Olga Lengyel
Encyclopedia
Olga Lengyel was a Romanian woman who became a prisoner at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, and later wrote about her experiences in her book Five Chimneys.
, Romania
, working in the hospital where her husband, Dr. Miklos Lengyel, was director. She was deported with her husband, parents and children to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, south-west Poland
, in the spring of 1944. She was the only member of the family to survive. She wrote about her experiences in the Holocaust in her autobiography, Five Chimneys, first published in 1947. After the war, she emigrated to the United States. According to the website of the Memorial Library, Olga founded the Memorial Library, located at 58 East 79th Street, which was chartered by the University of the State of New York. Olga died in 2001 at the age of 93, having battled and survived three separate bouts of cancer.
In 2006, the Memorial Library began the Holocaust Educator Network, a national program for teachers interested in and committed to Holocaust education, especially in rural schools and small towns, in a partnership with the National Writing Project's Rural Sites Network. The program is directed by Dr. Sondra Perl, author of On Austrian Soil: Teaching Those I Was Taught to Hate.
Life and career
Olga Lengyel was a trained surgical assistant in ClujCluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, working in the hospital where her husband, Dr. Miklos Lengyel, was director. She was deported with her husband, parents and children to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, south-west Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, in the spring of 1944. She was the only member of the family to survive. She wrote about her experiences in the Holocaust in her autobiography, Five Chimneys, first published in 1947. After the war, she emigrated to the United States. According to the website of the Memorial Library, Olga founded the Memorial Library, located at 58 East 79th Street, which was chartered by the University of the State of New York. Olga died in 2001 at the age of 93, having battled and survived three separate bouts of cancer.
In 2006, the Memorial Library began the Holocaust Educator Network, a national program for teachers interested in and committed to Holocaust education, especially in rural schools and small towns, in a partnership with the National Writing Project's Rural Sites Network. The program is directed by Dr. Sondra Perl, author of On Austrian Soil: Teaching Those I Was Taught to Hate.