Midwife Who Saved Hundreds of Newborn Babies from Nazis to be Honored

LifeSiteNews ^ | 9/29/10 | Patrick B. Craine

[wagglebee]

ROME, September 29, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The late Polish midwife Stanislawa Leszczynska will be honoured in a display at the 5th World Prayer Congress for Life in Rome next month for her heroic efforts in saving hundreds of newborn babies from a brutal end at Auschwitz.

Before she arrived at the camp in April 1943, all the newborns of prisoners in the infamous Nazi concentration camp were drowned and allowed to be ripped apart by rats before his or her mother’s eyes.

But, as Matthew M. Anger reports in his article ‘Midwife at Auschwitz’, Leszczynska refused to carry out the Germans’ order to kill the babies – even opposing the infamous Dr. Mengele – and, amazingly, was allowed to carry on unimpeded.

During her time at Auschwitz, Leszczynska delivered over 3,000 babies.  Half of those were murdered and another thousand died from the horrible conditions in the camp.  But those with blond hair and blue eyes, about 500, were sent to be raised as Germans, and another 30 survived the camp.

In her ‘Raport from Auschwitz,’ Leszczynska described how the pregnant women were plagued with intense hunger and extreme cold, and faced a severe lack of medicine and water.  She and others had to work day and night to keep away the rats, which would gnaw off the noses, ears, fingers, and feet of the sick.  “Rats with their diet of human flesh grew to sizes of large cats,” she said.

During Leszczynska’s entire time at the camp, no mother or baby died under her care.  Asked by her supervising doctor to report on the death rate, she reported this fact to his astonishment.  “Lagerarzt looked at me in disbelief,” she recounts.  “Even the most sophisticated German clinics at universities, he said, could not claim such a success rate.”

While she suggested in her ‘Raport’ that "the emaciated organisms were too barren a medium for bacteria,” Anger reports that her children and other inmates called it a miracle.

Leszczynska was able to use a secret tattoo under the newborns’ armpit to help many of the families reunite after the war.  “As long as a newborn was together with the mother, motherhood itself created a ray of hope. Separation with the newborn was overwhelming,” she said.  “The thought of a possibility of future reunion with their children helped many women go through this ordeal.”

The cause for Leszczynska’s beatification in the Catholic Church is underway.  The Stanislawa Leszczynska Foundation, led by members of her family, is working on a feature film about her life.

The 5th World Prayer Congress for Life, organized by Human Life International and a number of other major pro-life organizations, will be held in Rome from October 5th to 10th, featuring many of the major figures in the worldwide pro-life movement and various high-level Vatican officials.

LifeSiteNews Editor-in-Chief John-Henry Westen will address the Congress on how to communicate the Catholic Church’s teaching on sexuality in a hostile culture.

Click here to register to attend the Congress.

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Major Rome Pro-Life Conference Brings out Vatican Heavy Hitters
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/aug/10081103.html

[wagglebee]

During Leszczynska’s entire time at the camp, no mother or baby died under her care. Asked by her supervising doctor to report on the death rate, she reported this fact to his astonishment. “Lagerarzt looked at me in disbelief,” she recounts. “Even the most sophisticated German clinics at universities, he said, could not claim such a success rate.”

God was definitely watching over this remarkable woman!

[wagglebee]

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[Viking2002]

'Midwife Who Saved Hundreds of Newborn Babies from Nazis to be Honored'

......as opposed to George Soros, who couldn't point them out to the Nazis fast enough in order to save his closet Commie neck.

"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away, for his name is Obama."

[GOPJ]

Great post - thanks wagglebee.

[Jaded]

Thanks.

[Domestic Church]

Bump for life!

[Liberty Ship]

Thank you for a wonderful article. I shall rest comfortable knowing that [sarcasm on] it can’t happen here [sarcasm off].

[wita]

God was definitely watching over this remarkable woman!

My thought as well, and though many would take issue with the thought, knowing how much brutality, and pure evil was taking place, there were never the less miraculous events in the lives of many.

I would say most of today’s world could not conceive of the conditions in the camps. I have read extensively on the subject, but that doesn’t come close to being there and experiencing what they were going through. To live through it and come out whole, or sane, would be a blessing in itself.

To live it and serve others at the same time, as many did, was a miracle in itself and a testimony of religious faith be they Jew or Christian.

[MS.BEHAVIN]

Thank you, Wagglebee!
What an incredible lady!

[holly go-rightly]

thank you for posting this.

[wagglebee]

I have had the privilege of knowing a few people who survived the Holocaust and have spoken to them about the concentration and death camps, the horrors they described are unimaginable.

[wita]

the horrors they described are unimaginable.

All the more difficult to understand why Mr Obama has it in for this country. A complete lack of understanding and wisdom in regard to what and who he is ruling.

[Salvation]

Ping!

[bboop]

Does anyone know whether this woman was a doctor working for the Nazis or a prisoner who happened to be a doctor who was assigned to this task? Just curious. Amazing story.

[wagglebee]

Stanislawa Leszczynska was a midwife, she and her family were sent to Auschwitz for their work with the Resistance.

You can read more here:
http://stanislawa.org/

[Bellflower]

A book should definitely be written about her if it has not already been done. I would love to read it.

[fortunecookie]

God was definitely watching over this remarkable woman!

BTTT! Wow! A remarkable woman, a remarkable story. It's amazing that hearing of her remarkable success rate, that the Nazis didn't try to somehow 'correct' for that at some point. God was truly watching over her and her many mothers and babies.

[Mrs. Don-o]

This is surely related, since now suppressing whole populations is to be done in a kind, gentle, eugenic way, with as much "humanitarian" cover as possible. Check out this quote from Alan Guttmacher, the man after whom the research arm of Planned Parenthood is named:

"If you're going to curb population, it's extremely important not to have it done by the damned Yankees, but by the UN. Because, the thing is, then it's not considered genocide. If the United States goes to the black man or the yellow man and says slow down your reproductive rate, we're immediately suspected of having ulterior motives to keep the white man dominant in the world. If you can send in a colorful UN force, you've got much better leverage."