Jadwiga Lenartowicz-Rylko (1 October 1910 – 2 December 2010) was a Polish Catholic physician imprisoned in the Ravensbruck, Gross-Rosen, Neusalz, and Flossenbürg concentration camps operated by the German Third Reich during World War II.

Jadwiga and her family struggled with hunger; her mother would make sacrifices to wait in long lines to receive food from dispensaries.

Following the return to independence, the restructuring of Poland led to many changes in society; paving the way for Lenartowicz to enter the medical field.

Due to widespread recovery from economic hardships from the war, a significant decrease in school attendance occurred.

[1] During the occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany, Lenartowicz was arrested by Gestapo on the night of 13 January 1944, for suspicion of political resistance.

[3] She was transported from Ravensbruck to Gross-Rosen concentration camp for Jewish female slave labor and assigned to medically treat women from sub-camps for textile factories, fields and production jobs.

[5] On a daily basis, she would treat patients coming in with great oversight from SS doctors, holding her accountable of any person that was not truly sick.

In her biography, she often recounts that the ethical lines in medicine were blurred due to the lack of supplies and brutality of the camps.

[1] At Kafertal, Lenartowicz met Colonel Wladyslaw Rylko and married him on 28 June 1947, in Bad Soden, Germany.

While in the United States, the couple faced many hardships such as finding work, proper housing, and financial stability.

[1] Jadwiga Lenartowicz Rylko is the subject of a biographical book written by her own daughter, anthropologist Barbara Rylko-Bauer.

[1] The book was published by the University of Oklahoma Press as Hardcover in 2014, and as paperback in 2015 under the title A Polish Doctor in the Nazi Camps.