Workers employed at the German Forced Labor Camp in Wizau (Łąka), building the copper smelter, were starving, weakened and deprived of any medical care. They worked beyond their strength. One of them was also a pregnant woman whose first and last name are unknown today.
The story of her dramatic labor was recorded in Edward Horoszkiewicz’s memoir “Murdered Childhood.” Zdzisław Abramowicz wrote about the book by this witness to wartime in Bolesławiec in the thirteenth Bolesławiec Yearbook.
It was near the end of the war, when the fate of Nazi Germany hung in the balance. The pregnant woman mentioned by Edward Horoszkiewicz lay in a dirty barracks for female workers, suffering in pain. Labor was beginning. The camp commander came to the woman; everyone remembered him as a middle-aged man wearing an eye patch. Hearing the suffering woman’s cries and bearing in mind that the power of the Third Reich might soon come to an end, the Lagerführer decided to call for professional help. The forced laborers were not accustomed to such reactions to their suffering, so they were surprised when a car came for the pregnant woman and she was taken to the hospital in Bolesławiec. A baby girl was born at the hospital and was named Halinka. The name Halina means radiance, brightness and torch.
The mother’s joy at the successful birth was short-lived, because immediately after giving birth she was taken back to the barracks with the newborn. Dirt and the lack of hygiene caused an infection, and the mother was close to death. An abscess also appeared on her body. A German woman from a nearby village was called to her; witnesses remember that she was referred to as a feldsher. The German woman must have been capable enough that the unconscious mother regained consciousness.
After liberation, all the male and female workers took their children and left the camp. They reached Ścinawa, where the women’s hell began. Rapists from the Red Army attacked one of the workers, by then free, and abused her repeatedly. We do not know whether she was Halinka’s mother. Other women smeared soot on their faces to make themselves repulsive, and forced the children to cry. This supposedly saved them from rape.