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The Seventh Cross
The Seventh Cross is one of the most powerful, popular, and influential novels of the twentieth century, a hair raising thriller that helped to alert the world to the grim realities of Nazi Germany and that is no less exciting today than when it was first published in 1942. Seven political prisoners escape from a Nazi prison camp; in response, the camp commandant has seven trees harshly pruned to resemble seven crosses: they will serve as posts to torture each recaptured prisoner, and capture, of course, is certain. Meanwhile, the escapees split up and flee across Germany, looking for such help and shelter as they can find along the way, determined to reach the border. Anna Seghers’s novel is not only a supremely suspenseful story of flight and pursuit but also a detailed portrait of a nation in the grip and thrall of totalitarianism.
Margot Bettauer Dembo’s expert new translation makes the complete text of this great political novel available in English for the first time.
Margot Bettauer Dembo’s expert new translation makes the complete text of this great political novel available in English for the first time.
402 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1942
About the author
Anna Seghers
146 books103 followersAnna Seghers (November 19, 1900, Mainz – June 1, 1983, Berlin) was a German writer famous for depicting the moral experience of the Second World War.
Born Netty Reiling in Mainz in 1900 of partly Jewish descent, she married Laszlo Radvanyi, a Hungarian Communist in 1925.
In Cologne and Heidelberg she studied history, the history of art and Chinese. She joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1928, at the height of its struggle against the burgeoning National Socialist German Workers Party. Her 1932 novel, Die Gefährten was a prophetic warning of the dangers of Fascism, which led to her being arrested by the Gestapo.
After German troops invaded the French Third Republic in 1940, she fled to Marseilles and one year later to Mexico, where she founded the anti-fascist 'Heinrich-Heine-Klub', named after the German Jewish poet Heinrich Heine, and founded Freies Deutschland (Free Germany), an academic journal. During this time, she wrote The Seventh Cross, for which she received the Büchner-Prize in 1947. The novel is set in 1936 and describes the escape of seven prisoners from a concentration camp. It was published in the United States in 1942 and produced as a movie in 1944 by MGM starring Spencer Tracy. The Seventh Cross was one of the very few depictions of Nazi concentration camps, in either literature or the cinema, during World War II.
Seghers best-known story The Outing of the Dead Girls (1946), written in Mexico, was an autobiographical reminiscence of a pre-World War I class excursion on the Rhine river in which the actions of the protagonist's classmates are seen in light of their decisions and ultimate fates during both world wars. In describing them, the German countryside, and her soon-to-be destroyed hometown Mainz, Seghers gives the reader a strong sense of lost innocence and the senseless injustices of war, from which there proves to be no escape, whether or not you sympathized with the Nazi party. Other notable Seghers stories include Sagen von Artemis (1938) and The Ship of the Argonauts (1953), both based on myths.
In 1947, Anna Seghers returned to Germany, moved to West Berlin, and became a member of the SED in the zone occupied by the Soviets. In 1950, she moved to East Berlin and became a co-founder of the freedom movement of the GDR. In 1951, she received both the first Nationalpreis der DDR and the Stalin Peace Prize, and in 1959 the "Ehrendoktorwürde der Universität Jena." In 1981, she became "Ehrenbürgerin" of her native town Mainz.
Born Netty Reiling in Mainz in 1900 of partly Jewish descent, she married Laszlo Radvanyi, a Hungarian Communist in 1925.
In Cologne and Heidelberg she studied history, the history of art and Chinese. She joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1928, at the height of its struggle against the burgeoning National Socialist German Workers Party. Her 1932 novel, Die Gefährten was a prophetic warning of the dangers of Fascism, which led to her being arrested by the Gestapo.
After German troops invaded the French Third Republic in 1940, she fled to Marseilles and one year later to Mexico, where she founded the anti-fascist 'Heinrich-Heine-Klub', named after the German Jewish poet Heinrich Heine, and founded Freies Deutschland (Free Germany), an academic journal. During this time, she wrote The Seventh Cross, for which she received the Büchner-Prize in 1947. The novel is set in 1936 and describes the escape of seven prisoners from a concentration camp. It was published in the United States in 1942 and produced as a movie in 1944 by MGM starring Spencer Tracy. The Seventh Cross was one of the very few depictions of Nazi concentration camps, in either literature or the cinema, during World War II.
Seghers best-known story The Outing of the Dead Girls (1946), written in Mexico, was an autobiographical reminiscence of a pre-World War I class excursion on the Rhine river in which the actions of the protagonist's classmates are seen in light of their decisions and ultimate fates during both world wars. In describing them, the German countryside, and her soon-to-be destroyed hometown Mainz, Seghers gives the reader a strong sense of lost innocence and the senseless injustices of war, from which there proves to be no escape, whether or not you sympathized with the Nazi party. Other notable Seghers stories include Sagen von Artemis (1938) and The Ship of the Argonauts (1953), both based on myths.
In 1947, Anna Seghers returned to Germany, moved to West Berlin, and became a member of the SED in the zone occupied by the Soviets. In 1950, she moved to East Berlin and became a co-founder of the freedom movement of the GDR. In 1951, she received both the first Nationalpreis der DDR and the Stalin Peace Prize, and in 1959 the "Ehrendoktorwürde der Universität Jena." In 1981, she became "Ehrenbürgerin" of her native town Mainz.
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May 21, 2020
I just finished reading the 2018 translation by Margot Bettauer Dembo of The Seventh Cross. What was already a good novel in the old translation has become an extraordinary novel in the new translation.
The author describes with exquisite and humane detail the insidious beginnings of Hitler's rise in Germany, from the point of view of ordinary Germans. It's difficult to describe just how different this novel is from most contemporary literature. It is an ensemble novel with dozens of characters, many of which are present for just a scene, or a paragraph. And yet each has a unique humanity.
The novel does have a hero--an escaped political prisoner by the name of George Heisler--but rather than being the focal point of the story, George, and the escape path he travels through this novel, are like the loom that the real story weaves itself around. The real story here is told in the countless vignettes of ordinary human beings who are just waking up to the threat of National Socialism. They are good people, but they are "good" in ordinary and unremarkable ways. They aren't heroes as much as they are people reacting to circumstances, moment to moment, almost always surprising themselves, either with their own cowardice or with their own selflessness.
The small choices people make in this time of relative peace, whether to aid an escaped political prisoner or not, whether to ignore the growing terror all around them or acknowledge it, whether to put self-interest before all else or choose some other path--all play out in myriad ways. By the end I had had many chances to ask myself the question "what would you do in that situation?"
Author Seghers was a Jew and a Communist who escaped Hitler's Germany, and published this novel in Mexico where she was in exile. One of the most interesting characters to me was the only Jewish character in the novel, Dr. Loewenstein, a character who still practices medicine freely in this time in Germany's history, the mid-30's, although he is clearly an outcast; he is the doctor patients see only when the other doctors in town can't help. George Heisler comes to Loewenstein for help with a septic wound, and what is not said between the two men speaks volumes.
First review, 2012:
What I love most about The Seventh Cross is that it documents the insidious beginnings of unjust imprisonment and paranoia in pre-WWII Germany. Jews in the book are still relatively free but required to wear a yellow star, and the death camps have not yet been built; the victims in this book are the political prisoners, and the camps they are held in are make-shift affairs at the edge of town. Anna Seghers was Jewish and a Communist, an author who returned to East Germany after the war, and although this book was hugely popular in the U.S. just after publication and was even made into a movie starring Spencer Tracy, it fell out of print in English with the advent of the Cold War. Thank you David Godine for bringing it back.
The author describes with exquisite and humane detail the insidious beginnings of Hitler's rise in Germany, from the point of view of ordinary Germans. It's difficult to describe just how different this novel is from most contemporary literature. It is an ensemble novel with dozens of characters, many of which are present for just a scene, or a paragraph. And yet each has a unique humanity.
The novel does have a hero--an escaped political prisoner by the name of George Heisler--but rather than being the focal point of the story, George, and the escape path he travels through this novel, are like the loom that the real story weaves itself around. The real story here is told in the countless vignettes of ordinary human beings who are just waking up to the threat of National Socialism. They are good people, but they are "good" in ordinary and unremarkable ways. They aren't heroes as much as they are people reacting to circumstances, moment to moment, almost always surprising themselves, either with their own cowardice or with their own selflessness.
The small choices people make in this time of relative peace, whether to aid an escaped political prisoner or not, whether to ignore the growing terror all around them or acknowledge it, whether to put self-interest before all else or choose some other path--all play out in myriad ways. By the end I had had many chances to ask myself the question "what would you do in that situation?"
Author Seghers was a Jew and a Communist who escaped Hitler's Germany, and published this novel in Mexico where she was in exile. One of the most interesting characters to me was the only Jewish character in the novel, Dr. Loewenstein, a character who still practices medicine freely in this time in Germany's history, the mid-30's, although he is clearly an outcast; he is the doctor patients see only when the other doctors in town can't help. George Heisler comes to Loewenstein for help with a septic wound, and what is not said between the two men speaks volumes.
First review, 2012:
What I love most about The Seventh Cross is that it documents the insidious beginnings of unjust imprisonment and paranoia in pre-WWII Germany. Jews in the book are still relatively free but required to wear a yellow star, and the death camps have not yet been built; the victims in this book are the political prisoners, and the camps they are held in are make-shift affairs at the edge of town. Anna Seghers was Jewish and a Communist, an author who returned to East Germany after the war, and although this book was hugely popular in the U.S. just after publication and was even made into a movie starring Spencer Tracy, it fell out of print in English with the advent of the Cold War. Thank you David Godine for bringing it back.
August 22, 2018
In Germany, before the War.
Real Germans. Greta and Gerda, Fritz and Franz. Leni and Ella, Hermann and Ernst. Elsa, Liesel, Reinhardt, Alfons. Dr. Lowenstein. A shepherd, a paperhanger, a gardener's apprentice, a seamstress, a wife, friends and former girlfriends.
Tell it subtly. The Heil! Hitlers! The awkward Sunday dinners when one child out of five has joined the SA. The wife who puts down her book, annoyed, when her husband comes home bringing trouble. A hand cut by glass in a fall.
There were concentration camps before, you know, the concentration camps. In Germany, before the War. A state of terror before the worst of it.
And from one concentration camp, seven prisoners escaped. Germans. The Commandant has seven trees chopped, and crosses attached, waiting for the return. Six prisoners are recaptured, or found dead. But one is alive, and running through the fear.
What was it like then? And how will the paperhanger, the gardener, the shepherd, the wife react?
To call this a thriller is to miss the larger point. We root for George Heisel (that seventh cross) of course, but not because of his mission, his utterances, or his flight. He's just one more pawn. Rather it's the atmosphere, a canvas. And individuals. The reader is asked, what would you do?
There's also something going on here with husbands and wives that's, well, before its times.
I can not recommend this highly enough. And, too, the author's Transit, an existential journey which has been gnawing at me since I finished it.
Real Germans. Greta and Gerda, Fritz and Franz. Leni and Ella, Hermann and Ernst. Elsa, Liesel, Reinhardt, Alfons. Dr. Lowenstein. A shepherd, a paperhanger, a gardener's apprentice, a seamstress, a wife, friends and former girlfriends.
Tell it subtly. The Heil! Hitlers! The awkward Sunday dinners when one child out of five has joined the SA. The wife who puts down her book, annoyed, when her husband comes home bringing trouble. A hand cut by glass in a fall.
There were concentration camps before, you know, the concentration camps. In Germany, before the War. A state of terror before the worst of it.
And from one concentration camp, seven prisoners escaped. Germans. The Commandant has seven trees chopped, and crosses attached, waiting for the return. Six prisoners are recaptured, or found dead. But one is alive, and running through the fear.
What was it like then? And how will the paperhanger, the gardener, the shepherd, the wife react?
To call this a thriller is to miss the larger point. We root for George Heisel (that seventh cross) of course, but not because of his mission, his utterances, or his flight. He's just one more pawn. Rather it's the atmosphere, a canvas. And individuals. The reader is asked, what would you do?
There's also something going on here with husbands and wives that's, well, before its times.
I can not recommend this highly enough. And, too, the author's Transit, an existential journey which has been gnawing at me since I finished it.
