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.
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Heart breaking and hard to read, but you must!
Sometimes you read a book that tears you up inside and you know you will never be the same after. Five Chimneys is a perfect example. I knew going into it that this story would be difficult to read, but I also feel obligated to honor those who experienced Auschwitz. I have read a few books on the subject before but nothing as gut wrenching and horrifying as this one. Some of the content I had read before, but unfortunately there was so much I was learning for the first time. I still don’t understand how this went on for so long and how we as humans could be so disgusting to treat others this way.“I had then two reasons to live: one, to work with the resistance movement and help as long as I could stand upon my two feet: two, to dream and pray for the day to come when I could go free and tell the world, “This is what I saw with my own two eyes. It must never be allowed to happen again.”-Olga LengyelOlga Lengyel worked as a first surgical assistant to her husband, Dr. Miklos Lengyel. They had two boys and a really happy life. One day in May Miklos was called to the police station and Olga learned he was being sent to Germany immediately. Olga went home and told her parents she must go with him, they have to stay together. Her parents decide that they must all go together because they can’t possibly imagine in their worst nightmare what awaits them when they stepped onto the train. Packed beyond capacity with no food, water, or restroom they traveled for days. Those who were ill or weak died and everyone suffered greatly. As soon as they arrived at the camps they were separated and everything they owned taken from them. They took their clothes, shaved their heads, and striped away their dignity. Olga tells the story of how the people were separated and some sent to the camps and others straight to Birkenau to be gassed. This included her parents and her two boys. The guilt and utter turmoil she felt knowing it was she who was responsible for her family being there was too much to bear.Olga describes her life at Auschwitz and the inhumane treatment of all the men and women who were prisoners at the camp. Unspeakable stories of starvation and brutal beatings, slave labor and unthinkable acts of betrayal. I learned so much from Olga’s journey and I’m so happy she survived and her story was published so those of us who don’t know what happened behind the gates now can mourn along with her.
