Zofia Haltof-Mikołajewska was a member of the Polish resistance and served as a liason officer and nurse with the Home Army. She was arrested and sent the Auschwitz Concentration Camp for her independence activities.
Zofia Haltof-Mikołajewska was born on 25 October 1921 in Kraków. During the occupation she was an active member of the resistance, being a part of the Związek Walki Zbrojnej (the Union of the Armed Struggle of the Home Army) since 1940.
Initially Zofia served as a liaison office but after completing the underground NCO training course ran by the Women’s Military Service she was tasked with organizing nurse training sessions.
On 20 October 1943 Zofia was arrested by the German forces under the suspicion of being a member of the resistance. She was brutally tortured for several weeks at the Gestapo headquarters on Pomorska Street in Kraków. Her trial also took place there and lasted for weeks after which she was transported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
She was granted the status of political prisoner (number 70452). She was subjected to pseudo-medical experiments in the camp. The Germans injected her with typhus bacteria as part of research into the disease. Luckily, she managed to survive. When the camp staff ordered a march out of the camp in January 1945 (later called the death march), Zofia hid in a warehouse together with her fellow prisoners. Until the camp was liberated by the Red Army, she took care of the seriously ill.
Thanks to Zofia the Kraków branch of the Polish Red Cross started to organize medical aid for female prisoners remaining in Birkenau as early as the beginning of February 1945.
In the years 1976-1982, Zofia was active in the Association of the Disabled War Veterans. She was also strongly committed to commemorating the victims of German terror.
Zofia passed away on 27 July 2010 and was posthumously promoted to the rank of captain.