Five Chimneys: The Story of Auschwitz

A French inmate looks uncharacteristically cheerful; Lengyel wonders if he has lost his mind until he explains that Paris has been liberated by the Allied forces. Lengyel excitedly passes on the news in hushed tones.

The Nazis conduct reprisals on the inmates, hanging and gassing thousands.

All inmates with American relatives are encouraged to record the details of their family members; the Nazis explain that they will be swapped for German prisoners of war. The inmates leave on a train. However, one day the new clothes and shoes distributed to this American transport are returned to the camp, indicating that the inmates had been murdered.

Dr. Albert Wenger, an American lawyer and economist, is a captive in Barrack 28 at Auschwitz-Birkenau. After liberation, he makes an official declaration about his treatment, describing indiscriminate beatings, murder, medical experimentation, and horrific conditions in the camp.

Lengyel has to take care of many victims of the Nazis’ human experiments in her infirmary. These experiments include victims being forced to drink nothing but salt water, being inoculated with diseases, being forced into ice baths, being burned with fire, being burned with phosphorus, sterilization through x-ray and castration, and being poisoned with various substances. Thousands of teenage boys are sterilized and erection is induced through a painful implant to the prostate; their sperm are studied.