Jim's Reviews > Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz

If you can only read one book about the holocaust, read this one. Olga Lengyel spent about a year in Auschwitz and wrote this book soon after she was liberated. Consequently, the events are sharp and fresh in her memory, not that anyone could forget this horror.

I am willing to bet that Lengyel frequently regretted surviving the camp. She arrived with her parents, her sons, and her husband. She survived the war alone. Particularly grieving was her memory of making a bad decision that cost her oldest boy his life. Upon arriving in Auschwitz the arrivals were split into two columns. Lengyel was the only member of the family placed in the column destined for the camp; the other column was heading straight to the ovens. Unaware of the situation, and wanting to spare the lad the rigors of forced labor, she declined to take her oldest boy into the work column, thereby condemning him to death. Imagine how that would haunt your nights for the rest of your life!

Lengyel was a hospital worker, which is probably the only reason she made it out of Auschwitz. As such, she was in contact with the who's who in the SS and witnessed firsthand the depredations and degradations committed against the inmates by the likes of Mengele and Grese. She is also quite forward in admitting to murdering newborn babies so that baby and mother did not both go to the ovens. Desperate times call for desperate deeds, and that's about as desperate as they come. I couldn't understand why women would become pregnant under those circumstances. No rape was reported on the part of the Germans, and Lengyel mentions promiscuity among the inmates. If pregnancy will condemn you to death, why on earth would you engage in sexual activity. Of course, much fault can be attributed to the men of the camp who wouldn't part with a crust of bread unless sexual favors were part of the recipient's gratitude.

This survivor gives a very clear account of the camp hierarchy and the layout of the camp itself. She was also witness to the panicked German evacuation when the Russian Army approached the camp, a retreat she took no small pleasure in seeing.

This is a carefully planned and well-written book. I can't say I liked it because of the subject matter, but I do appreciate it.