Snow Flowers

Snow Flowers is a rare study by one of the 1,300 Hungarian Jewish inmates who were "eased out" by the SS to Junkers Company to produce airplane parts in Markkleeberg, Germany. Working conditions and profits shed light on slave labor establishments. Describing prisoners' ways of coping, their spiritual world addresses the question of how it was possible to live in the camp. A recurring theme is the experience of the author and her teenage sister. The 250 French political resistance fighters in the camp shared the death march and the anguish of the Allied bombing. Russian soldiers bent on sexual exploitation were the first disappointment after liberation. Homecoming and life of the survivor are recounted in the concluding chapters. The eight years of research on this book was prompted by the query of a Markkleeberg school teacher. German archival documents, songs, diaries written in the camp, and the testimonies of 110 fellow survivors provide a collective and a personal narrative. The book is part of a traveling exhibit, "The Forgotten Women of Buchenwald." Dr. Stessel is a retired librarian from The New York Public Library.