The Midwife of Auschwitz

Anna Stuart

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Part 1

Part 2, Chapters 14-22

Part 2, Chapters 23-32

Part 3-Historical Notes

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Cruelty

The single motif that appears most often throughout the narrative is the abject cruelty perpetrated by the Nazis, particularly against Jews. Some of the cruelty comes from the idealism espoused by the Nazis, who perceived themselves as Aryans and thus genetically superior to non-Aryans. Thus, when Jewish women in Birkenau give birth to fair-haired babies, matrons spared those infants from the immediate infanticide perpetrated upon dark-haired babies because, as the SS officers proclaim, a woman who gives birth to a blonde child cannot be fully Jewish, but rather, tainted by Jewish influence.

At other times, the cruelty expressed by the Nazis seems capricious and arbitrary, as when Irma Grese picks out beautiful women prisoners to desecrate or when an SS officer decides to punish Ester for pleading for her mother’s life by arresting Ester as well. Ana Stuart describes the sound of the frail, elderly Jews loading onto cattle cars bound for Auschwitz: “The air was filled with wailing and cries of ‘have mercy’ but they were reflex only, for everyone knew that the Nazis had no mercy” (97). The author reveals the seemingly paradoxical reality that, the more powerless the victims are, the more ruthless the Nazis are. These examples of extreme cruelty underscore that The Human Capacity to Commit Atrocities is profound, particularly under the circumstance of war and genocide.

Biblical Name Play

As expected in a narrative dealing largely with traditional Jewish individuals, many of the names of these characters derive from the Hebrew Bible. A number of the canonical Hebrew names of characters—as with Sarah, Jakub, and Leah—do not necessarily reveal a symbolic resonance with their role in the narrative. However, the text engages in symbolic biblical name play with several significant characters, particularly the important women in the story. Through this name play, Stuart suggests that the sort of passive power that supported the biblical Hebrews during their times of oppression remained at work among the Jews even during the Holocaust.

The Ester in the novel, like her namesake in the scripture, becomes isolated from her people at a time when a hostile foreign leader decides to completely eliminate all the Hebrews. The biblical Esther cleverly exposes a wicked plan and saves the Jewish people. In the narrative, Ester devises a plan to preserve the identities of the Jewish children, which enables a number of the stolen babies to reunite with the Polish Jewish community. The acrostic name Ana is similar to the Jewish acrostic name Hanah. As the biblical Hanah gave up her son to the service of God, so Ana must give up her three sons who, like Hanah’s son in the Bible, become wise, prophetic servants. The biblical Ruth, who sacrificed her home and family to care for her beloved mother-in-law, finds herself mirrored in the sacrifice of Ruth in the novel, who releases everything she holds precious for the well-being of her daughters. Naomi, the mother-in-law of the biblical Ruth, is cunning and blessed with a survivor’s instinct. Just so, the Naomi of the narrative repeatedly demonstrates her ability to procure what she needs to take care of herself and those she loves. At least one man also mirrors his biblical namesake. The Hebrew Bible’s Mordecai, the uncle of Ester, faces down the enemy of the Jewish people, challenges Ester to rise up on behalf of the Israelites, and prevails. In the narrative, Mordecai attacks and kills the foreigner who attempted to rape his daughter and taunts those execute him.

Reconstituted Families

As Stuart notes when she describes the destructive treatment Ana, Ester, and the other women received in the Birkenau maternity ward, all the vicious, hostile acts perpetrated against the prisoners is part of a systematic plan to destroy their will to live by depriving them of all hope. By the time these women arrive at Birkenau, they have all suffered the dissolution of their families. Many found themselves torn away from loved ones without a farewell. Spouses saw their mates go to the gas chamber while they survived. Children and parents witnessed one another’s extermination. As the camp records show, 3,000 babies are born at Birkenau, yet fewer than 100 survive.

The awareness that surviving prisoners acquired is that their Survival Is the Ultimate Weapon. To further the cause of survival, one motif appears repeatedly: the acquisition of new, reconstituted families. The clearest example of this is Ester, Naomi, and Ana. Ana refers to the young women as the daughters she never had. True to this calling, when each of them feels low, the others inspire them with physical embraces and the promise of not letting go. The motif of the reconstitution of families, however, extends beyond the boundaries of the concentration camp. Leah, from the Jewish Abrams family, slips out of Łơdź by becoming part of the Catholic Kaminski family. Naomi takes her German-Jewish child Isaac back to become part of her Greek family. In the final pages of the narrative, Ester and Filip, while still searching for their own child, bring in Oliwia, the child of the deceased Zofia, to be part of their family. Survival, Stuart posits, begins with creating a family with individuals who can support one another.