June 2, 2019
Olağanüstü bir politik gerçekçi roman. Bu yıl okuduğum en etkileyici roman diyebilirim. Sürükleyici, öfkelendirici, heyecanlandırıcı, düşündürücü, hüzünlendirici, umutlandırıcı kısaca birden çok duyguyu birbirine ekleyen bir roman.
Anna Seghers kendisine anlatılan yaşanmış bir olaydan kurgulamış Yedinci Şafak’ı. Savaştan önce Hitler Almanya’sında nazilerin güçlenmeye başladıkları yıllarda, muhalifler için kurulmuş toplama kamplarından birinden kaçan 7 mahkumun kaçış öyküsü anlatılıyor. Faşizmin adım adım gelişini, Alman halkının yaşadıklarını, liderleri Hitler’in buyruklarıyla SS ve SA kıtalarının nasıl vahşileştiklerini, kardeşin kardeşe düşürüldüğünü mükemmel anlatıyor yazar.
Çevirmen Ahmet Cemal’in önsözünde verdiği bir bilgi de kitabı daha bir özel kılıyor. Alman Komünist Partisi üyesi olan yazar ile Marksist eleştirmen Georg (György) Lukacs arasındaki tartışmayı hatırlatan A. Cemal, sonuçta Lukacs kendi anlayışı doğrultusunda romanı eleştirse de onun faşizmin en korkunç uygulama biçimlerinden birini yansıttığını da kabul ettiğini belirtiyor. Ben romanı okuduktan sonra Anna Seghers’in faşizme karşı savaşımda bu roman ile Lukacs’tan daha yararlı bir görev yaptığına inanıyorum.
Kitabın esas adının “Yedinci Haç” olduğunu da belirtmekte yarar var.
Anna Seghers kendisine anlatılan yaşanmış bir olaydan kurgulamış Yedinci Şafak’ı. Savaştan önce Hitler Almanya’sında nazilerin güçlenmeye başladıkları yıllarda, muhalifler için kurulmuş toplama kamplarından birinden kaçan 7 mahkumun kaçış öyküsü anlatılıyor. Faşizmin adım adım gelişini, Alman halkının yaşadıklarını, liderleri Hitler’in buyruklarıyla SS ve SA kıtalarının nasıl vahşileştiklerini, kardeşin kardeşe düşürüldüğünü mükemmel anlatıyor yazar.
Çevirmen Ahmet Cemal’in önsözünde verdiği bir bilgi de kitabı daha bir özel kılıyor. Alman Komünist Partisi üyesi olan yazar ile Marksist eleştirmen Georg (György) Lukacs arasındaki tartışmayı hatırlatan A. Cemal, sonuçta Lukacs kendi anlayışı doğrultusunda romanı eleştirse de onun faşizmin en korkunç uygulama biçimlerinden birini yansıttığını da kabul ettiğini belirtiyor. Ben romanı okuduktan sonra Anna Seghers’in faşizme karşı savaşımda bu roman ile Lukacs’tan daha yararlı bir görev yaptığına inanıyorum.
Kitabın esas adının “Yedinci Haç” olduğunu da belirtmekte yarar var.
July 31, 2018
Written from Exile
When Anna Seghers published this novel in 1942, she was living in Mexico, an exile from her native Germany. A Jewess married to an Hungarian Communist, she had double reason to flee to France when Hitler came to power in 1933. And reason again in 1940, when Paris fell. Her novel, a rare German denunciation of the Nazi regime while it was at its height, was a major success when it first appeared in an abridged version, gaining further popularity with the 1944 Fred Zinnemann movie starring Spencer Tracy. For a summary of the plot, I can't do better than quote Wikipedia:
The story of Das siebte Kreuz is rather simple: there are seven men who have been imprisoned in the fictitious Westhofen camp, who have decided to make a collaborative escape attempt. The main character is a Communist, George Heisler; the narrative follows his path across the countryside, taking refuge with those few who are willing to risk a visit from the Gestapo, while the rest of the escapees are gradually overtaken by their hunters.The novel flirts with several different genres, although it is ahead of the curve in most of them. The image above and much of the publicity for the book suggest an early iteration of the now-familiar Nazi concentration-camp tropes. These, however, are a comparatively minor aspect of the book, and the camp commandant is in fact opposed by his subordinates. There are pre-echoes of later Holocaust stories, but they are very faint; these are political prisoners, not racial undesirables. The camp escape story as a specific trope would also come into its own in the aftermath of WW2, but the hero-on-the-run genre goes back at least to the war before that, in books such as The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan. By concentrating on the fate of just one man among the seven escapees, Seghers takes us deep within his mind and builds a good deal of suspense when she wants to. But the book is too long, too complex, and too unfocused to make an entirely successful thriller—and that, I believe, is because the exiled writer is also trying to do something else. To see what that is, take this random paragraph from the first chapter:
The title of the book comes from a conceit of the prison camp. The current officer in charge has ordered the creation of these seven crosses from the trees nearby, to be used when the prisoners are returned—not for crucifixion, but a subtler torture: the escapees are made to stand all day in front of their crosses, and will be punished if they falter.
As Franz was pedaling past the neighboring Mangold farm, they were in the process of setting up ladders, poles, and baskets under their mighty Mollebusch pear tree. Sophie, the oldest daughter—a strong girl, a bit stout but not fat, with delicate wrists and ankles—was the first to jump up on a ladder, at the same time calling out something to Franz. Although he couldn't make out what she'd said, he turned around briefly and laughed. He was overcome by a feeling of belonging. People who feel and act feebly will have trouble understanding him. For them, belonging means having a particular family, a specific community, or a love affair. For Franz it meant simply belonging to this bit of soil, to its people, and being a member of the morning shift cycling to the Hoechst plant, but above all it meant belonging to the living.Pages before we even see the protagonist, George Heisler, we are immersed in the pastoral landscape of the Taunus area, northwest of Frankfurt. And we shall return to this place and these people many times before the book ends; it will be a long time before we see its connection to the escape plot. It is an affectionate portrayal, nostalgic even, but appropriately so, for this is the country in which Seghers herself (real name Netty Reiling) grew up. Parts of the book at least are an exile's hymn of love to a lost paradise. As the director Fred Zinnemann, another exile, realized. Unable to film in Germany, he had to evoke the setting through painted backgrounds like the following:
Most of the Zinnemann movie, though, is more urban, more noir than the book. Though Seghers too will take us into the shadows in cities such as Mainz and Frankfurt. She will introduce us to people whom George encounters, and to those who merely form part of his background. Ordinary people. SS, Gestapo, and Brownshirt characters exist, but they are not her main focus. Even when Seghers wants to show the effect of Nazi domination on the civilian population, she paints the people with greater conviction than their oppressors. They, after all, are the folk she remembers from before her exile, her friends and neighbors, her belonging. By contrast, actual life under Nazi rule is something she can only imagine, learning about it at second hand from more recent exiles.
This is obviously an important book. But not a very good novel. Nostalgic love song and political thriller make awkward bedfellows. As a result, the book lacks focus. It is long. There are so many episodes. Events are not necessarily told in sequence. There is a bewildering number of characters, less than half of whom are listed in the dramatis personae at the start. The geography, sometimes exquisitely precise, is equally often confusingly vague. The mechanisms of oppression are unclear, even the way the title crosses are to be used. I was not even sure of the year in which it is set: at first I thought it must be the late thirties, but then comes a mention of the war—yet nothing of the life that Seghers portrays suggests a population at war.
But remember, this is a writer writing from exile. This alone could explain a lot of the vagueness. But it also explains the love of country that suffuses everything. And, whatever its other weaknesses, it is this love that makes Seghers' novel a uniquely personal testament.
December 8, 2019
Ein Buch über Hitlerdeutschland (wie es im Untertitel heißt), welches nicht zur Nachkriegsliteratur zählt, sondern von einer Deutschen noch vor dem Krieg geschrieben wurde. Schon alleine diese Tatsache, stellt den Roman besonders heraus. Anna Seghers schrieb ihn in Frankreich nach ihrer Flucht aus Mainz Ende der 30er Jahre und verarbeitete darin die Erlebnisse von Strafgefangenen aus Konzentrationslagern. Mir war gar nicht bewusst, das die ersten KZs schon 1933 errichtet wurden zur Inhaftierung von politische Andersdenkenden. Insofern spielt die Judenverfolgung in diesem Buch noch keine Rolle, da sie erst nach diesem Roman ins Rollen kam. Diese Review enthält Spoiler!
In der Nähe von Worms gab es in Osthofen tatsächlich zu Beginn des Dritten Reiches ein KZ. Anna Seghers verlegt ihre Handlung ins KZ Westhofen, quasi der Nachbarort von Osthofen, den es wirklich gibt. Dort fliehen an einem Montag morgen im Jahr 1937 bei einem Außeneinsatz sieben Gefangene. Die Flucht der Hauptperson Georg Heisler dauert im Folgenden sieben Tage und so ist das Buch in sieben Kapitel aufgebaut. Der tobende Lagerleiter läßt daraufhin sieben Platanen am Rande des Lagers fällen und funktioniert die Baumstümpfe zu sieben Kreuze um. Man merkt bereits im ersten Kapitel, dass dieses Buch voller Symbolik steckt, nicht nur wegen der mystischen Zahl Sieben, sondern auch wegen der vielen christlichen Symbole, die Anna Seghers einfließen läßt. Und das hat mich wirklich gewundert, denn die Autorin als überzeugte Kommunisten und später eine der bekanntesten Schriftstellerinnen der DDR, ist erstaunlich religiös, doch ihre Vorgehensweise ist nicht plakativ, sondern für mich irgendwie geheimnisvoll und interpretationsbedürftig.
Denn statt der drei Kreuze auf Golgatha haben wir sieben Kreuze , wobei das letzte Kreuz leer bleibt, denn Georg gelingt als Einzigem die Flucht und am Ende hängen nur vier Geflohene an den Kreuzen. Ein Anderer stirbt eines natürlichen Todes kurz vor seinem Heimatdorf und ein Weiterer nimmt sich das Leben kurz vor seiner Ergreifung. Doch was bedeutet nun das leere Kreuz? Im Gegensatz zu Jesus kann Georg (der Name eines Heiligen) dem Kreuz entgehen. Ist seine Form der Flucht die Errettung oder die Erlösung? Man könnte es fast meinen. Auch auf dem Weg durch das Rhein-Main-Gebiet in den sieben Fluchttagen tauchen immer wieder christliche Symbole auf. Ein Mann begeht einen Verrat, ein Anderer stellt sich seinen Häschern und sogar der Sündenfall wird von Seghers eingeflochten, in dem der alte Schulfreund und Äpfelhändler Georgs Frau Äpfel anbietet, um konspirativ Informationen weiterzuleiten. Der geschenkte Apfel führt in die Freiheit und nicht in die Verdammnis. Mir haben diese Symbole unheimlich gut gefallen und ich bin sicher, dass es noch viel mehr zu entdecken gab. Manches blieb mir auch bis zum Schluss unklar, z.B. welche Rolle der Schäfer Ernst aus Georgs Heimatdorf hatte. Der Schäfer als Gottvater, der über alles wacht, aber nicht eingreift? Das war in der Tat ein Buch, welches die eigene Phantasie anregt.
Der Schreibstil ist auch außergewöhnlich. Es ist keinesfalls so, dass Georg als strahlender Held dargestellt wird. Die Stimmung im Buch bleibt gedrückt, alle sind von Zweifel geplagt und schauen pessimistisch in die Zukunft, teilweise sogar resignierend. Vielleicht hat es deswegen manchen Funktionären der DDR nicht so recht gefallen. Umrahmt wird die Geschichte durch einen unbekannten Gefangenen als auktorialen Erzähler, während der überwiegende Teil der Geschichte eigentlich personelle Erzählung ist und dies meist in Form innerer Monologe, was wirklich eine große Konzentration für mich erforderte, da die Gedanken fließen und ich teilweise nicht mehr wusste, wer „er“ oder was „es“ ist. So musste ich immer mal wieder zurückblättern, um korrekt in die Gedanken einzutauchen. Allerdings weckte dieser Schreibstil auch ein sehr eindringliches Gefühl in mir. Erschwerend kam noch hinzu, dass auf der Flucht eine Vielzahl von Menschen den Weg des Geflohenen kreuzen.
