The Midwife of Auschwitz

The Midwife of Auschwitz is the first of five historical novels by British author Ana Stuart. These works focus on the roles of women during World War II. Stuart based The Midwife of Auschwitz on the historical figure Stanislawa Leszczyńska, a midwife in Łơdź, Poland. Like protagonist Ana Kaminski, the Nazis sent Stanislawa to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where she delivered over 3,000 babies. Stanislawa also discovered a way to tattoo the babies with their mothers’ registration numbers. These babies, who were fair-haired, were kidnapped by Nazis and taken to Germany to replenish the so-called Aryan population decimated by the war. Ana and her protégé, Ester, make a pact to survive the war and return to Łơdź to reunite with their husbands. The author notes that, while many characters are fictional, she used historical accounts to ensure the accuracy of the events described.

This guide refers to the 2022 Bookouture paperback version.

Content Warning: This novel depicts the Holocaust. It describes violence perpetrated by the Nazis, including executions of individuals based on their race, as well as infanticide, sexual assault, rape, arson, and attempted murder. The source material records emotional abuse and the deaths of infants and adults from starvation and illness.

Plot Summary

Part 1 of The Midwife of Auschwitz takes place in Łơdź before to the 1939 invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany. A young Jewish couple, nurse Ester and tailor Filip, meet every day on the steps of the St. Stanislaw Cathedral. On September 1, the Germans invade, and Filip proposes. Ester accepts but worries about the war.

Two months later, the Nazis overwhelm the Polish Home Army, and the couple marries in a synagogue. Among the guests are Ana and Bartek Kaminski. Ana is the midwife who delivered Ester as an infant. SS officers interrupt the celebration, intending to destroy every synagogue. Bartek pretends to be sympathetic with the Nazis, suggesting that they force the wedding guests into the street to witness the synagogue’s destruction.

Nazis decree that Jews cannot work as tailors. Ester becomes the family breadwinner. Filip tells her that all Jewish residents must relocate. The couple finds a small apartment. Both sets of parents will live with them. Nazis come to Ana Kaminski’s home, demanding that they move out because the home is within the area designated for the Jewish ghetto. They relocate to a home formerly owned by a Jewish family. After delivering a baby one night, Ana walks past the ghetto and realizes the Nazis have sealed it. From inside, Ester greets her, and they discuss the enclosure. One evening, Filip prepares supper with actual beef from Hans, a German officer for whom Ester’s 15-year-old sister, Leah, works. Ester and her family warn Leah against getting too close to Hans.

On Christmas Eve, Ana’s family sits down to enjoy their holiday meal. They discuss the deprivation experienced by Jews in the ghetto, who have even less food than Poles outside the ghetto. The family takes their meal to the fence around the ghetto, where they and other non-Jewish families hand food to starving Jewish citizens. Ana’s family decides to find more resources to share.

The population of the ghetto increases as the Nazis force Jews from smaller communities into the Łơdź compound. Ester invites the family of newcomer Martha into her apartment; there are five families in a two-bedroom dwelling. As they pass the ghetto square, they hear Rumkowski, the elder appointed spokesman by the Nazis, tell of a spacious work camp called Auschwitz where Jews can relocate. When Hans makes sexual advances toward Leah, her family relocates her. Ana learns that Auschwitz and the smaller Chelmno facility are concentration camps where Nazis kill Jews. Ana sends Ester a package containing a false death certificate for Leah, information about the death camps, and instructions on how to sneak Leah out of Łơdź. SS officers begin rounding up all elderly and infirm Jews for deportation to Auschwitz. Rumkowski announces that, in addition to the sick and elderly, all minor children must go on the trains to Auschwitz. Ruth and Sarah, the mothers of Ester and Filip, beg them to flee from the ghetto while they can. Ana and the resistance group attempt to free the couple three times. SS officers arrive at Ana’s home; they know the family works with the resistance. They arrest Ana and her two younger sons, Zander and Jakub.

