She was born in an extermination camp. She miraculously escaped death. “I sucked fear with my mother’s milk”

To tell the story of Stefani Wernik, we need to go back to May 13, 1944. Then her mother, Anna Piekarz, was sent to the camp in Olkusz after German soldiers thwarted her attempt to get to her family home in the village of Osiek to deliver food. The next day she was taken to , where she put on a striped uniform and changed her name and surname to the number 79414. She was 26 years old at the time and was expecting a child.

She was born in an extermination camp. She became an object of experiments

Piekarz did not tell any of the soldiers who interrogated her about her blessed condition. – My mother was in the second month of pregnancy with me. In the camp, she did not admit her condition because she knew that the Germans would immediately burn her – her daughter, Stefania Wernik, adding that at that time “pregnant women and small children were not allowed to live.” She successfully managed to hide her pregnancy until August 1944. When she was already on the truck that was supposed to take her to Ravensbrück for work, a friend from the barracks informed her about her condition. Thanks to this, she could stay in Auschwitz, at least until the end.

Few believed that Piekarz would be able to carry the pregnancy to term. Low food rations combined with hard physical work were exhausting for the prisoners. When the time came to give birth, she felt both joy and great fear. Even though she weighed only 28 kilograms, she managed to give birth to a healthy daughter. On November 8, 1944, after giving birth for three days, in a place where thousands of people lost their lives every day, Stefania Wernik was born. She received the number 89136, which was tattooed on her left thigh. However, the miracle of birth did not bring happiness to the young mother. After giving birth, it took her two weeks to recover, which was quite a feat in the scandalous conditions of the camp. However, she was worried not about herself, but about her daughter, who quickly caught the attention of Dr. Josef Mengele, known as the Angel of Death.

He took me and his assistant for some pseudo-medical tests. My mother said that when they brought me in, I was crying a lot, she recalled that she couldn’t silence me

– memories of his mother after many years.

Wernik lived to see the camp liberated. Today he considers it a miracle

Her hell lasted until liberation on January 27, 1945. When the Germans hurriedly tried to conceal their shameful deeds, Piekarz took the three-month-old baby and fled. – My mother grabbed me and wrapped me in a blanket or coat, found some shoes, turned the stool upside down and put me in it, wrapped me in it, tied a string to the stool and dragged me through the snow and frost, she recalled. They found shelter with strangers in Libiąż, where they spent about 2 weeks.

In the meantime, Piekarz’s husband was informed about the whereabouts of his wife and daughter, whose existence he had no idea. – Daddy didn’t believe that I was born, because how can a child be born in such conditions and still survive – she said. For everyone, the fact that they survived the “ordeal of Hitler’s destruction” was a real miracle. Since then, the family has tried to live a peaceful life, trying in vain to forget the nightmare they experienced. – I have been left with the stigma of the camp nightmare and fear for the rest of my life, which I sucked with my mother’s milk – said Wernik, adding that she owes her life to God’s providence.