Ich bin sicher, dass ich bei einem nochmaligen Lesen weitere Symbole oder Interprerationsmöglichkeiten entdecken würde. Wirklich ein sehr beeindruckendes und spannendes Buch und für mich einer der besten Romane, die ich über das Leben im Dritten Reich mit seinen vielfältigen Charakteren gelesen habe.
In der Nähe von Worms gab es in Osthofen tatsächlich zu Beginn des Dritten Reiches ein KZ. Anna Seghers verlegt ihre Handlung ins KZ Westhofen, quasi der Nachbarort von Osthofen, den es wirklich gibt. Dort fliehen an einem Montag morgen im Jahr 1937 bei einem Außeneinsatz sieben Gefangene. Die Flucht der Hauptperson Georg Heisler dauert im Folgenden sieben Tage und so ist das Buch in sieben Kapitel aufgebaut. Der tobende Lagerleiter läßt daraufhin sieben Platanen am Rande des Lagers fällen und funktioniert die Baumstümpfe zu sieben Kreuze um. Man merkt bereits im ersten Kapitel, dass dieses Buch voller Symbolik steckt, nicht nur wegen der mystischen Zahl Sieben, sondern auch wegen der vielen christlichen Symbole, die Anna Seghers einfließen läßt. Und das hat mich wirklich gewundert, denn die Autorin als überzeugte Kommunisten und später eine der bekanntesten Schriftstellerinnen der DDR, ist erstaunlich religiös, doch ihre Vorgehensweise ist nicht plakativ, sondern für mich irgendwie geheimnisvoll und interpretationsbedürftig.
Denn statt der drei Kreuze auf Golgatha haben wir sieben Kreuze , wobei das letzte Kreuz leer bleibt, denn Georg gelingt als Einzigem die Flucht und am Ende hängen nur vier Geflohene an den Kreuzen. Ein Anderer stirbt eines natürlichen Todes kurz vor seinem Heimatdorf und ein Weiterer nimmt sich das Leben kurz vor seiner Ergreifung. Doch was bedeutet nun das leere Kreuz? Im Gegensatz zu Jesus kann Georg (der Name eines Heiligen) dem Kreuz entgehen. Ist seine Form der Flucht die Errettung oder die Erlösung? Man könnte es fast meinen. Auch auf dem Weg durch das Rhein-Main-Gebiet in den sieben Fluchttagen tauchen immer wieder christliche Symbole auf. Ein Mann begeht einen Verrat, ein Anderer stellt sich seinen Häschern und sogar der Sündenfall wird von Seghers eingeflochten, in dem der alte Schulfreund und Äpfelhändler Georgs Frau Äpfel anbietet, um konspirativ Informationen weiterzuleiten. Der geschenkte Apfel führt in die Freiheit und nicht in die Verdammnis. Mir haben diese Symbole unheimlich gut gefallen und ich bin sicher, dass es noch viel mehr zu entdecken gab. Manches blieb mir auch bis zum Schluss unklar, z.B. welche Rolle der Schäfer Ernst aus Georgs Heimatdorf hatte. Der Schäfer als Gottvater, der über alles wacht, aber nicht eingreift? Das war in der Tat ein Buch, welches die eigene Phantasie anregt.
Der Schreibstil ist auch außergewöhnlich. Es ist keinesfalls so, dass Georg als strahlender Held dargestellt wird. Die Stimmung im Buch bleibt gedrückt, alle sind von Zweifel geplagt und schauen pessimistisch in die Zukunft, teilweise sogar resignierend. Vielleicht hat es deswegen manchen Funktionären der DDR nicht so recht gefallen. Umrahmt wird die Geschichte durch einen unbekannten Gefangenen als auktorialen Erzähler, während der überwiegende Teil der Geschichte eigentlich personelle Erzählung ist und dies meist in Form innerer Monologe, was wirklich eine große Konzentration für mich erforderte, da die Gedanken fließen und ich teilweise nicht mehr wusste, wer „er“ oder was „es“ ist. So musste ich immer mal wieder zurückblättern, um korrekt in die Gedanken einzutauchen. Allerdings weckte dieser Schreibstil auch ein sehr eindringliches Gefühl in mir. Erschwerend kam noch hinzu, dass auf der Flucht eine Vielzahl von Menschen den Weg des Geflohenen kreuzen.
Ich bin sicher, dass ich bei einem nochmaligen Lesen weitere Symbole oder Interprerationsmöglichkeiten entdecken würde. Wirklich ein sehr beeindruckendes und spannendes Buch und für mich einer der besten Romane, die ich über das Leben im Dritten Reich mit seinen vielfältigen Charakteren gelesen habe.
June 9, 2024
Ein Klassiker, über den bereits alles gesagt wurde,
Fakt ist, dass ich ihn hätte viel früher lesen müssen.
Fakt ist, dass ich ihn hätte viel früher lesen müssen.
August 23, 2021
"Um ein Kind groß zu ziehen, braucht es ein ganzes Dorf."
Nach der Lektüre des siebten Kreuzes weiß ich nun auch:
Um einen Menschen zu retten, braucht es eine ganze Gemeinschaft.
Die Fluchtgeschichte des Kommunisten/Sozialisten Georg aus dem KZ Westhofen eröffnet ein breites Gesellschaftspanorama zum Deutschland der ersten Jahre unter Hitler. Die Erzählerinstanz fliegt dabei durch die Rheinlande um Mainz umher und kann in verschiedene Köpfe gucken: KZ-Aufseher, SA-Männer, Bauern auf dem Feld, Arbeiter an der Maschine, Kinder - wir nehmen Anteil am Alltag der Menschen, der unterbrochen wird durch eine Nachricht: Aus Westhofen, da sind 7 ausgebrochen. Unsere Hauptperson ist aber natürlich Georg.
Seghers sondiert hier die politische Lage um 1936, horcht in die unterschiedlichen Personen hinein und lässt dabei meist in Gedankenreden deren Sorgen und Enttäuschungen zu Wort kommen. Erstaunlich viele Menschen sind bereit, Georg auf seiner Flucht zu helfen. Allen voran die Fabrikarbeiter, denen Anna Seghers in den späteren Jahren in der DDR ja weiterhin besondere Sympathie entgegenbringen wird. Doch Seghers schreibt nicht nur über die helfenden Helden, sie straft auch die Zögerlichen und Zaudernden nicht ab, sondern begründet vielmehr deren fehlenden Mut zur Hilfe mit dem Wunsch, keinen Bruch in der eigenen Familie zu riskieren, keine Arbeitsstelle zu verlieren, Verhör und Folter zu entgehen. Allzu menschlich - möchte man sagen.
So kam mir der Roman nicht nur wie eine abenteuerliche Schilderung einer geglückten Flucht vor, sondern auch wie ein früher Erklärungsversuch dafür, dass dem Nazi-Terror millionenfach Gefolgschaft geleistet wurde. Gerade diese Erklärbarkeit durch die Zwänge des Alltags war dann für Autoren der DDR enorm wichtig.
Anna Seghers schafft es, mir das Grauen zu eröffnen, das Verfolgte schon in den ersten Jahren der Diktatur erfasst haben muss. Die zahlreichen Übertragungen auf die Passionsgeschichte Jesu machen die dringende Suche nach einer Antwort, nach einem Beistand deutlich. In der Stunde der Unfassbarkeit und Entsetzlichkeit findet der verfolgte Mensch Hilfe in der Bibel.
Ich habe lange mit meiner Freundin darüber diskutiert, wie diese christliche Durchsetzung zur Geschichte (der nach meiner Kenntnis atheistischen Seghers) passt. Und im Verlauf ist uns klar geworden, wie unglaublich fest sich die beiden Ebenen - Passion Christi und Verfolgung durch die Nazis - sich zu einem gemeinsamen Strang drehen lassen. Gerade im Hinblick auf die humane Forderung, der Einzelne solle unter allen Umstände gerettet werden. Aber natürlich steckt darin auch ein politischer Appell: Wir Kommunisten leiden für die Gerechtigkeit und die Freiheit. Wir kämpfen und sterben für altruistische Ziele, während die im Gleichschritt mitmarschierenden Hitler-Deutschen nur ihre eigene Haut retten wollen.
Damit greift sie Apitz` DDR-Klassiker "Nackt unter Wölfen" voraus, denn auch dort wurde für die Rettung eines Menschen (hier ein Baby) ein ganzes Lager mobilisiert. Seghers verbindet sozialistische Forderungen und kommunistische Arbeiter mit christlichen Anleihen und führt dieses "Kombinat" als gerechten Gegenspieler gegen die Nazis.
Mir gefällt auch der absolute Humanismus, der in dieser Geschichte deutlich wird. Denn in den Augen von Utilitaristen müsste man Georg freilich sofort opfern und an die Nazis verraten. Viel zu viele Menschenleben sind in Gefahr. Aber indem die Mainzer Arbeiter alles dafür tun, um Georg am Leben zu erhalten und außer Landes zu schmuggeln, beweisen sie vor allem: Menschlichkeit. Dieses Postulat der unbeschränkten und unverletzlichen Menschlichkeit wird Seghers dann ein paar Jahre später in die DDR führen. Ob sie dort fand, was sie suchte, ist nicht Teil dieser Geschichte, die mich sehr berührt hat.
9/ 10 Punkte
(Ein Punkt Abzug, da mir gerade in den letzten beiden Teilen doch zu viele Helfer und Sympathisanten auftauchten. Wenn die meisten Menschen "eigentlich, im Herzen" Kommunisten/Sozialisten sind, warum herrschen dann die Nazis, habe ich mich gefragt.)
Nach der Lektüre des siebten Kreuzes weiß ich nun auch:
Um einen Menschen zu retten, braucht es eine ganze Gemeinschaft.
Die Fluchtgeschichte des Kommunisten/Sozialisten Georg aus dem KZ Westhofen eröffnet ein breites Gesellschaftspanorama zum Deutschland der ersten Jahre unter Hitler. Die Erzählerinstanz fliegt dabei durch die Rheinlande um Mainz umher und kann in verschiedene Köpfe gucken: KZ-Aufseher, SA-Männer, Bauern auf dem Feld, Arbeiter an der Maschine, Kinder - wir nehmen Anteil am Alltag der Menschen, der unterbrochen wird durch eine Nachricht: Aus Westhofen, da sind 7 ausgebrochen. Unsere Hauptperson ist aber natürlich Georg.
Seghers sondiert hier die politische Lage um 1936, horcht in die unterschiedlichen Personen hinein und lässt dabei meist in Gedankenreden deren Sorgen und Enttäuschungen zu Wort kommen. Erstaunlich viele Menschen sind bereit, Georg auf seiner Flucht zu helfen. Allen voran die Fabrikarbeiter, denen Anna Seghers in den späteren Jahren in der DDR ja weiterhin besondere Sympathie entgegenbringen wird. Doch Seghers schreibt nicht nur über die helfenden Helden, sie straft auch die Zögerlichen und Zaudernden nicht ab, sondern begründet vielmehr deren fehlenden Mut zur Hilfe mit dem Wunsch, keinen Bruch in der eigenen Familie zu riskieren, keine Arbeitsstelle zu verlieren, Verhör und Folter zu entgehen. Allzu menschlich - möchte man sagen.
So kam mir der Roman nicht nur wie eine abenteuerliche Schilderung einer geglückten Flucht vor, sondern auch wie ein früher Erklärungsversuch dafür, dass dem Nazi-Terror millionenfach Gefolgschaft geleistet wurde. Gerade diese Erklärbarkeit durch die Zwänge des Alltags war dann für Autoren der DDR enorm wichtig.
Anna Seghers schafft es, mir das Grauen zu eröffnen, das Verfolgte schon in den ersten Jahren der Diktatur erfasst haben muss. Die zahlreichen Übertragungen auf die Passionsgeschichte Jesu machen die dringende Suche nach einer Antwort, nach einem Beistand deutlich. In der Stunde der Unfassbarkeit und Entsetzlichkeit findet der verfolgte Mensch Hilfe in der Bibel.
