Five Chimneys: The Story of Auschwitz

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses antisemitism, the Holocaust, murder, and physical and sexual violence.

Olga Lengyel (1908-2001) was a Hungarian woman who was imprisoned in Auschwitz-Birkenau from 1944 until January 1945. A surgeon’s assistant, Lengyel voluntarily accompanied her husband, Miklos Lengyel, after the Nazis falsely assured the family that Miklos would be working as a doctor in Germany and his family would be made comfortable. In actuality, the Lengyel family—including Lengyel, Miklos, Lengyel’s parents, and Lengyel and Miklos’s two sons, Thomas and Arvard—was destined for the notorious Nazi extermination and concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, which they reached after a seven-day long arduous journey in a cattle car.

As a camp prisoner, infirmary worker, and member of the camp’s underground resistance, Lengyel was well placed to understand the operations of the camp, as well as the experiences of an array of prisoners, including the condemned. Lengyel witnessed countless beatings and executions. She was beaten numerous times herself and suffered from extreme deprivation due to inadequate rations.

Lengyel treated patients of the infamous Dr. Mengele, who suffered from X-ray burns, infections after unnecessary surgeries and castrations, and a range of other complications. Furthermore, Lengyel learned about the exact processes of the gas chamber and crematorium through contacts in the underground, including the