Sweisserok

Erzsebet Frank was born in 1918 in Mezökeresztes, Hungary. She was transferred from Auschwitz to the Junkers-Markkleeberg slave labor detail outside of Leipzig in 1944. She describes the experience in her book, "365 Nap: Vallomàs a Pokolok Tüzéböl" ("365 Days: Testimony from Hell's Inferno"), which she had begun drafting at Markkleeberg. The poem "Sweisserok" was written by Erzsebet Frank at Markkleeberg in 1945 and describes the friendship and daily lives of twelve welders at the Junkers-Markkleeberg slave labor camp during the Holocaust. The poem features an illustration of the welders by a fellow laborer, possibly a young woman named Gizella. One of the welders described in the poem is Erszebet Zucker (later Elizabeth Mermel, b. 1924, Sátoraljaújhely, Hungary), who carried the poem during the death march evacuation from Markkleeberg in April 1945. (Zahava Szász Stessel describes the creation and preservation of the poem in her book, "Snow Flowers: Hungarian Jewish Women in an Airplane Factory, Markkleeberg, Germany.")