Part 2 begins with a description of Ester trying to prevent the Jewish Police from relocating her infirm mother, Ruth; as a result, SS soldiers also detain Ester. As they board the train to Auschwitz, Ester sees Ana in the cattle car. During the night ride, Ruth dies after exacting a promise from Ana to accept Ester as her daughter. The women get off in Auschwitz II, or Birkenau. Doktor Rohde, the officer who decides whether they will live or die, determines that Ana and Ester are medical caregivers. After guards strip them, shave them, and issue them prison smocks, Rohde sends Ana and Ester to Block 17, the Birkenau maternity unit. They soon help a mother deliver a baby only to watch Klara, the Jewish prison matron, execute the infant. The maternity unit moves to Block 24, which is better suited for delivering infants. Ester befriends an optimistic Jewish girl with Greek roots named Naomi; she puts Ester and Ana in touch with Mala, who can locate and bring them any mail addressed to them from the outside. Over the months, Ana receives three small packages from Bartek, and Ester receives a letter from Filip.

A pair of SS officers tell Ana and Ester of the Lebensborn programme, a Nazi-led effort to replenish the supply of fair-haired Germans as the Nazis lose soldiers on the Russian front. The officers regularly kidnap babies born with light-colored hair. Ana notes physical changes in Ester: She is pregnant. Since both she and Filip are fair-haired, she knows the SS will steal her baby. Naomi confides that she too is probably pregnant by a fair-haired Nazi supply officer. Yearning to track the stolen infants, Ester conceives a plan to tattoo them with their mothers’ registration numbers.

The sadistic SS prison matron Irma Grese summons all the women into the bitter cold on Christmas Eve. She mocks Christianity and Judaism with a faux Christmas tree set up on the bodies of dead prisoners. Ana sings Silent Night, and all the other women join in. That night, Ester goes into labor, and her daughter, Filipa—nicknamed Pippa—arrives on Christmas day. She tattoos her registration number in the baby’s armpit, knowing the SS will take her.

By the summer of 1943, several trains carrying Jews and other prisoners from across Europe arrive at Birkenau daily. Most go straight to the gas chamber, and Jewish workers burn their bodies in one of four crematoria. With these new arrivals, Ana and Ester remain busy delivering babies. When Nazi matron Maria Mandel hangs Mala after her escape attempt, Mala instead attempts death by suicide before she is shot.

When Naomi’s baby, Isaac, arrives, Ester and Ana trick Klara into believing it was a stillbirth. They conceal the presence of Naomi’s baby. With winter approaching, the maternity unit moves into the former quarters of Roma women. Klara dies of tuberculosis. In the middle of the night, Nazi guards tell all the women they must march to a new location, far from Birkenau. Ana and Ester say they must stay behind to help mothers in labor. Naomi conceals herself beneath a pile of bodies until the guards leave, then rejoins her friends in the almost-empty camp. With no electricity, water, or food, Ana and Ester find all the barracks locked. They hear the voices of children and locate a barracks of 50 youths. A week passes; they struggle to find food. The Russian Red Army enters the camp, stunned at the sight of dead bodies and emaciated, freezing survivors.

Part 3 follows the return of Ana and Ester to Łơdź. They ride for 16 days in a caravan of horse-drawn carts. Ana goes to the home she owned with Bartek and finds all three of her boys alive and well. She learns that Bartek died fighting the Nazis during the Warsaw Uprising. Ester goes to the cathedral at lunch time every day, waiting for Filip. She learns that he escaped from the Chelmno concentration camp. As she waits, her sister Leah finds her and says she married a Prussian Jewish man and is pregnant with their first child. Filip arrives at the cathedral on September 1, 1945, the anniversary of the German invasion and his proposal to Ester. One year later, with the help of Ana and a network of searchers, Ester finds Oliwia, the first child she tattooed, whom they adopt as they search for Pippa.