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| Plot Summary of Five Chimneys |
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"In 1944, nearly five years after Hitler had invade Poland; the Gestapo ruled everywhere including Cluj, Transylvania where the author, Olga Lengyel was living. Olga's husband, Dr. Miklos Lengyel was a trained medical doctor and she was a surgical assistant. In May 1944 when he was ordered to be deported to Germany by the Nazi's. When Olga heard this she insisted on going with her husband and their two sons so they can work in a German hospital to help the injured in the war, or so she thought. The whole family, including Olga parents was pushed inside a train in a cattle car with ninety-six other human beings and it was there their fate turned to horrific measures. Olga's family who was not Jewish could not believe what they were experiencing. Her husband was accused of double crossing the Nazi's by boycotting pharmaceuticals made by the German Bayer Company and were on the ordered destination to Auschwitz for payment of this crime with the Jewish deportees. Once they arrived at Auschwitz she witnessed children under twelve and the elderly were being summoned to left, woman and men were separated to the right. The screams of those children she will never forget and that is the last time she ever saw her children or parents.
The book describes in unbelievable detail her seven-month stay at Auschwitz, which she wrote shortly after this unspeakable ordeal. Olga finds out that the five chimneys she saw on the concentration camp were the crematoriums for the children and the elderly which her children and parents were incinerated in. After woman birthed babies the newborns along with the mothers were taken to the crematoriums as well. The ones that were placed in the concentration camp were stripped, put in rags and put on food rations, which had human hair and human fat in it. One blanket was given for every ten women to share, their chamber pot was their drinking cup, and all their hair was cut off and sold. She recalls her visits with the exceptionally beautiful but sadistic Irma Griese who brutalized the prisoners with sick enjoyment as she ran the women section for the Nazi's. Olga describes her observations of Dr. Joseph Mengele, the ruthless Nazi camp doctor who made it clear the Jews were first for the extermination and the nightmare of watching him use the Jews as lab rats for their experiments.
As the story comes near end, Olga finally saw her husband in a hospital at another camp but weeks later was shot down for trying to help a sick patient who had fallen down. Many atrocities follow until the prisoner's are marched to liberation.
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Susan D. Minkalis, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Five Chimneys |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
War/Cloak & Dagger story?
- holocaust
War/Spying
Yes
Period of greatest activity?
- 1900+
Which war?
- World War II
Subject of Biography
Gender
- Female
Age:
- 20's-30's
Ethnicity
- White
Nationality
- Eastern European
How sensitive is this person?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 6 ()
Europe
Yes
European country:
- Germany
- Poland
Misc setting
- prison
Century:
- 1930's-1950's
Style
Person
- rotating 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- very explicit references to deaths and torture
Book makes you feel?
- angry
Commentary on society?
Yes
Commentary on
- war
Writer's slant towards subject:
- very unfavorable
Story of entire life, or part?
- story of set of events during life
Pictures/Illustrations?
- None
How much dialogue in bio?
- significantly more descript than dialog
How much of bio focuses on most famous period of life?
- 0-25% of book
How much is philosophy rather than life story?
- 0-25% of book
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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