Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz Paperback – October 1, 1995

If you only read one Holocaust memoir, read "Five Chimneys: A Woman's Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz" by Olga Lengyel, the wife of a Transylvanian physician who ended up in the Nazis' most notorious death camp only because she could not believe, even as late as May of 1944, how treacherous they could be.She learned quickly -- starting with her first step on the platform of the train station at Cluj. Her husband, Dr. Miklos Lengyel, director of a 72-bed hospital and a Berlin-trained surgeon, had been detained and was to be deported to Germany. An S.S. officer graciously assured her that she was welcome to join him if she wished. She, their two sons, and her parents realized her mistake when the entire station was surrounded by armed sentries and they were forced with 90 others into a railcar designed to hold eight horses. It was the first, and perhaps the easiest, of the many lessons she would learn at the hands of the Nazis.Mrs. Lengyel's painfully poignant memoir -- "Mea culpa," she begins, "my fault, mea maxima culpa!" -- was published within two years of the end of World War II. It has been on my wishlist since I read that Albert Einstein praised it as the best Holocaust memoir. Indeed, he wrote her personally to thank her for her "very frank, very well written book. You have done a great service by letting the ones who are now silent and most forgotten speak," he wrote.That, she tells us, is exactly why she wrote it. The few who survived carried a burden to tell the world what had happened there, to ensure the justice was served, and, more, to work to see that this should never happen again. It can be hard for us now to realize how successfully the Nazi regime concealed the atrocities that were carried out so blatantly behind the battle lines . . . even as it happens again and again elsewhere around the globe."The Germans sinned grievously, but so did the rest of the nations, if only through refusing to believe and to toil day and night to save the wretched and the dispossessed by every possible means," she wrote.I have read many, many such memoirs, including in the current year those of two women who also survived Auschwitz-Birkenau, one of which I would recommend to anyone and one of which I would not recommend. Each woman has a different perspective. Mrs. Lengyel's is both as personal and intimate as either and more comprehensive. Hers is a story of deeply painful, personal tragedy, yet she also saw and observed what went on throughout the camps and ensured that she survived to record it that those who suffered it should not suffer in vain. Her account is detailed, and damning, and it includes lessons that cost more than anyone should ever be forced to pay."Perhaps the greatest crime the 'supermen' committed against us was their campaign, often successful, to turn us into monstrous beasts ourselves," she writes in the final pages. Earlier chapters detail exactly how they did this, and how those of once unimpeachable integrity could be, and were, reduced to the lowest moral level. But that wasn't all she saw, or all she learned. She also wrote of those who resisted on every level. "Because of these few, I have not entirely lost my faith in mankind. If, even in the jungle of Birkenau, all were not necessarily inhuman to their fellow men, then there is hope indeed. It is that hope which keeps me alive."That faith is one of the reasons her memoir is indispensable. If she, who witnessed and suffered all of this, could hold on to hope for us, we can't be entirely lost. Yet.

