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The family of Stanislawa Leszczynska participated in an underground movement against German occupation of Poland during the World War II. The city of Lodz was specifically prosecuted because of a large Jewish population, representing almost 50% of residents.
Stanislawa’s husband was a printer at a local shop. At nights he produced false IDs for Jews escaping from the Ghetto and for the local underground resistance. After his activities were discovered, the entire family was arrested. Stanislawa with her daughter was sent to Auschwitz, and her two sons were sent to Mauthausen Gusen. Her husband with her third son escaped the arrest and was later killed in Warsaw.
In Auschwitz, Stanislawa worked as a midwife and she delivered over 3,000 babies in the most horrendous conditions. 1,500 newborns were murdered by Germans, 1,000 died from cold and hunger, 500 were sent to Germany to be brought up as Germans, and 30 survived the camp.
In her effort to reunite children sent to Germany with their mothers, Stanislawa organized a method of marking children with hidden tattoos in their armpits.
A large number of families were reunited after the war using secret numbers tattooed on them by Stanislawa. In 1974 they came from all parts of the world to Lodz to take part in the funeral of this unusual woman who, against all odds, went through the experiences of the camp saving so many lives.
In 1982, during the martial law, a gathering of 300,000 women took place at Jasna Gora in Poland to celebrate 600 years of Saint Mary presence at that holly location. A “Chalice of Life” was a center of the celebration. The chalice contained sculptures of four women. Two of them were Saints: Jadwiga and Maria Teresa. The third one was Jadwiga, the Queen of Poland. The fourth one was Stanislawa Leszczynska in her concentration camp clothes, holding a newborn child.
The foundation is currently working on a feature film based on Stanislawa’s story.
Stanislawa Leszczynska is an official candidate for beatification.
She described the events from Auschwitz in her short "Raport of a midwife."
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