Five Chimneys

A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz

By: Olga Lengyel

Narrated by: Jennifer Wydra

Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's Summary

Olga Lengyel tells, frankly and without compromise, one of the most horrifying stories of all time. This true, documented chronicle is the intimate, day-to-day record of a beautiful woman who survived the nightmare of Auschwitz and Birchenau. This book is a necessary reminder of one of the ugliest chapters in the history of human civilization.

It was a shocking experience. It is a shocking book.

©2018 Chicago Review Press (P)2018 Chicago Review Press

Five Chimneys

Struggled to listen. The fake accent of the narrator was very annoying. She could have read the book without trying to affect a European accent. I imagine the story was good. I feel great empathy for the Holocaust survivors. I have finished this book. What a terrible tale. Heart breaking. Once again I stress the affected accent was very annoying. She should have narrated the book in her natural accent.

Interesting facts

It has some interesting facts but the writer isn't a natural at storytelling. It's hard to follow and jumps around chronologically and geographically. The Narrator didn't help. She was hard to listen to trying to give everything a German accent

great story

i loved this book. my only problem was the narrator changed accents mid sentences. at one time it was Jamaican. it was not necessary.

Incredible story! OK performance.

For those who seek out memoirs of the Holocaust, this book is a MUST READ! The performance of this audio book is only “OK”; the fake accents were badly rendered. Dear listeners: please don’t let the performance take away from this INCREDIBLE story of perseverance and inspiration.

five chimneys

to believe is to have known some one or been told a true history of what happened in those terrible years. A country so small to raise up to such awful hate toward human beings and clam they didn't know... We must all hear, read, and learn all we can so thus doesn't happen again, or it will even worse.

Great detail of camp workings...Outstanding !

I loved it and would refer it to anyone looking for more information about details of the camp.

good story but bad performance

The narrator struggled with the eastern european accent in the beginning of the book and overall mainly abandoned it throughout. At one point she was reading with a Brittish accent although it was still the same main character speaking. She also read most of the story in the same angry tone. This performance made the story difficult to get through. It would have been better if the narrator had been able to portray a range of emotions and had not used the fake eastern european accent. The story was very good but it would have probably been better if i had read it from a tangible book rather than listen to this recording.

amazing

great I listen to it all the time. It is very educational and historical. Great

Fantastical

The author was in close personal contact with Dr. Mengele, Irma Grese, and the other lead medical SS officer in the camp. She was personally able to secretly sneak to see the revolt and ensuing battle of the Sonderkommando. She personally murdered babies of fellow inmates. She was personally privy to all the knowledge of the experiments carried out by the nazi doctors. I'm not saying these things didnt happen but I dont think they all happened to her. This book reads like a movie where all the important things just happen to one person instead of different people.

Well written, but full of misinformation

I've been studying the Holocaust for 31 years. Unfortunately, many "facts" are completely false. Examples: her claim that a man from the sonderkommando claimed 1.3M people died in the gas chamber within a 3 month period is completely dishonest. While Auschwitz was operational (May 1940-January 1945), the total number of deaths has been estimated to be between 750,000 and 1.1M. Also, the "fact" that she spoke to members of the sonderkommando cannot be true. They were completely isolated from the rest of the camp's population and other men couldn't have contact with them, let alone a woman. And these are just a couple of non-truths - the book is riddled with wildly incorrect information.

I also dislike when a narrator uses a fake accent as is the case in this book.

A honest account of events

An honest and raw account of events. The unimaginable suffering of thousands, and to realise that it was not that long ago is hard to comprehend.

Good book, bad narrator

A sad, gripping book that deserved a decent narrator rather than an American trying to do a Romanian accent. You do get used to her over the top 'Count Dracula' impression though and it's worth sticking with it because this book is excellent.

So Sad

what a brave wonderful person Olga was. My heart broke for her for the loss of all her family and friends...and for all the poor souls that were treated so badly. A great book and should be read by everyone ❤❤

I really shouldn’t read on a sunday

I began this book on a sunday night and didn’t complete it until monday morning which is to say I did it in one sitting which means I’m goood for nothing today. There have een many books written about the holocaust some fact and others fiction. I prefer the factual ones at least for accuracy. The more of them I read the more convinced I am that you’d really hav to have beeen there to experience the true horrors of what really went on in the camps. However, this book paints a pretty vivid picture not just of the layout of the camp but the atrocities committed there. There are facts in this book which I have never read in any other and they are awful to read. My only criticism is the narrator. Oh sure her rendering of the book isn’t bad but really, why couldn’t she have just read it in her normal accent instead of trying to put one on? It’s rather annoying though you do get used to it after a time.

Tragic and very sad but dull writing

Tragic and very sad but dull writing, difficult to get a reader involved. Narration was terrible and over dramatic and spoiled the book for me. Interesting how some already oppressed Jews can happily participate in oppressing gay people by calling them 'perverts'. It did not even occur to the author to question the common back then assumption that gay means pervert. Exactly like large portion of german society accepted that Jews were not humans.

The ultimate account

this book covers everything and though you're with the character it really adds depth as to the sheer amount of people, humans that were exterminated by other humans. if you're going to read any book and what can happen went extremists come to power this is the book. As they start to creep into power around the globe in 2019 you can't help but think how long before this all repeats itself.

Incredible

I have read this book 4 or 5 times but this is the first audio I have used.

The book is remarkable, cruelty, compassion, hate and love, life and death all exude from the pages.

What I didn’t like about the audio version was the attempts at accents. I was distracted by it and also found it a little patronising. It did nothing to had any credibility to the story which actually speaks for itself.

The subject of this book deserves the highest accolades and deserves the highest level of respect.

Sad, Emotional and Heartbreaking

Heartbreaking to read, but important to never ever forget what these people went through.

Good story, awful narrator

narrator really ruined it with her attempt at accents /awful pronunciation.

it's a well paced story, does not gloss over details.

excellent

Really good narrator. very good book. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Have listened to this book a few times as the narrator is very relaxing to listen too.