Barbara Rylko-Bauer tells the story of her mother Jadwiga Helena Lenartowicz, a Polish doctor, arrested in January 1944 by the Gestapo. As a political prisoner, she worked as a doctor in several concentration camps, including Ravensbrück, Gross-Rosen and Neusalz, until the end of the war. She had a minimum of medical supplies and medicines to treat the sick, yet she managed, among other things, to prevent the outbreak of a typhoid epidemic. The number of women she saved can hardly be estimated.
At the end of the war, she survived the nearly five hundred kilometer death march to the Flossenbürg concentration camp. She spent forty days on the road with a minimum of food, water and warmth. At the edge of her strength, she managed to survive and see the end of the war. After liberation, she continued her profession in various refugee camps. She treated survivors of concentration camps suffering from malnutrition and other diseases.
This fascinating narrative is a chronicle of the life of a strong personality against the background of revolutionary events in the world history of the 20th century. It is a tribute to brave women, doctors who coped with difficult circumstances in wartime, a tribute to a woman who, as a Christian, helped many Jewish and non-Jewish victims.
This book has won several notable awards, including the 2015 IPPY Gold Medal in Biography, the 2014 IndieFab Book of the Year Award, the 2015 Michigan Notable Book Finalist, and the 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Award.