned to Poland.
After the war, Stanisława testified at trials. She never stopped practicing midwifery. She continued helping mothers and babies until retirement.
In 1970, she wrote "Report of a Midwife from Auschwitz"—clinical, detailed, devastating. She documented everything.
Stanisława Leszczyńska died on March 11, 1974, at age 78.
The Catholic Church began investigating her for beatification—recognizing her as someone who embodied Christian values of protecting life and refusing evil even at risk of death.
Why Her Story Matters
When we talk about the Holocaust, we talk about six million Jews murdered. Eleven million people total.
We don't often talk about pregnancy in the camps. About women giving birth while guards mocked them. About babies born into conditions where survival was impossible.
Stanisława Leszczyńska's story reveals something important: Even in Auschwitz, moral choices existed.
She could have followed orders. Many would have, maybe justifiably, to survive.
She refused.
She chose to bring life, even when life seemed hopeless.
She chose to defy N**i doctors, even when defiance could mean death.
And because of her choice:
Some babies survived
Every mother survived delivery
Women giving birth in hell had someone treating them like human beings
Mothers in the darkest place on Earth had someone whispering, "Think of something beautiful"
The Legacy
Stanisława Leszczyńska delivered 3,000 babies in Auschwitz.
Most died. The conditions made survival nearly impossible.
But she never stopped fighting for life.
She never followed the orders to kill.
She never lost a mother during childbirth.
She was ordered by Mengele himself to murder newborns, and she looked at the man who sent thousands to death and said: "No."
In a place built for death, she brought life.
In a place designed to destroy humanity, she preserved it.
In Auschwitz—where hope itself was supposed to die—a 47-year-old midwife delivered babies with her bare hands and whispered to mothers: "Think of something beautiful."
Her name was Stanisława Leszczyńska.
And she deserves to be remembered.
~Unusual Tales