Ich habe lange mit meiner Freundin darüber diskutiert, wie diese christliche Durchsetzung zur Geschichte (der nach meiner Kenntnis atheistischen Seghers) passt. Und im Verlauf ist uns klar geworden, wie unglaublich fest sich die beiden Ebenen - Passion Christi und Verfolgung durch die Nazis - sich zu einem gemeinsamen Strang drehen lassen. Gerade im Hinblick auf die humane Forderung, der Einzelne solle unter allen Umstände gerettet werden. Aber natürlich steckt darin auch ein politischer Appell: Wir Kommunisten leiden für die Gerechtigkeit und die Freiheit. Wir kämpfen und sterben für altruistische Ziele, während die im Gleichschritt mitmarschierenden Hitler-Deutschen nur ihre eigene Haut retten wollen.
Damit greift sie Apitz` DDR-Klassiker "Nackt unter Wölfen" voraus, denn auch dort wurde für die Rettung eines Menschen (hier ein Baby) ein ganzes Lager mobilisiert. Seghers verbindet sozialistische Forderungen und kommunistische Arbeiter mit christlichen Anleihen und führt dieses "Kombinat" als gerechten Gegenspieler gegen die Nazis.
Mir gefällt auch der absolute Humanismus, der in dieser Geschichte deutlich wird. Denn in den Augen von Utilitaristen müsste man Georg freilich sofort opfern und an die Nazis verraten. Viel zu viele Menschenleben sind in Gefahr. Aber indem die Mainzer Arbeiter alles dafür tun, um Georg am Leben zu erhalten und außer Landes zu schmuggeln, beweisen sie vor allem: Menschlichkeit. Dieses Postulat der unbeschränkten und unverletzlichen Menschlichkeit wird Seghers dann ein paar Jahre später in die DDR führen. Ob sie dort fand, was sie suchte, ist nicht Teil dieser Geschichte, die mich sehr berührt hat.
9/ 10 Punkte
(Ein Punkt Abzug, da mir gerade in den letzten beiden Teilen doch zu viele Helfer und Sympathisanten auftauchten. Wenn die meisten Menschen "eigentlich, im Herzen" Kommunisten/Sozialisten sind, warum herrschen dann die Nazis, habe ich mich gefragt.)
January 23, 2016
1937 in Nazi-Germany. Seven detainees manage to escape from the fictitious concentration camp Westhofen (near Worms; the real one was called Osthofen). The camp commander promises to capture them within seven days and nail them to seven made-up crosses in the camp's yard. The main character, Georg Heisler, is one of the fugitives and is intended for the eponymous Seventh Cross. Will he make it, against all odds, and will the seventh cross stay bare?
We follow Heisler's path over the course of one week. We meet the people who knew him before and how they deal with the situation. There are moral conflicts galore in this novel. Would you, as a common, unblemished, and apolitical citizen, give this wanted man shelter if he is knocking on your door, knowing the real criminals are the ones chasing him. Or would you, without knowing Heisler at all, report him to the police if you see him somewhere? Who can you talk to about these kind of problems? Your family, your friends, your neighbors? Who can you trust anymore? Maybe the hear-nothing/see-nothing/speak-nothing approach will work best?
This is a carefully constructed novel and I think the strongest parts are the ones not written down. There's a lot of sub-text to be considered, especially in dialogs, and it was not always easy for me to get the things that are only hinted. Often there's only one or two little sentences that seem to be enough to define a character's mindset.
So far so good. The reason I couldn't rate this book higher is the prose, especially in the narrative, which seems kind of stiff to me. There are a whole lot of unnecessary diminutives, and some grammatical constructs made me cringe. One strange thing about this book is the fact that it was published first in the USA (1942, in English) and almost at the same time in Mexico (in German). I suppose, but I'm not sure, that the English version is a translation (the author is German after all, writing in exile). Or maybe Anna Seghers wrote both versions, and translated from German to English herself. In any case this was the first book that let the people from the US know about Nazi-Germany, and apparently also the first one that mentions concentration camps. And for that I'd like to recommend it to readers interested in this part of history.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
July 5, 2024
Only in times when nothing at all is possible any more does life pass by like a shadow. But those times when everything becomes possible again contain all of life as well as death and destruction
This is a book about resistance to tyranny, even when acts of resistance are tiny, useless, defeated, and sometimes only in the resistor’s own mind. Written in 1933 and concerning an escape from a German concentration camp, it spiritually takes up the mantel where Isherwood left it at the end of Goodbye to Berlin: “The sun shines, and Hitler is master of this city. The sun shines, and dozens of my friends -- my pupils at the Workers' School, the men and women I met at the I. A. H -- are in prison, possibly dead.”
The Seventh Cross begins with seven prisoners escaping from a concentration camp and scattering in all directions. One is recaptured almost immediately, and in the coming days others are brought back. But as time goes on and some men avoid capture, the value of their escape takes on greater significance. Can they possibly navigate the trap that is German society in the 1930s? Who can be trusted? Who is left? Those who want to help them wonder if it is worth sacrificing other lives to save one, and conclude that it is. Symbolically, escape from tyranny must be possible, and everything must be done to make it possible. Yet, old comrades have vanished and the city is full of genuine Nazis, as well as many frightened people determined to survive, whoever is in government.
The protagonist, George, is a communist and political prisoner, and the novel follows the triumphs and missteps of his escape, interspersed with sections devoted to other characters who cross his path: the old friend who wants to help but doesn’t know how, the abandoned wife, unquestioning young men of the regime who begin to have questions, a dying farmer who reports George to feel alive again, former activists in hiding, who want to help, but aren't sure if they too are being lured into a trap.
Despite the through-line of the escape, which makes it a compelling page-turner, it is largely not a plot-driven novel. It is concerned with the psychology of doing something or doing nothing, of looking away or of complicity. The language is simple but the insights ring true. Not everyone is a hero. A wallpaper-hanger faces a terrifying ordeal being questioned by a Gestapo officer young enough to be his son. A callow young man is anxious to get his stolen jacket back. Children take part in hunting down hidden prisoners. But also, fearful housewives who have long ignored everything realize that there is more to life than keeping themselves safe:
But at that moment even Liesel understood the nature of an illusory world, a mistakenly returned [husband] who wasn’t himself any more, a family that cannot then be a family any more; a life together through the years that had stopped being a life long ago on an October night in the cellars of the Gestapo because of a few words of confession.
It’s also a story about town and country, the feeling of sunlight and the smell of apples.
I first read this in university and loved it, and was a little concerned approaching it again. But it’s still a great book.
This is a book about resistance to tyranny, even when acts of resistance are tiny, useless, defeated, and sometimes only in the resistor’s own mind. Written in 1933 and concerning an escape from a German concentration camp, it spiritually takes up the mantel where Isherwood left it at the end of Goodbye to Berlin: “The sun shines, and Hitler is master of this city. The sun shines, and dozens of my friends -- my pupils at the Workers' School, the men and women I met at the I. A. H -- are in prison, possibly dead.”
The Seventh Cross begins with seven prisoners escaping from a concentration camp and scattering in all directions. One is recaptured almost immediately, and in the coming days others are brought back. But as time goes on and some men avoid capture, the value of their escape takes on greater significance. Can they possibly navigate the trap that is German society in the 1930s? Who can be trusted? Who is left? Those who want to help them wonder if it is worth sacrificing other lives to save one, and conclude that it is. Symbolically, escape from tyranny must be possible, and everything must be done to make it possible. Yet, old comrades have vanished and the city is full of genuine Nazis, as well as many frightened people determined to survive, whoever is in government.
The protagonist, George, is a communist and political prisoner, and the novel follows the triumphs and missteps of his escape, interspersed with sections devoted to other characters who cross his path: the old friend who wants to help but doesn’t know how, the abandoned wife, unquestioning young men of the regime who begin to have questions, a dying farmer who reports George to feel alive again, former activists in hiding, who want to help, but aren't sure if they too are being lured into a trap.
Despite the through-line of the escape, which makes it a compelling page-turner, it is largely not a plot-driven novel. It is concerned with the psychology of doing something or doing nothing, of looking away or of complicity. The language is simple but the insights ring true. Not everyone is a hero. A wallpaper-hanger faces a terrifying ordeal being questioned by a Gestapo officer young enough to be his son. A callow young man is anxious to get his stolen jacket back. Children take part in hunting down hidden prisoners. But also, fearful housewives who have long ignored everything realize that there is more to life than keeping themselves safe:
But at that moment even Liesel understood the nature of an illusory world, a mistakenly returned [husband] who wasn’t himself any more, a family that cannot then be a family any more; a life together through the years that had stopped being a life long ago on an October night in the cellars of the Gestapo because of a few words of confession.
It’s also a story about town and country, the feeling of sunlight and the smell of apples.
I first read this in university and loved it, and was a little concerned approaching it again. But it’s still a great book.
April 12, 2018
This novel was published in 1942, during the Second World War. Author, Anna Seghers, was a Jewish Communist who had fled the country and, as such, this is a historically important novel. Rather like novels by Hans Fallada, there is something much more interesting about reading a book written during the time that these events were taking place, which do not have the benefit of hindsight that later novels had. To be honest, this novel is not written as anything written as Fallada, but it is still a very interesting concept, which gives a real sense of how oppressive things were in Germany when this was written (1939).
Seven men escape from a concentration camp called Westhofen. The Commandant is determined to recapture them all and make an example of them, but, although six of the men are quickly found, one remains missing. We follow this man as he is on the run, unsure of who he can trust and also of how dangerous it is to help him. From the very first pages, we are aware of the escaped prisoner (George Hesisler) and of his former friend, Franz Marnet, who now works at the Hoeschst Dye Plant. Franz reflects on what he has heard of the escape at the camp and wonders whether George was among those who have escaped. Just in those first pages, Anna Seghers is making a point – that locals were aware of the work camps that existed on their doorsteps, even if they were unaware of what went on inside them.
Although I cannot say I was riveted by the plot, I am glad I read this. It shows how those at the time saw the repressive regime grow, of the fear felt by the locals and of how much bravery it took to help someone in need, if you were putting yourself, and your family, in danger by doing so. An interesting fictional account, which is an important document of those times.
Seven men escape from a concentration camp called Westhofen. The Commandant is determined to recapture them all and make an example of them, but, although six of the men are quickly found, one remains missing. We follow this man as he is on the run, unsure of who he can trust and also of how dangerous it is to help him. From the very first pages, we are aware of the escaped prisoner (George Hesisler) and of his former friend, Franz Marnet, who now works at the Hoeschst Dye Plant. Franz reflects on what he has heard of the escape at the camp and wonders whether George was among those who have escaped. Just in those first pages, Anna Seghers is making a point – that locals were aware of the work camps that existed on their doorsteps, even if they were unaware of what went on inside them.
Although I cannot say I was riveted by the plot, I am glad I read this. It shows how those at the time saw the repressive regime grow, of the fear felt by the locals and of how much bravery it took to help someone in need, if you were putting yourself, and your family, in danger by doing so. An interesting fictional account, which is an important document of those times.
August 20, 2013
Wow, I just got my hands on a first-edition English translation of The Seventh Cross, published in 1942. The inside flap says: "Readers today, in a world at war, and readers in the future, in a world at peace, may come to consider the story of George Heisler's escape from Westhofen prison camp the finest and most deeply understanding book of all that have been written on the greatest subject and theme of these times--the fight against Nazi tyranny."
***
George Heisler's escape is more than a decent yarn, it's also allegedly one of the earliest--perhaps the first--appearances of a concentration camp in literature. Author Seghers was of Jewish decent, and fled to Mexico in the late 1930's, where she wrote The Seventh Cross in 1939. The English translation enjoyed a wide popularity in 1942, when it made the prestigious "Book of the Month Club." For many Americans, this was their first glimpse into life in Nazi Germany. The book has since sunken into obscurity, I'm guessing because Ms. Seghers was also a card-carrying member of the communist party who returned to Soviet-occupied Berlin after the war, where she went on to write and win awards such as the Stalin Peace Prize (!). Yes, George Heisler in The Seventh Cross is a communist, which in mid-30's Germany was synonymous with "one of the few political parties not afraid to protest Nazi rule." This isn't a book about politics, it's a book about life in a State where anyone can be jailed for listening to the wrong radio station, marrying the "wrong" man, or being born into the "wrong" religion. I'm sure it shocked many Americans at the time.
Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of the early-40's era English translation (I would have read the German but English was what I could find). The prose often feels stilted, and I tripped over a number of awkward word-for-word German-to-English passages and idioms. For intance, when a character "drove his wheel into town" he's actually riding his bicycle. But the author's skill still shone through in passages such as:
"Frau Marnet would have preferred [the SS man] to spit almost anywhere else than on her clean kitchen floor. At any rate, it was not easy to spread horror in Marnet's kitchen. If the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse had come rushing by on that Sunday, they would have tied their horses to the garden fence and behaved like rational guests.
I read this book shortly after reading Hans Fallada's Every Man Dies Alone and found them very similar, although I think I prefer the way Fallada built tension and developed his characters. The Seventh Cross is often confusing in the way it flips about between characters, many of whom are only very loosely related to George's journey, and it took me a good 50+ pages to orient myself. Still, as a sort of historical document that still tells a good story, I think this book should be better known today than it is.
P.S. Just thought I'd mention that my 1942 hard-cover has an ad on the inside cover flap reminding me to "Buy U.S. Defense Bonds and Stamps" :D
***
George Heisler's escape is more than a decent yarn, it's also allegedly one of the earliest--perhaps the first--appearances of a concentration camp in literature. Author Seghers was of Jewish decent, and fled to Mexico in the late 1930's, where she wrote The Seventh Cross in 1939. The English translation enjoyed a wide popularity in 1942, when it made the prestigious "Book of the Month Club." For many Americans, this was their first glimpse into life in Nazi Germany. The book has since sunken into obscurity, I'm guessing because Ms. Seghers was also a card-carrying member of the communist party who returned to Soviet-occupied Berlin after the war, where she went on to write and win awards such as the Stalin Peace Prize (!). Yes, George Heisler in The Seventh Cross is a communist, which in mid-30's Germany was synonymous with "one of the few political parties not afraid to protest Nazi rule." This isn't a book about politics, it's a book about life in a State where anyone can be jailed for listening to the wrong radio station, marrying the "wrong" man, or being born into the "wrong" religion. I'm sure it shocked many Americans at the time.
Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of the early-40's era English translation (I would have read the German but English was what I could find). The prose often feels stilted, and I tripped over a number of awkward word-for-word German-to-English passages and idioms. For intance, when a character "drove his wheel into town" he's actually riding his bicycle. But the author's skill still shone through in passages such as:
"Frau Marnet would have preferred [the SS man] to spit almost anywhere else than on her clean kitchen floor. At any rate, it was not easy to spread horror in Marnet's kitchen. If the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse had come rushing by on that Sunday, they would have tied their horses to the garden fence and behaved like rational guests.
I read this book shortly after reading Hans Fallada's Every Man Dies Alone and found them very similar, although I think I prefer the way Fallada built tension and developed his characters. The Seventh Cross is often confusing in the way it flips about between characters, many of whom are only very loosely related to George's journey, and it took me a good 50+ pages to orient myself. Still, as a sort of historical document that still tells a good story, I think this book should be better known today than it is.
P.S. Just thought I'd mention that my 1942 hard-cover has an ad on the inside cover flap reminding me to "Buy U.S. Defense Bonds and Stamps" :D
September 19, 2024
Phenomenal!
I was led to this book by way of Fred Zinnemann's 1944 film of it. For a number of reasons, the film is impressive (i.e., Zinnemann's direction; a performance by Spencer Tracy that's unlike his work elsewhere; Hume Cronyn's Oscar-nommed supporting role). Overall, it does a fine job with the daunting task of streamlining such a massive book - even if it's whittled down to the basics and MGM felt compelled to add that most predictable of elements: a love-interest angle. It's still powerful.
But, of course - as they say - it ain't the book. Thomas von Steinaecker's afterword details what makes Seghers' achievement a tireless labor of love: essentially, a reflection of the desire to reveal~:
~ as are many of the novel's many other characters. Seghers' spirit is generous, taking us as she does (through seemingly countless subplots) into the desperate or dark hearts of both the hunted and the hunters. Re: the former, the author lays out the three levels of anxiety: that no one is really to be trusted and everyone is suspect; that your choice in a counter-approach is either sly or defeatist; that, even if your position is relatively 'safe', you're always aware that it's also vulnerable and tenuous.
As a result, this is a largely interior work. The souls of a country of pawns are on naked display.
Aside from her impeccable construction, Seghers exhibits considerable artistry in her storytelling. She's a clear-sighted and shrewd narrator who also often demonstrates both a sensitivity and warmth that one would think would be hard to draw from at the time (and under the circumstances in which) Seghers was writing.
My understanding is that this new (2018) translation by Margot Bettauer Dembo is a vast improvement over an earlier one. I can't read German but I can sense smoothness - and the translator's rhythms are certainly accessible and fluid. What she had to work with was already rich, but it comes through with an urgency that establishes the novel as still relevant and still an essential work.
I was led to this book by way of Fred Zinnemann's 1944 film of it. For a number of reasons, the film is impressive (i.e., Zinnemann's direction; a performance by Spencer Tracy that's unlike his work elsewhere; Hume Cronyn's Oscar-nommed supporting role). Overall, it does a fine job with the daunting task of streamlining such a massive book - even if it's whittled down to the basics and MGM felt compelled to add that most predictable of elements: a love-interest angle. It's still powerful.
But, of course - as they say - it ain't the book. Thomas von Steinaecker's afterword details what makes Seghers' achievement a tireless labor of love: essentially, a reflection of the desire to reveal~:
... a cross section of contemporary German society and to provide a certain explanation of how Germany ticked, this nation that had plunged the rest of the world and itself as well into disaster and misery.Ostensibly a suspense thriller (it certainly doesn't lack the tension of one), it shoots out of the gate with a simple brushstroke: seven men escape from a concentration camp. We don't learn much about six of those men or their fates - they are either returned or they die. But we learn everything there is to know about the seventh: George Heisler is presented in all of his flawed humanity.
~ as are many of the novel's many other characters. Seghers' spirit is generous, taking us as she does (through seemingly countless subplots) into the desperate or dark hearts of both the hunted and the hunters. Re: the former, the author lays out the three levels of anxiety: that no one is really to be trusted and everyone is suspect; that your choice in a counter-approach is either sly or defeatist; that, even if your position is relatively 'safe', you're always aware that it's also vulnerable and tenuous.
As a result, this is a largely interior work. The souls of a country of pawns are on naked display.
Aside from her impeccable construction, Seghers exhibits considerable artistry in her storytelling. She's a clear-sighted and shrewd narrator who also often demonstrates both a sensitivity and warmth that one would think would be hard to draw from at the time (and under the circumstances in which) Seghers was writing.
My understanding is that this new (2018) translation by Margot Bettauer Dembo is a vast improvement over an earlier one. I can't read German but I can sense smoothness - and the translator's rhythms are certainly accessible and fluid. What she had to work with was already rich, but it comes through with an urgency that establishes the novel as still relevant and still an essential work.
August 12, 2023
When I was in school, this was still part of the curriculum. In hindsight, I am glad that I didn't have to read it at the time as some other classes. A lengthy book of 400 pages written in an old-fashioned verbose language with many uncommon words. I can understand why this isn't read in school anymore.
This is one of those books though that should continue to be read. Just at a different age when you are able to appreciate its strengths. Like books from Fontane or Thomas Mann. You would miss out on one of the most outstanding novels ever written about the Third Reich, at a time when the Third Reich reared its ugly head but the full extent of the concentration camps and the holocaust wasn't common knowledge yet.
If you want to experience from first-hand what it must be like to live under a dictatorship, fearing persecution everyday, not being able to trust your neighbours and friends, this is the book to read. Anna Seghers was an active communist and of Jewish origin. Two reasons to emigrate early enough to escape the claws of the Nazis. Her experiences lend this book an intense credibility. The story of the escape of Georg Heisler, a communist and political prisoner, from a prison camp in 1937 at the same time catches you with its suspense and lets you relive the everyday horrors of the dictatorship. Either you follow, emigrate into inner isolation or you'll suffer the consequences. She paints a picture of the uneducated brutes getting into power with the voices of compassion and reason hiding out or disappearing. It becomes obvious that the majority went with the flow and even took more or less active roles. Looking at our times today, this will be possible again. History will repeat itself and already is well on its way there.
A must-read even for those like me who are tired of the constant repetition of the evil the Third Reich did. Just to remind you why this is necessary.
This is one of those books though that should continue to be read. Just at a different age when you are able to appreciate its strengths. Like books from Fontane or Thomas Mann. You would miss out on one of the most outstanding novels ever written about the Third Reich, at a time when the Third Reich reared its ugly head but the full extent of the concentration camps and the holocaust wasn't common knowledge yet.
If you want to experience from first-hand what it must be like to live under a dictatorship, fearing persecution everyday, not being able to trust your neighbours and friends, this is the book to read. Anna Seghers was an active communist and of Jewish origin. Two reasons to emigrate early enough to escape the claws of the Nazis. Her experiences lend this book an intense credibility. The story of the escape of Georg Heisler, a communist and political prisoner, from a prison camp in 1937 at the same time catches you with its suspense and lets you relive the everyday horrors of the dictatorship. Either you follow, emigrate into inner isolation or you'll suffer the consequences. She paints a picture of the uneducated brutes getting into power with the voices of compassion and reason hiding out or disappearing. It becomes obvious that the majority went with the flow and even took more or less active roles. Looking at our times today, this will be possible again. History will repeat itself and already is well on its way there.
A must-read even for those like me who are tired of the constant repetition of the evil the Third Reich did. Just to remind you why this is necessary.
April 30, 2024
Dies ist zweifellos ein gutes Buch, möglicherweise eine der wichtigsten zeitgenössischen Verarbeitungen des Nationalsozialismus. 1942 zeichnet die Exilantin Seghers das Bild eines Deutschland, dass es sich mir der neuen Herrschaft eigentlich ganz gut eingerichtet hat. Die Flucht Georgs aus dem Konzentrationslager- hier eher noch eines der "Schutzhaftlager" für politische Oppositonelle, kein Vernichtungslager wie in der Spätphase des Regimes - bringt die Ordnung von Befehl und Gehorsam, von Anpassung und stiller Subversion durcheinander. Dies ist nicht allein seine Geschichte, er ist kein strahlender Held, und ein schlechterer Erzähler hätte sein Leiden als Strafe für seine moralischen Verfehlungen gezeichnet. Vielmehr entwickelt sich an der Geschichte seiner Flucht ein Sittengemälde der frühen NS-Zeit, in der durch ein unerwartetes, normbrechendes Ereignis jede Figur gezwungen wird, Stellung zu beziehen.
Das ist zuweilen auch stilistisch grandios erzählt, Seghers findet immer wieder großartige Bilder für die seelischen Befindlichkeiten ihrer Figuren. Dies ist aber kein Buch, das man mit atemloser Spannung liest. Oft entwickelt sich die Handlung quälend langsam, und der Figurenreichtum des Romans macht die Geschichte nicht unbedingt übersichtlicher oder zugänglicher. Passagenweise liest sich das sehr zäh. Ähnlich wie Georg mäandert man auch als Leser etwas haltlos durch den Roman, was auf der Meta-Ebene sicher eine gewinnbringende Erfahrung ist, ein Genuss ist es nicht.
Das ist zuweilen auch stilistisch grandios erzählt, Seghers findet immer wieder großartige Bilder für die seelischen Befindlichkeiten ihrer Figuren. Dies ist aber kein Buch, das man mit atemloser Spannung liest. Oft entwickelt sich die Handlung quälend langsam, und der Figurenreichtum des Romans macht die Geschichte nicht unbedingt übersichtlicher oder zugänglicher. Passagenweise liest sich das sehr zäh. Ähnlich wie Georg mäandert man auch als Leser etwas haltlos durch den Roman, was auf der Meta-Ebene sicher eine gewinnbringende Erfahrung ist, ein Genuss ist es nicht.
March 16, 2018
Sieben Kreuze für sieben Flüchtige
Die Geschichte ist schnell erzählt: Georg Heisler und sechs andere Häftlinge fliehen aus einem Konzentrationslager. Dabei begegnet man parallel zu Heislers Flucht seinen alten Bekannten, Freunden, seiner Ehefrau und ganzen Dörfern, deren Alltag, wie sein eigener, niemals unberührt bleibt vom Dritten Reich.
