The Midwife of Auschwitz

In the summer of 1939, in Łơdź, Poland, a young Jewish couple meets for lunch on the steps of a cathedral, where they carry on lighthearted conversation. The young woman, Ester, is a nursing student. Filip, the young man, is a tailor. Rumors of a German invasion of Poland grow; in September, Nazis invade. That day, Filip asks Ester to marry him on the steps of the cathedral. After she accepts, two German planes fly overhead, and the couple takes cover: “Ester had no idea whether this was the happiest day of her life or the worst” (14).

Two months after the Nazis invade Poland, Ana and her husband, Bartek, attend the wedding of Ester and Filip in their synagogue. Ester was one of the first babies Ana delivered as a midwife. As the ceremony concludes, Nazi soldiers burst into the synagogue. Ana and Bartek, who are Polish Catholics, confront the Nazis, who say they are destroying every synagogue in Łơdź. Bartek saves the lives of the wedding party by telling the Nazis to “let them out into the street where they can watch their sacred building collapse around them” (23).

Ester returns home at the end of her nursing workday. Filip, like all Jewish tailors, is forbidden from working by the Nazis. He stays home and cooks their meals. Secretly, he does alterations for Jewish residents of Łơdź. Filip notices that, with the Nazi invasion, everyone’s clothing needs mending from food shortage. Filip tells Ester that they will lose their tiny apartment. All the Jews in the city must move into a small ghetto. Filip and Ester go to the housing bureau and wait in a long line to secure an apartment in the ghetto, with two bedrooms and an attic. Both sets of parents will live with them.

When Ana hears pounding on her front door early in the morning, she assumes that she must deliver a baby. Instead, Nazi soldiers say that her family of five must relocate: Their house will become part of the Jewish ghetto. Her family must move into a home formerly occupied by Jews. Bartek tells the soldiers they will comply, as Ana mocks the ignorance of the Germans. Within two days, they pack their possessions in a cart and roll it to a newly assigned home. On the other side of the road, they see long lines of Jews moving toward the ghetto. Ana’s son Bronislaw whispers that he knows other Polish people who feel the same way about the injustice taking place.

After delivering a baby, Ana passes by the Jewish compound and notices it is sealed. Another woman says that Jews may no longer exit the ghetto. Looking through the barbed wire, Ana sees Ester. They talk about conditions in the ghetto. A Nazi guard tells them to separate and fires two warning shots near Ana.

Ester arrives home after a long day of nursing in the ghetto hospital. Filip surprises her with meat in the evening’s stew. As they eat, Ester’s pretty, 15-year-old sister, Leah, explains that the beef was given to her by a German officer, Hans, who works in the same office at the Baluty Market. The family warns her to keep her distance from Hans, though Leah sees Hans as a way of getting more privileges for her family. A secret courier delivers a book on midwifery to Ester and says Ana will meet her at the gate at 10 pm. Filip accompanies her, and Ana offers tips on delivering babies, as well as reassurance. Ester wants a child but realizes the current circumstances aren’t suitable for pregnancy.

On Christmas Eve, Ana’s family pools food they gathered to share their annual feast. They discuss how difficult it is to get food since the good food goes to the Germans. Their conversation turns to the lack of food inside the Jewish ghetto. The family decides to take their feast to the ghetto. Along the way, they find other Christian families doing the same. Ana tells Ester that her son Zander can use trams to get food, medicine, and supplies into the ghetto. After returning home, Ana, Bartek, and their other two sons tell Zander they want to join the resistance.

As Nazis close smaller Jewish ghettos around Poland, residents move to larger cities such as Łơdź, which the Germans rename Litzmannstadt. After taking trains into the city’s center, they must find places to live on their own. As Ester works to deliver a baby, she chases away some new arrivals. She stops one woman, Martha, and asks for help delivering the baby. The umbilical cord is around the baby’s neck. They deliver the infant, and Martha slaps it on the back to revive it. Ester takes Martha and her family to her residence. Along the way, they hear Chaim Rumkowski, the Jewish elder placed in charge by the Germans, describe a new camp called Auschwitz, where people can escape the ghetto. At home, Ester learns that Leah’s German boss, Hans, made sexual advances. The family must get her out of the city.

Caught up in bitterness, Ana goes into the cathedral after delivering twins for a German family. She finds no relief from her own hostility and wonders why God brought her there. As she leaves, a group of young people shows her an underground newspaper describing the execution of Jewish civilians: “Their stories were all the same: gangs of Jews brought in by train, barns used to keep them in and then the vans—the killing vans” (80). Ana learns that Jews face execution at Auschwitz and rushes to tell her friends inside the ghetto.

Ester receives a parcel from Ana. It contains a false death certificate for Leah and instructions explaining how Leah can escape in a load of coats for German soldiers. The letter explains that Jews who go to Auschwitz face execution. At the appointed time, a large cart appears. Filip places Leah beneath the winter coats. As Ester and her mother, Ruth, watch on, soldiers prepare to examine the load. Ruth pretends to have a seizure, drawing the fury of the soldiers who kick her repeatedly. Meanwhile, guards wave the cart through the gate. Ester assures Ruth that Leah got away, and Ruth is satisfied. With a new identity, Leah escapes Łơdź with Zander.

As Ester treats sick and malnourished patients in the hospital, German SS soldiers enter and announce that they have come to deport the frail and elderly. Ester and other providers help the elderly down the hospital stairs, knowing their patients are likely headed to their executions. As Ester rushes to her home to check on her ailing mother and mother-in-law, she encounters Martha with her three children: Rumkowski has summoned everyone to the marketplace, where he announces that Jewish children also face deportation.

Eerie silence descends on the ghetto when the older adults and little children depart by train. Ester’s and Filip’s mothers beg them to find a way out of the ghetto, certain the Nazis will take them next. Though she feels uncertain, Ester agrees to escape the ghetto. 

With false papers created by Jakub, Ana tries three times to spirit Ester and Filip out of Łơdź. As they prepare for a fourth attempt, when Ester is home with her sons Zander and Jakub, four SS soldiers come to their home and arrest them, having received information that they are working with the resistance to make false documents. One of the soldiers says to Zander, “It’s amazing what people will tell you with some... persuasion. […] As you will find out” (107). As the Nazis drag them out, Ana hopes that her husband and older son hear of the arrest and do not return to their home.