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Olga Lengyel (19 October 1908 – 15 April 2001) was a Hungarian Jewish prisoner at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, who later wrote about her experiences in her book Five Chimneys. She was the only member of her immediate family to survive the The Holocaust.
In a 2021, holocaust scholar Lawrence Langer argued that Lengyel's book contained falsified stories, false memories, and embellishment.
In the memoir, Lengyel provides an account of her encounter with Irma Grese, who mercilessly beat the most beautiful women in the camp, chose those who would be operated on by the SS doctor, and who would be sent to the gas chambers. She did so with great enthusiasm. She was quick to beat Lengyel, a Jew who had medical training and had been singled out to help the SS doctor. Ultimately, Lengyel was spared, but the chapter in which Grese is described ends on a chilling note. The survivor describes how she "saw Irma Greise sic coming from the Fuehrerstube, her whip in hand, to designate the next batch for the gas chamber". Her children were murdered in the gas chamber.
I cannot acquit myself of the charge that I am, in part, responsible for the destruction of my own parents and of my two young sons. The world understands that I could not have known, but in my heart the terrible feeling persists that I could have, I might have, saved them.
After the war, Lengyel emigrated to the United States, where she founded the Memorial Library chartered by the University of the State of New York. "The Library, headquartered in her elegant residence, is Olga's legacy, carrying on her mission of actively educating future generations about the Holocaust, other genocides, and the importance of human rights." She died of cancer in New York on 15 April 2001 at the age of 92. Obituary: Olga Lengyel, nytimes.com, 18 April 2001.
In 2021, holocaust scholar Lawrence Langer published a critical analysis of Lengyel's story, arguing it contained evidence of falsified stories, false memories or embellishment.
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