Manches bleibt in der Schwebe, wird nur angedeutet, wie das Schicksal von Dr. Löwenstein. Trotzdem kommt man nicht umhin als Leser zu ängstigen: Die Bedrohung ist stets präsent.
Keiner der Figuren kann sich dem Naziregime entziehen: Selbst ein Schüler, dessen Jacke Heisler auf seiner Flucht entwendet, wird vorgeladen.
Das Figurenpersonal war beeindruckend: Ein Schnitt durch alle Schichten der Gesellschaft, Figuren, die stillen Widerstand leisteten, Mitläufer, Fluchthelfer, Alles-Hinnehmer.
Es sind vor allem die Figuren, die diesen Roman zu etwas Besonderem machen und nicht allein die Geschichte.
Seghers Stil bleibt etwas langatmig, ausholend, an wichtigen Stellen dann auch aussparend. Zurück bleibt man mit gemischten Gefühlen: Der Krieg hat noch nicht angefangen, noch sind es nur die politischen Gegner, die inhaftiert werden und als Leser denkt man viele Jahre weitere, viele schlimme Jahre und wird bedrückt.
Trotzdem hinterlässt das Buch auf Hoffnung, Hoffnung, auf das Gute im Menschen: weil es immer Menschen geben wird, die Gewaltregimen Parole bieten werden, weil es immer Hilfe für Hilflose geben wird, weil das siebte Kreuz leer bleibt.
Ein großartiger Roman über ein dunkles Kapitel der Menschheitsgeschichte.
Die Geschichte ist schnell erzählt: Georg Heisler und sechs andere Häftlinge fliehen aus einem Konzentrationslager. Dabei begegnet man parallel zu Heislers Flucht seinen alten Bekannten, Freunden, seiner Ehefrau und ganzen Dörfern, deren Alltag, wie sein eigener, niemals unberührt bleibt vom Dritten Reich.
Manches bleibt in der Schwebe, wird nur angedeutet, wie das Schicksal von Dr. Löwenstein. Trotzdem kommt man nicht umhin als Leser zu ängstigen: Die Bedrohung ist stets präsent.
Keiner der Figuren kann sich dem Naziregime entziehen: Selbst ein Schüler, dessen Jacke Heisler auf seiner Flucht entwendet, wird vorgeladen.
Das Figurenpersonal war beeindruckend: Ein Schnitt durch alle Schichten der Gesellschaft, Figuren, die stillen Widerstand leisteten, Mitläufer, Fluchthelfer, Alles-Hinnehmer.
Es sind vor allem die Figuren, die diesen Roman zu etwas Besonderem machen und nicht allein die Geschichte.
Seghers Stil bleibt etwas langatmig, ausholend, an wichtigen Stellen dann auch aussparend. Zurück bleibt man mit gemischten Gefühlen: Der Krieg hat noch nicht angefangen, noch sind es nur die politischen Gegner, die inhaftiert werden und als Leser denkt man viele Jahre weitere, viele schlimme Jahre und wird bedrückt.
Trotzdem hinterlässt das Buch auf Hoffnung, Hoffnung, auf das Gute im Menschen: weil es immer Menschen geben wird, die Gewaltregimen Parole bieten werden, weil es immer Hilfe für Hilflose geben wird, weil das siebte Kreuz leer bleibt.
Ein großartiger Roman über ein dunkles Kapitel der Menschheitsgeschichte.
December 22, 2019
Ich habe das Buch im Rahmen einer Leserunde gelesen und ich fand es großartig.
Zuerst hatte ich Schwierigkeiten mit der Sprache und habe dann das Hörbuch zur Hilfe genommen. Dadurch ist mir die Sprache zugänglich gemacht worden. Es ist ein Buch, das man langsam lesen muss - ein ruhiges, melancholisches Buch, das mich nachdenklich zurück gelassen hat.
Die Geschichte spielt in Rheinhessen, zu dem ich ein besonderes Verhältnis habe, da mein Großvater von dort kommt. Mir war nicht bewusst, dass so viele politische Gefangene in den Konzentrationslagern waren. Einige Szenen sind so gut beschrieben (z.B. ein Verhör), dass ich ein Gefühl der Beklemmung bekommen habe. Auch die Gefühle und Unsicherheiten eines Flüchtlings waren so gut beschrieben. Ich konnte mir gut vorstellen, wie er sich gefühlt hat.
Ein Buch über Menschen, grausamen Menschen sowie mitfühlende und mutige Menschen, die auch wenn sie Angst haben, bereit sind Risiken einzugehen, um Anderen zu helfen.
Zuerst hatte ich Schwierigkeiten mit der Sprache und habe dann das Hörbuch zur Hilfe genommen. Dadurch ist mir die Sprache zugänglich gemacht worden. Es ist ein Buch, das man langsam lesen muss - ein ruhiges, melancholisches Buch, das mich nachdenklich zurück gelassen hat.
Die Geschichte spielt in Rheinhessen, zu dem ich ein besonderes Verhältnis habe, da mein Großvater von dort kommt. Mir war nicht bewusst, dass so viele politische Gefangene in den Konzentrationslagern waren. Einige Szenen sind so gut beschrieben (z.B. ein Verhör), dass ich ein Gefühl der Beklemmung bekommen habe. Auch die Gefühle und Unsicherheiten eines Flüchtlings waren so gut beschrieben. Ich konnte mir gut vorstellen, wie er sich gefühlt hat.
Ein Buch über Menschen, grausamen Menschen sowie mitfühlende und mutige Menschen, die auch wenn sie Angst haben, bereit sind Risiken einzugehen, um Anderen zu helfen.
December 4, 2019
Anna Seghers'in Transit isimli kitabını okuyalı birkaç hafta oldu. Bir yazarın kitaplarını arka arkaya okumak tarzım değil; fakat Everest Yayınları'nın Modern Klasikler Serisi, son aylarımın gözdesi oldu ve ben de bu seriden kütüphanemde bulunan kitapları okuyup bitirmek istedim. Yedinci Haç'ı da bu doğrultuda okudum.
Yedinci Haç ve Transit arasında okurken ister istemez bir mukayese yaptım; çünkü Transit'in zihnimdeki yeri hâlâ çok taze. Transit, İkinci Dünya Savaşı'nda geçen bir roman olsa da o döneme dair romanlardan işlediği konu açısından bence ayrılan bir romanken Yedinci Haç, klasik İkinci Dünya Savaşı romanlarına daha yakın bir roman. Bununla birlikte, bu tür romanlarda yazarlar genellikle eziyetleri, acıları çok daha açık bir şekilde verirken Anna Seghers böyle bir yola girmemiş. Bence Yedinci Haç'ı diğerlerinden ayıran da bu olmuş. Bunun yanı sıra, kitapta okumayı en sevdiğim şey şu oldu, aslında herkes bu rejime karşı. Daha doğrusu herkes değil; ancak bu rejime karşı çıkmıyor gibi görünenler de aslında içten içe bir umut ışığı arayışında. Naziler herkesi sindirmiş. Sadece bir işaret fişeği bekleyişinde, arayışındalar. O işareti gördüklerinde de yeniden canlanıyorlar. Seghers bence bu durumu çok iyi bir şekilde yansıtmış.
Ayrıca ben bir benzerlik bulmak için mi çabaladım bilmiyorum; ama Yedinci Haç'ın Georg'unu okurken yer yer Transit'in ana karakteri Siedler'i anımsadım.
Yedinci Haç ve Transit arasında okurken ister istemez bir mukayese yaptım; çünkü Transit'in zihnimdeki yeri hâlâ çok taze. Transit, İkinci Dünya Savaşı'nda geçen bir roman olsa da o döneme dair romanlardan işlediği konu açısından bence ayrılan bir romanken Yedinci Haç, klasik İkinci Dünya Savaşı romanlarına daha yakın bir roman. Bununla birlikte, bu tür romanlarda yazarlar genellikle eziyetleri, acıları çok daha açık bir şekilde verirken Anna Seghers böyle bir yola girmemiş. Bence Yedinci Haç'ı diğerlerinden ayıran da bu olmuş. Bunun yanı sıra, kitapta okumayı en sevdiğim şey şu oldu, aslında herkes bu rejime karşı. Daha doğrusu herkes değil; ancak bu rejime karşı çıkmıyor gibi görünenler de aslında içten içe bir umut ışığı arayışında. Naziler herkesi sindirmiş. Sadece bir işaret fişeği bekleyişinde, arayışındalar. O işareti gördüklerinde de yeniden canlanıyorlar. Seghers bence bu durumu çok iyi bir şekilde yansıtmış.
Ayrıca ben bir benzerlik bulmak için mi çabaladım bilmiyorum; ama Yedinci Haç'ın Georg'unu okurken yer yer Transit'in ana karakteri Siedler'i anımsadım.
May 12, 2024
Ein Klassiker, den man irgend wann mal lesen sollte. Sieben Häftlinge brechen aus einem KZ aus und dies ist die Geschichte von Georg, der zum Schluss noch als Einziger gejagt wird. Spannend und traurig zugleich...
September 18, 2021
This is one of my most favorite books of all time. I’ve just reread my copy which flew to me thousands of kilometers, from my hometown of Lublin to Tokyo where I now live. It’s so old that it doesn’t even have an ISBN, and it’s in Polish, so I can’t say anything about the quality of the English translation – but if you are interested in the rise of Nazism, or totalitarian systems in general, or in history of the 20th century, or simply in good writing, please, please read this book.
WW2 (which left my country mutilated beyond recognition) is insanely popular. As a reader, I hate WW2 with a passion for having become a titillating background for feel-good, sentimental, kitschy stories. This book is an exception. It’s not about WW2 in the strict sense, but about the people who were ready to start it, and about the people who had to oppose them.
In this book – unlike in the contemporary fiction about WW2 – the latter are in the minority. They are hiding, they are hunted, many of them will be dead soon (the reader is very aware of that). The main character is one of them. He’s not a saint, he isn’t even all that sympathetic, but it’s nigh impossible not to root for him. And the former – the majority – are so very comfortable and content with themselves, and convicted that they were right, that it’s hard not to understand them, and then not to ask oneself difficult questions.
And the uncomfortable truth of this book is that most of those who opposed Nazism in the West were NOT regular, “normal” people. They were either religious people or communists.
Read it. Read it. It’s amazing for many things, for the flawless pacing, for the complicated, beautiful picture of a country on the brink of catastrophe, for the humanity of characters, and for the clarity of the mirror it holds up for us, to help us recognize the dirt on our faces.
WW2 (which left my country mutilated beyond recognition) is insanely popular. As a reader, I hate WW2 with a passion for having become a titillating background for feel-good, sentimental, kitschy stories. This book is an exception. It’s not about WW2 in the strict sense, but about the people who were ready to start it, and about the people who had to oppose them.
In this book – unlike in the contemporary fiction about WW2 – the latter are in the minority. They are hiding, they are hunted, many of them will be dead soon (the reader is very aware of that). The main character is one of them. He’s not a saint, he isn’t even all that sympathetic, but it’s nigh impossible not to root for him. And the former – the majority – are so very comfortable and content with themselves, and convicted that they were right, that it’s hard not to understand them, and then not to ask oneself difficult questions.
And the uncomfortable truth of this book is that most of those who opposed Nazism in the West were NOT regular, “normal” people. They were either religious people or communists.
Read it. Read it. It’s amazing for many things, for the flawless pacing, for the complicated, beautiful picture of a country on the brink of catastrophe, for the humanity of characters, and for the clarity of the mirror it holds up for us, to help us recognize the dirt on our faces.
April 10, 2018
We all felt how profoundly and terribly outside forces can reach into a human being, to his innermost self. But we also sensed that in that innermost core there was something that was unassailable and inviolable.
Originally published in 1942, this is set a few years before the outbreak of WW2 when the concentration camps were prison camps for German 'criminals' as designated by Nazi typology. Seven men escape at the start, and as six of them are recaptured, we witness George Heisler's attempts to keep ahead of his dedicated pursuers.
This is undoubtedly an important book in terms of its content and its representation of resistance to Nazi power - but the writing style (or maybe the translation?) makes this flat and laborious reading, lacking vividness, pace and literary flair. I persevered because of my interest in the subject matter: the way George's flight allows a view of ordinary Germans, some ready to hide and help him, others shutting the door in the face of their former friend, out of fear or just the unwillingness to get involved.
There are often (not always) pertinent reasons why books drop out of favour: this is worth a read for the way in which it documents its historical moment but it's somewhat lacking for me as a literary novel of style and engagement.
October 22, 2018
Eye opening for several reasons. First and foremost is the glimpse into pre-WWII fascist Germany. Germans lived in constant fear of arrest, torture, and the infamous concentration camps. Communists, Jews, and anyone else viewed as a threat to the fascist regime were victimized. Neighbors spied on each other. SS and SA officers walked around like slumlords. A true state of fear permeated throughout the country.
Seghers novel is also a pleasure to read. "The Seventh Cross" is about a prison escape, and as a result there are several tense moments throughout the seven days covered in the story. Seghers was also not afraid to ignore customary norms while structuring her novel. Point of views often switch mid paragraph, and she likes to throw in first person plural from time to time. Tag on a list of over 30 characters and you have a much denser read than you might expect.
Excellent.
Seghers novel is also a pleasure to read. "The Seventh Cross" is about a prison escape, and as a result there are several tense moments throughout the seven days covered in the story. Seghers was also not afraid to ignore customary norms while structuring her novel. Point of views often switch mid paragraph, and she likes to throw in first person plural from time to time. Tag on a list of over 30 characters and you have a much denser read than you might expect.
Excellent.
July 9, 2024
Excellent, so glad I finally read this!
August 24, 2021
"Soon there'll be a shout, he thought, then there'll be a shot."
This is some pretty gripping shit, another dream-like and feverish novel from Seghers, this time about a prisoner who escapes from a concentration camp and desperately trying not to get caught before he can reach the border.
Sounds contrite, but it isn't for a couple of reasons. First, Seghers wrote this after fleeing France (after fleeing Germany) for having committed those two cardinal sins: being a Jew and being a Communist, so the concentration camp in question isn't what you usually imagine. This is no Auschwitz breakout, but rather one of the early camps for political prisoners. Seghers was, thus, one of the first writers to darkly foretell what was going on and what was to come. Second, the escapee is in the camp for his political sins, which are only ever vaguely defined. Third, the novel is just as much about people who know the escapee, some who try to help (and some who don't) and those who never even come into contact with him but hear of the escape. There are thus concentric rings and webs of interconnected lives and careers (and suspicions) in a 1930s Germany where paranoia and fealty to the Reich are becoming more and more the defining characteristics of everyday life. For a guy trying to flee through this miasma of distrust, prejudice, and banal viciousness, this cannot but bode badly and Seghers, likely not intending to write a thriller, of all things, will keep you on your toes until the last pages! Seething, black, and stressful!
This is some pretty gripping shit, another dream-like and feverish novel from Seghers, this time about a prisoner who escapes from a concentration camp and desperately trying not to get caught before he can reach the border.
Sounds contrite, but it isn't for a couple of reasons. First, Seghers wrote this after fleeing France (after fleeing Germany) for having committed those two cardinal sins: being a Jew and being a Communist, so the concentration camp in question isn't what you usually imagine. This is no Auschwitz breakout, but rather one of the early camps for political prisoners. Seghers was, thus, one of the first writers to darkly foretell what was going on and what was to come. Second, the escapee is in the camp for his political sins, which are only ever vaguely defined. Third, the novel is just as much about people who know the escapee, some who try to help (and some who don't) and those who never even come into contact with him but hear of the escape. There are thus concentric rings and webs of interconnected lives and careers (and suspicions) in a 1930s Germany where paranoia and fealty to the Reich are becoming more and more the defining characteristics of everyday life. For a guy trying to flee through this miasma of distrust, prejudice, and banal viciousness, this cannot but bode badly and Seghers, likely not intending to write a thriller, of all things, will keep you on your toes until the last pages! Seething, black, and stressful!
August 17, 2024
Anna Seghers' Das Siebte Kreuz, by all accounts her greatest work, is not a particularly easy book to evaluate, because its strengths and weaknesses are both of considerable magnitude.
The book deals with seven prisoners who escape from a concentration camp, focusing especially on Georg Heisler, who is a journeyman communist of deep passion but mercurial temperament. One of the extremely interesting choices of the book is to paint him in a not particularly heroic, or even necessarily sympathetic, light. He is tenaciously idealistic, but also uses people, and when he is done with them, he simply moves on and never looks back, and this includes his wife and child.
Almost all of the characters in the book are similarly complex, and one of the core insights of the book is that in times of urgency, these kinds of things don't really matter so much, particularly in comparison to the question of whether or not, when the circumstances arise, you are prepared to take a risk on the side of humanity.
I say "almost all," because Walau, Heisler's mentor in the camp, serves as a kind of "epitome of the wisdom of the communist party." Reich-Ranicki cannily points out that this lapse in Seghers' strong tendency to paint from life, as it were, reflects one of the books cardinal flaws: the author's reluctance to criticize the party. One can easily relate this to questions of Seghers' own character, as seen in her decades-long refusal to criticize the crimes and abuses of the communists in the USSR and Europe, but this largely falls outside the scope of a consideration of this book.
In terms of the book's action, the question primarily revolves around whether or not Georg will make it to safety. The book is at its very best when it follows him closely, and provides a harrowing study of the psychology of flight. There is nothing adventuresome or heroic about his experience, but an experience of constant, almost-overwhelming terror. This is something that Seghers would have known all-too-well, based on her own experience with being interrogated by the Gestapo, fleeing Germany, and then fleeing France, the latter part of which was brought to life in her worthwhile novel Transit. The psychological acuity of her characterization of the experience of persecution and flight at times reaches Dostoevsky-like intensity, even if she is hardly the artist that Dostoevsky was.
There are three peculiarities about this book that must be mentioned. First, the cast of characters is enormous - there are dozens of important characters that you need to remember, and it is not always particularly easy to recall if it was the wife of Franz or Fritz or Hermann or Paul or Fiedler that was supposed to send the signal if everything is all right. Characters that have only been mentioned in passing resurface hundreds of pages later, and the author is clearly confident that you will immediately remember who they are. Some characters receive significant attention even though they have no discernible connection to the plot whatsoever. I'm thinking here especially of Ernst, a shepherd who inexplicably gets tens of pages-we even spend some time learning about his mother-even though all that could literally be cut from the book entirely, and it would not require a single additional change.
This gets to the second peculiarity of the book. Seghers clearly intends to tell the story not just of a heroic escapee or group of escapees, but of all the people who took part in these events. I note in rereading my review of Transit that I mentioned Seghers is deeply interested in representing milieu, and that is even more true in this book. It is about everyone involved and some of their neighbors who are not involved. It often struck me as a bit jarring, when suddenly the story switched gears to focus on a minor character. and told their story in what generally felt like a digression, an unnecessary digression. And I lost count of how many times I said, who is this person again? And why are we reading about their trip to the market? It was very, very many times.
I can only assume that this represents an intentional and ideologically-motivated choice by the author to counter the heroic individual narrative, and to tell a story in which communities of people are affected by repression, and to look at how all of them do, or do not, fight back. This is interesting in theory, but as a practice, it places heavy demands on the reader, and often felt distracting and arbitrary. I could not believe my eyes when, fifteen pages from the end, we are introduced to yet another character, and get a little story about her life. Seghers' appetite for introducing new characters vastly surpassed my interest in learning about them, and this practice frequently disrupted the momentum of the novel.
The third feature I would call out is that it often works by indirection. Major plot developments are communicated in passing in highly-elliptical statements or references. Many things are left unsaid, and have to be inferred. I know a reader who completely missed the fact that Heisler was a communist, and looking back on it, I realized that I only knew he was because it was mentioned that he met another character at some event, which I happened to look up and found that it comemorated the deaths of Liebknecht and Luxemburg.
I understand the reasons for all of these artistic choices, and none of them are invalid per se. But as a reader, I was constantly frustrated reading this book, trying to track who everyone was and what was going on. Part of this is a matter of taste. I definitely prefer a book that focuses on its modest group of characters and moves right along without a lot of digression. That said, this book has many more characters than Buddenbrooks, which is nearly twice its length.
The book deals with seven prisoners who escape from a concentration camp, focusing especially on Georg Heisler, who is a journeyman communist of deep passion but mercurial temperament. One of the extremely interesting choices of the book is to paint him in a not particularly heroic, or even necessarily sympathetic, light. He is tenaciously idealistic, but also uses people, and when he is done with them, he simply moves on and never looks back, and this includes his wife and child.
Almost all of the characters in the book are similarly complex, and one of the core insights of the book is that in times of urgency, these kinds of things don't really matter so much, particularly in comparison to the question of whether or not, when the circumstances arise, you are prepared to take a risk on the side of humanity.
I say "almost all," because Walau, Heisler's mentor in the camp, serves as a kind of "epitome of the wisdom of the communist party." Reich-Ranicki cannily points out that this lapse in Seghers' strong tendency to paint from life, as it were, reflects one of the books cardinal flaws: the author's reluctance to criticize the party. One can easily relate this to questions of Seghers' own character, as seen in her decades-long refusal to criticize the crimes and abuses of the communists in the USSR and Europe, but this largely falls outside the scope of a consideration of this book.
In terms of the book's action, the question primarily revolves around whether or not Georg will make it to safety. The book is at its very best when it follows him closely, and provides a harrowing study of the psychology of flight. There is nothing adventuresome or heroic about his experience, but an experience of constant, almost-overwhelming terror. This is something that Seghers would have known all-too-well, based on her own experience with being interrogated by the Gestapo, fleeing Germany, and then fleeing France, the latter part of which was brought to life in her worthwhile novel Transit. The psychological acuity of her characterization of the experience of persecution and flight at times reaches Dostoevsky-like intensity, even if she is hardly the artist that Dostoevsky was.
There are three peculiarities about this book that must be mentioned. First, the cast of characters is enormous - there are dozens of important characters that you need to remember, and it is not always particularly easy to recall if it was the wife of Franz or Fritz or Hermann or Paul or Fiedler that was supposed to send the signal if everything is all right. Characters that have only been mentioned in passing resurface hundreds of pages later, and the author is clearly confident that you will immediately remember who they are. Some characters receive significant attention even though they have no discernible connection to the plot whatsoever. I'm thinking here especially of Ernst, a shepherd who inexplicably gets tens of pages-we even spend some time learning about his mother-even though all that could literally be cut from the book entirely, and it would not require a single additional change.
This gets to the second peculiarity of the book. Seghers clearly intends to tell the story not just of a heroic escapee or group of escapees, but of all the people who took part in these events. I note in rereading my review of Transit that I mentioned Seghers is deeply interested in representing milieu, and that is even more true in this book. It is about everyone involved and some of their neighbors who are not involved. It often struck me as a bit jarring, when suddenly the story switched gears to focus on a minor character. and told their story in what generally felt like a digression, an unnecessary digression. And I lost count of how many times I said, who is this person again? And why are we reading about their trip to the market? It was very, very many times.
I can only assume that this represents an intentional and ideologically-motivated choice by the author to counter the heroic individual narrative, and to tell a story in which communities of people are affected by repression, and to look at how all of them do, or do not, fight back. This is interesting in theory, but as a practice, it places heavy demands on the reader, and often felt distracting and arbitrary. I could not believe my eyes when, fifteen pages from the end, we are introduced to yet another character, and get a little story about her life. Seghers' appetite for introducing new characters vastly surpassed my interest in learning about them, and this practice frequently disrupted the momentum of the novel.
The third feature I would call out is that it often works by indirection. Major plot developments are communicated in passing in highly-elliptical statements or references. Many things are left unsaid, and have to be inferred. I know a reader who completely missed the fact that Heisler was a communist, and looking back on it, I realized that I only knew he was because it was mentioned that he met another character at some event, which I happened to look up and found that it comemorated the deaths of Liebknecht and Luxemburg.
I understand the reasons for all of these artistic choices, and none of them are invalid per se. But as a reader, I was constantly frustrated reading this book, trying to track who everyone was and what was going on. Part of this is a matter of taste. I definitely prefer a book that focuses on its modest group of characters and moves right along without a lot of digression. That said, this book has many more characters than Buddenbrooks, which is nearly twice its length.