Five Chimneys is the memoir of Olga Lengyel’s time as an inmate in the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi concentration camp complex in 1944 and 1945. It is her eye-witness account of horrors inflicted on innocents from attitudes and policies persisting still in the world.MS. LENGYEL AS AN EYEWITNESSMs. Lengyel was a surgeon’s assistant at a hospital in Clug, Transylvania (in Hungary) in 1944. The surgeon she assisted was her husband, Dr. Miklos Lengyel, who also ran a hospital. Hungary was occupied by the Germans but most people lived more-or-less normally under their rule, not believing the rumors of internment camps where dissidents and undesirables were executed en-mass.But then Dr. Lengyel was arrested for allegedly boycotting the use of German pharmaceutical preparations in his clinic. Some fast-talking got him released, but only for a short while. Soon, he was taken by the SS (or “Schutzstaffel,” German for "Protective Echelon") again and did not return. Questioning the SS, Ms. Lengyel was told that her husband would be relocated to Germany and that she and her family could accompany him. She later found that this was a common ploy of the Germans to get families to voluntarily go the camps with other family members and bring possessions (which the Germans confiscated).At the train station, with her parents and two children, Ms. Lengyel was hustled into a cattle car and taken to Auschwitz. There, children and old people were sent straight to the gas chambers. Olga’s children and parents were among them. Her husband was also made an inmate there, though he eventually was sent to work as a doctor in the nearby camp of Buna.Ms. Lengyel spent several weeks learning the rules, procedures, and degradations of the camp. She is shaven, dressed in rags, and beaten. She discovered there was a market in sexual favors for food, even though engaging in it was punishable by death (as were most infractions). She did not participate in that degradation, though she was forced to be a part of others.Because of her background as a surgeon’s assistant, Ms. Lengyel was ordered to work in the infirmary. This was simply a designated barracks and the personnel working there were given few medical supplies. Through her infirmary contacts (patients), she became active in the camp “resistance.” She “delivered mail,” secretly distributing packages and letters as directed.Ms. Lengyel met many of the Germans who became infamous criminals in the workings of the camp. These included Joseph Kramer (Commander-in-Chief of a large part of the camp), Dr. Fritz Klein (”Chief Selector”), Dr. Mengele (”Angel of Death”), and Irma Griese (the “blonde angel”). Her report on her interactions with these people confirm that their murderous reputations were deserved.MORE HERE THAN A RECITATION OF HORRORSMs. Lengyel’s account is more than a recitation of horrors, though it is that. It is a lucid account, told honestly with compassion and providing insight for current readers.One striking theme of her narrative is the constant manipulations the Germans employed to control people. They were brilliant at this, in an evil way. So families were encouraged to accompany arrested members and bring their possessions, implying a stay from which they would return. Doctors were told to bring their medical bags, implying they would be working in their profession somewhere else. Such deceptions extended to the soap and towels handed to people as they were herded into gas chambers, promising showers rather than death. Countless other lies were spun to keep people from panicking and so becoming uncontrollable. In every case, execution was the intended fate of all those so deceived.Consequently, the inmates became distrustful of anything the Germans told them. I see the same situation today, where people are constantly propagandized through television and Internet. Most people believe what the government says and take comfort in the cocoon created for them. Ms. Lengyel was amazed and appalled at the degree of reality denial among her fellow inmates. Many refused to believe in the mass executions up to the moment they were being pushed into a gas chamber.The Germans’ lack of value for human life made death a daily constant. As related by Ms. Lengyel, the Germans were frequently making “selections” of people to be executed. These were often done as punishments, but also for no apparent reason. Death could come at a whim. The SS authorities carried pistols and used them often. Even the “doctors” were not above shooting inmates.Those German camp “doctors” are known today for their moronic cruelty, and Ms. Lengyel’s account verifies this. The degree of brutish ignorance and pretense at science that she describes is amazing. It reached barbaric levels, based on the view of humans as “meat sacks” and the idea that specific groups of people are inferior. The current medical industry is just as materialistic, motivated only by profit.WELL-WRITTEN ACCOUNT, THOUGH NOT LINEARFive Chimneys is well written. Ms. Lengyel was quite literate and a capable writer (she wrote at least two other books about Auschwitz).Her narrative here, though, is not completely linear. She moves around in time, sticking more with themes than with a time-line. This adds some difficulty in following her ordeal, but she does start at the beginning and stop at the end (of her imprisonment). Overall, she spent about seven months in Auschwitz (I’m sure it felt longer to her and even the narrative feels like a longer time span).NEVER AGAIN?Five Chimneys is valuable on a number of levels. It is an articulate, eye-witness account of what the Nazis did at the Auschwitz-Birkenau detention complex. Even more, Ms. Lengyel was in a position to interact with a number of the camps’ authorities and so offer insight into their depraved motivations.Near the book’s end, Ms. Lengyel voices the hope, shared by many Holocaust survivors, that this repugnant crime not be allowed to happen again. Personally, I think it is building to happen again. Many Nazis, motivated by ideas of technocracy and eugenics, were brought to the US via Operation Paper Clip. It seems their ideas were popular among the elites and are still the guiding ideas for world leadership. That insight is the value of this book for me.Ms. Lengyel notes that, even after her horrific experiences, she retains some faith in humanity. In the face of the Nazi’s inhuman mass-murder machine, there were those who resisted and, though they usually paid with their lives, refused to be debased. That’s something to consider when contemplating current events.

This book was written in 1946 by a woman who survived the death camps. She wrote in a rather matter of fact manner. It is fascinating in a horrible way. She shared details I’d never read before, and I’ve read a few books on this subject. It’s a necessary book but definitely not an easy book. But if you want information about how an event as horrible as the holocaust could actually happen, this book gives some insight as to how this episode in history ever occurred.

I’ve read many WW2 Nazi stories and this true story follows very closely to all I have read. What a hero the author is to put so much information together to let the world know of the cruelty of Hitler and his reign of terror. I also learned a lot; the high numbers of political non Jewish and Aryan deportees that were brutalized in the camps and put to death. Lengyel witnessed so much and was able to avoid death many times by sheer luck it seemed. She was also smart and resourceful. To survive Auschwitz and Birkenau was nearly impossible. I give her so much credit and wish I knew more about her life after liberation. Highly recommend this book for anyone looking for the true story. We must learn history to avoid repeating the worst of it.

I truly have no idea why I wanted to read thus book other than the fact that I regretted not visiting Auswitz when I was in Poland. This book is extremely well written and cgrinucles in graphic detail the horrors of inhumanity in the camps. It is surreal and unbelievable the accounts of the treatment of the internees. Death, experiments and every imaginable horror is described in great detail. Not for the faint of heart but.......

Very sad book but worth the read

Fantastic read and terrified with the Holocaust and passed to next century generation to read and stop the inhuman acts in the name of war and power..must read

Excelente libro

What an astounding book! I have read many accounts of the holocaust, but this one captures the essence of human cruelty more than any of the ones I have read. It should be read by everyone, especially those who, today, deny the Holocaust ever happened. Mans inhumanity to man. I appreciate Olga telling her story. It would have been hard to relive it but she wrote with honesty and humanity.