Five Chimneys Quotes

“That was only the beginning of the Nazi “Production Schedule.” Three hundred and sixty corpses every half hour, which was all the time it took to reduce human flesh to ashes, made 720 per hour, or 17,280 corpses per twenty-four hour shift. And the ovens, with murderous efficiency, functioned day and night. However, one must also take into account the death pits, which could destroy another 8,000 cadavers a day. In round numbers, about 24,000 corpses were handled each day. An admirable production record—one that speaks well for German industry.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: The Story of Auschwitz

“I had then two reasons to live: one, to work with the resistance movement and help as long as I could stand upon my 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 eyes. It must never be allowed to happen again!”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: The Story of Auschwitz

“From the eyewitness reports, one can gather what the spectacle in the gas chamber was after the doors were opened. In their hideous suffering, the condemned had tried to crawl on top of one another. During their agonies some had dug their fingernails into the flesh of their neighbors. As a rule the corpses were so compressed and entangled that it was impossible to separate them. The German technicians invented special hook-tipped poles which were thrust deep into the flesh of the corpses to pull them out.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: The Story of Auschwitz

“We lived to resist and we resisted to live.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz

“…Dr Mengele was a coward…so afraid of death himself, [he] enjoyed making others afraid.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz

“Vivíamos para resistir, y resistíamos para vivir.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz

“To enrich their racial science, the Germans regularly extracted blood. Apart from the scientific interest, the blood of the internees was used for transfusions to German wounded five hundred cc. of blood were taken from each “voluntary” donor and sent immediately to the army. To save the lives of the Wehrmacht soldiers, the Germans forgot that Jewish blood was “of inferior quality.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz

“An extra shift of Sonderkommandos was added. Still it was not enough. At least four hundred Greeks from the Corfu and Athens transport were ordered in the Sonderkommando. Now, something truly unusual happened. These four hundred demonstrated that in spite of the barbed wire and the lash they were not slaves but human beings. With rare dignity, the Greeks refused to kill the Hungarians! They declared that they preferred to die themselves first. Sadly enough, they did. The Germans saw to that. But what a demonstration of courage and character these Greek peasants had given. A pity the world does not know more about them!”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz

“I spoke to a twelve-year-old boy from the Czech camp who was wandering along the barbed wire, looking for something to eat. After speaking to him for a few minutes, I said, “Karli, do you know that you are too clever?” “Yes,” was the reply, “I know that I am very clever. But I know, too, that I shall never have a chance to be more clever. That is what is tragic.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz

“One internee told me that he had been in their barrack while they waited for the trucks. The children were sitting on the floor, wide-eyed and silent. He asked one lad, “Well, how are you, Janeck?” With a thoughtful expression on his face, the child answered, “Everything is so bad here that it can only be better ‘over there.’ I am not afraid.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz

“Because both Birkenau and Auschwitz are infamous names and a blot on the history of mankind it is necessary to explain how they differed. The railroad separated one from the other. When the selectors told off the deportees on the station platform “Right!” or “Left!” they were sending them to either Birkenau or Auschwitz. Auschwitz was a slave camp. Hard as life was at Auschwitz it was better than Birkenau. For the latter was definitely an extermination camp, and as such was never mentioned in the reports. It was part of the colossal guilt of the German rulers and was rarely referred to, nor was its existence ever admitted until the troops of the liberating Allies exposed the secret to the world. At Auschwitz many war factories were in operation, such as the D.A.W. (Deutsches-Aufrustungswerk), Siemens, and Krupp. All were devoted to the production of armaments. The prisoners detailed to work there were highly privileged compared to those who were not given such employment. But even those who did not work productively were more fortunate than the prisoners in Birkenau. The latter were merely awaiting their turn to be gassed and cremated. The unpleasant job of handling the soon-to-be corpses, and later the ashes, were relegated to groups called “kommandos.” The sole task of the Birkenau personnel was to camouflage the real reason for the camp: extermination. When the internees in Auschwitz, or in other camps in the area, were no longer judged useful they were dispatched to Birkenau to die in the ovens. It was as simple and cold-blooded as that.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz

“They had found the courage to reject a life which no longer merited the name.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz

“When the employees of "Canada" or of the "Bekleidungskammer" stole warm clothing for their ragged comrades, that was not common theft; it was an act of social solidarity.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz

“As a matter of fact, the idea of death seeped into our blood. We would die, anyway, whatever happened. We would be gassed, we would be burned, we would be hanged, or we would be shot. The members of the underground at least knew that if they died, they would die fighting for something.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz

“So long had it been since we had eaten civilized provisions that we could not identify it. After much reflection I realized that it was simply bread spread with lard or grease.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: The Story of Auschwitz

“The priests and nuns in the camp proved that they had real strength of character.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: The Story of Auschwitz

“We were sorry for them, for such deaths were really horrible; yet we envied them, too. They had found the courage to reject a life which no longer merited the name.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: The Story of Auschwitz

“Frequently, ironic situations resulted. One blocova, formerly maid-of-all-work, selected her erstwhile mistress as her personal servant. The latter brushed the shoes and mended the tatters of her ex-maid.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: The Story of Auschwitz

“By going together we would at least be assured a common fate. In the future, as in the past, my place would be at my husband’s side.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz

“In the feeble glimmer of that light, we spent a sleepless night, all thinking of the same thing, the death that was concealed across the threshold of the coming dawn. Although the wind blew in through the cracked windowpanes, we thought that we would suffocate. “Enemy” planes flew overhead. The eerie wail of sirens went through the camp. Finally, the pale day broke.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: The Story of Auschwitz

“The Nordic Supermen knew how to profit from everything. Immense casks were used to gather the human grease which had melted down at high temperatures. It was not surprising that the camp soap had such a peculiar odor. Nor was it astonishing that the internees became suspicious at the sight of certain pieces of fat sausage!”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: The Story of Auschwitz

“Certainly everyone whose hands were directly, or indirectly, stained with our blood must pay for his or her crimes.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz

“Why should anyone here believe anything the Germans said? First, because many never saw the final horrors until it was too late for them to communicate the truth to their neighbors. Second, because no human being could comprehend the ultimate goals of which they were capable, which they plotted daily, and which was part of their master plan for world conquest.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz

“So the trickery of the postcards had had a triple effect. It had deceived the families of the internees, often candidates for deportation themselves; it revealed the whereabouts of persons the Gestapo were seeking; and, thanks to the fake geographical indication, it had misled public opinion in the homeland of the internees and in foreign countries in general.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz

“La muerte no significaba más que una liberación.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: The Story of Auschwitz

“The sole task of the Birkenau personnel was to camouflage the real reason for the camp: extermination. When the internees in Auschwitz, or in other camps in the area, were no longer judged useful, they were dispatched to Birkenau to die in the ovens. It was as simple and cold-blooded as that.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: The Story of Auschwitz

“¡Qué poco sabían estas personas que las masas siempre dan la bienvenida al lobo disfrazado en la piel de cordero! ¡Qué poco conocían del significado de "circo y pan para la gente"!ç”
― Olga Lengyel, Los Hornos De Hitler

“En alguna parte de la tierra, más allá de las alambradas de púas, los hombres libres se estrechaban la mano y levantaban sus vasos para desear a los demás un feliz Año Nuevo... Pero en Birkenau, las ratas estaban cebándose en la carne de los niños de Europa”
― Olga Lengyel, Los Hornos De Hitler

“It seemed as though the Germans constantly sought to pit us against each other, to make us competitive, spiteful and hateful.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz

“Perhaps the greatest crime the “supermen” committed against us was their campaign, often successful, to turn us into monstrous beasts ourselves.”
― Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz