Janina Kajtoch (pseud. „Skała”) was born in 1904 in Babice near Oświęcim. She worked as a teacher in Upper Silesia, and from 1931 in Bieruń Nowy. Here, in addition to teaching, she was involved in social activities, founding the Society of Young Polish Women and running the Inter-Organisational Day Care Centre. At that time, it was difficult to run such activities in Upper Silesia due to the large German minority that supported Adolf Hitler there.
During the German occupation, Janina Kajtoch was a member of the Home Army’s Union of Armed Struggle and the Committee for Carrying Aid to the Political Prisoners of Auschwitz Camp. She taught in secret and provided food for the prisoners. She organised warm clothing and medicine for them, organised meetings with their relatives, and helped facilitate escapes from the camp. She managed to involve many residents of Oświęcim and the surrounding area in these activities.
At the risk of being arrested by the Gestapo, she fled to the General Government on New Year’s Eve in 1942-1943.
After the war, she returned to work at school and continued her social activities, including co-creating the Children’s Song and Dance Ensemble and the „Pszczyna Wedding” theatre production. She was awarded the Knight’s Cross and the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
She died in 1986 and is buried at the parish cemetery in Oświęcim.
Photograph: Collection of Remembrance Museum of Land of Oświęcim Residents / private archives of Józef Chałupnik