The Midwife of Auschwitz

For two weeks, Ester, who lives with Ana’s family, goes to the Jewish center to search for information about her family. Like many others, she posts a note to Filip with her location. Pushing through the crowd, she sees a man touch her note. It is Noah Broder, whose wife and children died in the camps. Noah tells Ester he was sent with Filip to Chelmno, where they built and ran Nazi extermination facilities. Filip managed to get work as a tailor, altering the clothes of Jewish victims for the wives of Nazi soldiers. Filip and Noah escaped in the snow, though Noah does not know what happened to Filip afterward. Ester returns to the steps of the St. Stanislaus Cathedral where she first met Filip. Leah, her younger sister, appears. Leah tells Ester that her father and father-in-law were hung by the Germans after they killed Hans, the Nazi soldier who tried to rape Leah. She explains that she avoided arrest by marrying a young Jewish man, Adam Wơjick, whose Prussian mother gave them identification papers, keeping them safe. Leah is eight months pregnant and asks if Ana can still deliver babies.

Ana has resumed delivering babies in a hospital. She encounters Rabbi Isaiah Drucker, a Polish soldier who works to find and repatriate Jewish children. He tells Ana he has found three children with tattoos, though none bear Ester’s number. They look out the hospital window, where Ester sits on the cathedral steps every day, hoping that Filip will return. Ana describes taking Ester to Chelmno to look for Filip’s body. They did not find him. The rabbi promises to do all he can to find Pippa.

On the anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Poland—the same day Filip proposed to Ester—she sits on the steps of the cathedral. Ester received a letter from Naomi inviting her to Greece, where she has reunited with her family. Ester also visited Leah, whose daughter arrived just after the German surrender. Ester wonders if it is time to give up her daily vigil. Someone calls her name: It is Filip. She tells him she was at Birkenau. He explains that he joined the Polish resistance after surviving the SS death squad and fought all the way to Berlin, where he received a nearly fatal wound. Ester tells him they have a daughter, whom Filip vows to find.

The Epilogue begins with the repetition of the Prologue, describing Ester and Ana entering an orphanage and walking among the children’s cots. They have learned that one of the small children has a tattoo in its armpit. Family members and Rabbi Drucker assist them in their search. Filip waits in the doorway, watching as Ester rushes to the child. Ester and Ana raise the child’s arm and read the number tattooed there. It is the number assigned to Zofia, which Ester copied beneath the arm of her daughter. This is Oliwia, the first child Ester tattooed. She and Filip have come to adopt the little girl even as they continue to search for their own daughter, Pippa.

Ana Stuart observes that she strived to be historically accurate in her descriptions of Poland, the actions of the individuals she describes, and the timeline of occurrences. The narrative mingles historical individuals, such as Josef Mengele, with fictional creations, such as Ana Kaminski. In the Historical Notes section, the author provides detailed observations about the actual persons and explains why she included them. Mengele and Irma Grese are notorious figures who were present at Birkenau when the events described took place. Rather than using Stanislawa Leszczyńska—the actual midwife of Auschwitz—the author employed poetic license to create two characters—Ana and Ester—whose actions mirror the historical behaviors of Stanislawa. In addition to characters, Stuart uses this final section to offer overviews of the geographical locales, particularly Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Łơdź Jewish ghetto. The author also explains the Lebensborn Programme that led Stanislawa to commence tattooing infants born at Birkenau. Stuart also describes the work of Polish citizens who returned to their cities after the war to rebuild. She names helpful organizations whose relief work caused significant positive impacts in the rebuilding of Poland.