The Midwife of Auschwitz

Both Ester and Ana have loving partners, but they form a different kind of partnership in the camp. What do these relationships say about the nature of partnerships?

In Chapter 9, Ana goes to the cathedral to pray for peace of mind because the injustices perpetrated by the Nazis upset her. Explore Ana’s relationship with God, and discuss three examples of what appears to be divine intervention that either leads her to act or protects her.

What quality best describes Ester when the Jewish Police and SS officers come to her home to arrest her mother, Ruth, and relocate her to Auschwitz? Explain why you chose this word and explore two other places in the text where this trait reappears in Ester.

Faced with the reality that none of the infants they deliver survive for longer than a few short days, why are Ana and Ester willing to continue serving as midwives? Explain why a moment of feeling and giving love and happiness might sustain the human spirit. How, if at all, does it contrast with the behavior of the Nazis?

How does the relationship between Ana and Ester shift over the course of their two years in Birkenau? How does each of these women change, both together and apart? Explore their bond and cite three instances that describe their growth or continuity.

Ana Stuart describes families as torn apart during the war, with individuals reclaiming rebuilt family relationships with new acquaintances. For instance, Ana loses three sons when she goes to Birkenau but gains two young women she refers to as her daughters. Ester replaces her missing sister Leah with a quite similar young woman: Naomi. What are your observations about family relationships in wartime? How do families change beyond death and displacement? What remains even when families are separated, and how do families grow beyond blood relations?

When the Nazis left Ana and Ester at the camp, they could have also killed them. Describe the close calls in the text and consider what could have happened if one of the women had died. Do you think the other could have gone on? Why or why not?

Through the course of the narrative, many characters make decisions that they know will lead to imminent death: Mr. Becker, Ruth, Rebekah, Martha, Ester’s father and father-in-law, and many others. What might have motivated these individuals to become willing to perish? What does is say about the communities that they come from?