Olga LengyelCritiques

Probably the best narrative of the Holocaust I've read yet. It was equally horrifying and heartbreaking. It has lots of gruesome details that other books tend to leave out, many made me cringe or tear up, but it's important to know the horrors that went on in these camps.

Estrujante relato de una sobreviviente de los campos de concentración de Auschwitz y de Birkenau. Dantesca visión de cinco chimeneas arrojando el humo de la carne quemada de centenares de miles de seres humanos, entre ellos los padres y los dos hijos de la escritora.

What can one ever say about such a book? That anyone had the tenacity and spirit to survive the holocaust is amazing. That you would not go completely insane under such circumstances unimaginable. Reading this book was not easy. Even though we know all the atrocities, having someone set them down in a first person narrative and knowing that these are not just tales but experiences for her was heartbreaking.

I cry over images of mistreated dogs on Pit Bulls and Parolees. Trying to imagine watching people undergo such cruelty and being unable to do anything more than struggle to survive, is more than I find bearable. I did not want to read this, but I think all of us need to. We need to for the memory of those who endured it, like Olga Lengyel, and we need to because cruelty and horror still occurs, on a lesser scale, but just as devastating to those who witness it or are subjected to it.

In the words of Olga Lengyel:

In setting down this personal record I have tried to carry out the mandate given to me by the many fellow internees at Auschwitz who perished so horribly. This is my memorial to them. God rest their poor souls! No hell anyone could conceive could equal what they endured. Frankly, I want my work to mean more than that. I want the world to read and to resolve that this must never be permitted to happen again. That after perusing this account any will still doubt, I cannot believe.

Lest we forget.

I've read Shoah memoirs before. They're always hard to read, and I don't go back to reread them. This one was no exception. It was, however, short, which is unusual. That led to a choppy writing style. I'm glad things were addressed in here that were.

Harrowing and interesting. This is a first-hand account of being a prisoner in Birkenau-Auschwitz and surviving. Helpful thoughts on this and a well structured book.

An amazing story.
The will to live that comes across is nearly palpable.
The strength to endure is constant and inspiring.

A true survivor

Remarkably and brutally honest of her experience in Auschwitz concentration camp. Learned some things I didn't know and the more I read the more I come to understanding what a hero is.

People may nitpick, argue over what was real or not, but this book FIVE CHIMNEYS is the true story as seen through one womans eyes. AUSCHWITZ. The word alone stirs up fear ! I would think that the words and the reality would churn up your emotions....i would think that as a survivor it would be necessary to close off that part of your life. To dwell on it, to live it over and over would be emotional torture. So readers who say it lacked emotion are nutty, just my opinion.

I sat here for several minutes, not knowing where to begin writing this review. It's a serious book & deserves a serious review, but that's not my review or blogging style. I write like I talk - casual, chatty, and a little bit of babble. This book is about how one woman survived Hell - Auschwitz & Birkenau. I read history because history is more interesting then fiction half the time, and how does that old quote go? Something about learning about the past so you aren't doomed to repeat it? I read history for that reason, too.

Anyways, it's a tough book to read, and another one of those books that I read in short bits at a time in order to think about what I actually read. Your stomach churns at reading most of it. Lengyel writes very dispassionately, I think perhaps as her way of coping with the horrors? But the dispassionate doesn't take away any part of learning about her experience; in fact, I think you really feel it all the more for her calm way of explaining what happened to her.

This book is worth reading, but I wouldn't make it my number one suggestion, either.

A devastating first person account by a Transylvanian deportee in Birkenau (the work camp where living was daily torture) and Auschwitz (the death camp). Upon her family's arrival at the camps via cattle car, the author unknowingly sent her sons and parents to the crematorium, and then lived another year until liberation by the Russian Army. Nothing more needs to be said.

Olga Lengyel lived through seven months of hell in Auschwitz when she chose to accompany her husband into deportation in Germany from Poland where they lived. Their children and her parents went too, and all except Olga Lengyel were murdered by the Nazis. They weren't Jewish - her husband, Dr. Lengyel, had been accused of crimes of resistance, and because of that her perspective is a little different. She does say that Jews and Gypsies were chosen for the worst treatment and extermination, and that German criminal prisoners and homosexuals were often chosen for guarding and other prison jobs, which they performed with a free rein on brutality.

Holocaust literature isn't just history, and it isn't just about the Jews. Its about crimes against humanity, specifically the one we now call, 'ethnic cleansing'. Obviously methods vary between Burma, Bosnia, Rwanda, et al, the mind-set is always the same: a set of people are considered ethnically inferior and it is promoted politically that the quality of life, economically and in life-style will be greatly improved once these people are got rid of - meaning killed. Five Chimneys is Olga Lengyel's inside story of living through a period of this and is as relevant today for the lessons we can learn as it was when it was first published 60 years ago.

La doctora Olga Lengyel escribe sus experiencias en los campos de exterminio de Auschwitz y Birkenau, desde su llegada, hasta la liberación. Sus detalladas descripciones comprenden en su totalidad el libro.

Dr. Olga Lengyel wrote his experiences in the death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau, since his arrival, until liberation. His detailed descriptions fully understand the book.

Estrujante relato de una sobreviviente de los campos de Auschwitz y Birkenau. Dantesca visión de cinco chimeneas arrojando el humo de la carne quemada de centenares de miles de seres humanos, entre ellos los padres y los dos hijos de la escritora.

Written shortly after the Holocaust, Olga Lengyel tells the world how she survived the atrocious conditions of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Olga's husband, a well-known Doctor was arrested for alleged anti-Nazi policies. Reassured by German soldiers, Olga, her parents sand two young sons decided to accompany him to Germany. Placed into a crowded train, they quickly realized the error they had made.

Olga writes in a detached way, presenting her story in an unemotional and therefore ineffectual fashion. The conditions of the concentration camp, although horrible, do not completely resonate through her writing style. I would have liked to read more about her involvement with the resistance movement and her interactions in the infirmary.

This is one woman's first-hand account of life at Birkenau and Auschwitz. While imprisoned there, she made it her goal to survive, explicitly to tell the world about the atrocities perpetuated by the Nazis. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in true accounts of the Holocaust.

Five Chimneys, A Woman Survivor’s True Story of Auschwitz By Olga Lengyel
Published by Academy Chicago Publishers, Chicago, 1st Ed., 1995, paperback, 231 pages.

“Five Chimneys is the authentic testimony of Olga’s hellish journey through the demented terror and unbelievable horrors of Auschwitz.” BCM

Olga Lengyel was a woman who had been trained as a surgical assistant. She was the wife of a leading Surgeon and their affluent family was well respected in their community. They lived in the city called Cluj (also known as Klausenburg or Kolozsaur) in Transylvania.
Olga’s life was full of love, laughter and she had a contented home together with her husband Miklos, her two sons Thomas and...

**To read the rest of the review please go to my blog, ~ Book Reviews By Bobbie ~
http://bookreviewsbybobbie.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/book-review-2/