August 24, 2024
Der Roman "Das Siebte Kreuz" von Anna Seghers hat mir gut gefallen. Er spielt im Nazi-Deutschland und handelt hauptsächlich von der Flucht des Kommunisten Georg Heisler, aus einem Konzentrationslager.
Die Erzählweise ist mir besonders positiv aufgefallen: In wechselnden Abschnitten, die von ihnen und ihrem Leben zu genau diesem Zeitpunkt handeln, lernt der Leser eine relativ große Anzahl an Personen und ihre Beziehungen zueinander kennen.
Zu den Personen zählen natürlich Georg selbst, alte Kammeraden von ihm, seine ehemalige Frau, aber auch der Kommandant des Konzentrationslagers und die Kommissare die damit beauftragt wurden ihn nach seiner Flucht wieder aufzuspüren.
Es gibt dabei auch weitere Personen: Arbeiter, Schäfer und Hausfrauen die zunächst einmal nicht in Beziehung mit Georg stehen.
Erst am Ende laufen alle Fäden zusammen und es wird klar auf welche Art das Leben vieler sich genau in der Flucht Georgs überschneidet.
Diese besondere Erzählweise die so viele Perspektiven beinhaltet erlaubt einen Querschnitt der Gesellschaft und man erfährt einerseits wie gefährlich und riskant es war sich gegen das Regime zu wenden und was die Leute bewegte es teilweise doch zu tun, und andererseits was in den Köpfen von Nazis vorging.
Auch wenn die Erzählung an sich fiktiv ist, denke ich dass der Eindruck vom Leben der Personen mit verschiedener Stellung in jener Zeit sehr realistisch ist.
"Und wenn er auch nur noch die Kraft für eine einzige winzig kleine Bewegung hatte, auf die Freiheit hin, wie sinnlos und nutzlos diese Bewegung auch sein mochte, er wollte diese Bewegung doch noch gemacht haben."
Die Erzählweise ist mir besonders positiv aufgefallen: In wechselnden Abschnitten, die von ihnen und ihrem Leben zu genau diesem Zeitpunkt handeln, lernt der Leser eine relativ große Anzahl an Personen und ihre Beziehungen zueinander kennen.
Zu den Personen zählen natürlich Georg selbst, alte Kammeraden von ihm, seine ehemalige Frau, aber auch der Kommandant des Konzentrationslagers und die Kommissare die damit beauftragt wurden ihn nach seiner Flucht wieder aufzuspüren.
Es gibt dabei auch weitere Personen: Arbeiter, Schäfer und Hausfrauen die zunächst einmal nicht in Beziehung mit Georg stehen.
Erst am Ende laufen alle Fäden zusammen und es wird klar auf welche Art das Leben vieler sich genau in der Flucht Georgs überschneidet.
Diese besondere Erzählweise die so viele Perspektiven beinhaltet erlaubt einen Querschnitt der Gesellschaft und man erfährt einerseits wie gefährlich und riskant es war sich gegen das Regime zu wenden und was die Leute bewegte es teilweise doch zu tun, und andererseits was in den Köpfen von Nazis vorging.
Auch wenn die Erzählung an sich fiktiv ist, denke ich dass der Eindruck vom Leben der Personen mit verschiedener Stellung in jener Zeit sehr realistisch ist.
"Und wenn er auch nur noch die Kraft für eine einzige winzig kleine Bewegung hatte, auf die Freiheit hin, wie sinnlos und nutzlos diese Bewegung auch sein mochte, er wollte diese Bewegung doch noch gemacht haben."
March 16, 2021
http://stonasterismotouvivliou.blogsp...
Δύο είναι τα σημαντικότερα έργα που σκιαγράφησαν την καθημερινότητα του ανώνυμου Γερμανού πολίτη κάτω από τη σκιά της χιτλερικής εξουσίας:
Το ένα είναι το πολυβραβευμένο "Μόνος Στο Βερολίνο" του Χανς Φαλάντα σχετικά με μια βερολινέζικη συνοικία, που την έχει τυλίξει το ναζιστικό μίσος, και την αφύπνιση ενός ζεύγους όταν χάθηκε ο μοναχογιός του σε αυτόν τον αδηφάγο πόλεμο:
Το άλλο είναι ο "7ος Στα��ρός" της Άννα Ζάγκερς, ένα παράξενο και διορατικό βιβλίο που σκιαγραφεί την εξάπλωση του ναζιστικού τρόμου, πολύ πριν το ξέσπασμα του πολέμου.Η συγγραφέας του, μέλος του ΚΚΓ, το συνέγραψε βασιζόμενη σε μαρτυρίες Γερμανών πρώην κρατουμένων σε "προπολεμικά" στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης -σαν το Νταχάου.
Το πολύπαθο χειρόγραφο, δίνοντας εικόνα ενός πρώιμου στρατόπεδου συγκέντρωσης, από αυτά που έστησαν σταδιακά τα φονικά Ες Ες του Χίμμλερ σε όλη την Ευρώπη, πέρασε μετά δυσκολίας από τη χιτλερική Γερμανία και πρωτοεκδόθηκε τελικά το 1942 στην Αμερική, όπου ειχε καταφύγει η πολιτική πρόσφυγας , Άννα Ζέγκερς.
ΠΕΡΙΛΗΨΗ
1933. Στο στρατόπεδο συγκέντρωσης Βεστχόφεν, 7 πλατάνια έχουν κοπεί παράξενα σχηματίζοντας 7 σταυρούς, οι οποίοι -κατ' έμπνευση του σαδιστή διοικητή του, του Φάρενμπεργκ- "περιμένουν" να "υποδεχθούν" 7 δραπέτες...
5 μέρες μετά, μόνον ο ένας σταυρός έχει μείνει κενός:
Είναι εκείνος που προσμένει τον 7ο δραπέτη Γκέοργκ Χάισλερ, ενόσο εκείνος περιδιαβαίνει τα περίχωρα της Φρανκφούρτης και την παλιά του ζωή για να συναντήσει τις αντιφάσεις μιας κοινωνίας που βυθίζεται ολοένα και περισσότερο σε ένα σκοτάδι με ελάχιστους θύλακες αντίστασης στον ναζιστικό ζόφο:
Θα σταθούν αρκετοί αυτοί για να τον οδηγήσουν στη σωτηρία;
ΣΧΟΛΙΑΣΜΟΣ
Ο "Έβδομος Σταυρός" της Άννα Ζάγκερς συνιστά ένα δυνατό κοινωνικό μυθιστόρημα με υπόκωφη ένταση κι ενδιαφέροντες χαρακτ��ρες, που ιχνηλατεί όσο λίγα τη διάβρωση της γερμανικής κοινωνίας υπό το νέο καθεστώς και διεισδύει στην ψυχή του αναγνώστη πολύ αποτελεσματικά, εγείροντας την κρίση του:
Ο ανατριχιαστικός τίτλος του βιβλίου αιχμαλωτίζει το ενδιαφέρον του αναγνώστη, περικλείοντας, σε μια φράση, όλη την αγωνία, τη διαστροφή και την άμετρη φρίκη του ναζισμού.
Ο "σταυρός" αποτελεί ευθύ συμβολισμό του Μαρτυρίου και η Άννα Ζέγκερς αξιοποιεί την πανόσια εικόνα του Θείου Πάθους από την Καινή Διαθήκη, προκειμένου να αναδείξει τον "Γολγοθά των Αθώων", όπως τον σκηνοθέτησε η ελίτ των Ναζί με αποκορύφωμα το δολοφονικό πλέγμα των Ες Ες γύρω από τους Ανυπεράσπιστους.
6 "εσταυρωμένοι": Η Ανθρωπότητα "εσταυρωμένη". Αποτελεί έναν από τους πιο συγκλονιστικούς τίτλους που έχω δει σε βιβλίο.Τίτλος που το βιβλίο του δεν ακολουθεί την υποσχόμενη έντασή του και τις σαδιστικές σκηνές που αυτός προδιαγράφει, αλλά τον απώτερο συμβολισμό του.
Ο "Έβδομος Σταυρός",λοιπόν, ανήκει σε κείνα τα οξυδερκή, πολιτικής υφής έργα που, αφουγκραζόμενα τον παλμό της συγχυσμένης εποχής τους, "βλέπουν μπροστά" και αποδεικνύονται προφητικά: Είναι από εκείνες τις προειδοποιητικέ�� φωνές που ματαιοπονούν μες στα τραγούδια της ανεμελιάς και του εφησυχασμού.
Ο "7ος Σταυρός" γράφτηκε το 1937, όταν η Ευρώπη του Τσάμπερλαιν και του Νταλαντιέ είχε ισότιμο συνομιλητή τον Χίτλερ και (1938) ασκούσε ανόητες πολιτικές κατευνασμού και παθητικές "Συφωνίες του Μονάχου", ανοίγοντας τον δρόμο στον Χίτλερ να εξαγάγει τη θηριωδία που άσκησε στη δική του χώρα ως τότε.
Αφορμή της δράσης στον "7ο Σταυρό" της Ζάγκερς είναι ένα περιστατικό πολλαπλής απόδρασης στο στρατόπεδο συγκέντρωσης "Βεστχόφεν".
Όπως και ο Ρέμαρκ στη Σπίθα Ζωής, έτσι κι η Ζάγκερς στήνει ένα φανταστικό σκηνικό δράσης με βάση όμως τα ήδη υπάρχοντα στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης που είχαν ήδη στηθεί για αντιφρονούντες Γερμανούς και κομμουνιστές στο Νταχάου (1933) και μετέπειτα στο Σαξενχάουζεν κλπ.
Ανάμεσα στους 7 δραπέτες, η συγγραφέας εστιάζει στον ήρωά της Γκέοργκ Χάισλερ, ο οποίος είναι ο μοναδικός που διαφεύγει τη σύλληψη, στο μεγαλύτερο μέρος του βιβλίου.
Η συγγραφέας ανατέμνει την ψυχολογία του Δραπέτη και τις αγωνιώδεις διαδρομές του, σε ένα οδοιπορικό ανάμεσα σε πόλεις, ποτάμια, γέφυρες και όχθες "αγεφύρωτες".
Παραπέμπει αυτή η πορεία, στον "Γιάννο Μπερ" από το γνωστό τραγούδι του Καμπανέλλη , μόνο που για τον Γερμανό Γκέοργκ Χάισλερ στη ναζιστική Γερμανία αποδεικνύεται πως δεν υπάρχει πια "σπίτι" να τον περιμένει...Η πατρίδα που ήξερε έχει σκορπίσει στις φυλακές και στον τρόμο.
Με επίκεντρο τον Χάισλερ, η Ζάγκερς μας συστήνει πλήθος προσώπων που σχετίζονται ποικιλοτρόπως με την πρότερη ζωή του φυγά.
Στις σελίδες λοιπόν παρελαύνει όλος ο κοινωνικός του κύκλος:
Συναντάμε την πρώην γυναίκα του κ μάνα της κόρης του, την ονειροπόλα Έλλη, (κόρη ενός κλασσικά προσκολλημένου σε αυτήν στοργικού πατέρα), έναν άσπονδο φίλο, έναν ξεχασμένο συμμαθητή, σπουδαστές που καλούνται να ωριμάσουν πρόωρα, μέλη της ανερχόμενης ναζιστικής στρατοκρατικής ελίτ και φυσικά εκπροσώπους της γερμανικής υπαίθρου και της πρωτογενούς παραγωγής,αφού για το ναζιστικό καθεστώς η έννοια της πάτριας γης δεσπόζει.(βοσκός).
Πρόσωπα που η απόδραση τα φέρνει αντιμέτωπα με αναμνήσεις ευχάριστες και οδυνηρές, ενόσο μπροστά τους ορθώνονται αναπόδραστα ηθικά διλήμματα.
Είναι το κρίσιμο μεταίχμιο που το άτομο καλείται να εγκαταλείψει την ουδετερότητά του, η στιγμή που ο Σαββόπουλος σημειώνει ότι πρέπει "να αποφασίσεις με ποιους θα πας και ποιους να αφήσεις".
Η παρουσία του διωκώμενου Γκέοργκ αναδεικνύει ποιότητες χαρακτήρων, κυρίως όμως αναδεικνύει τη σκιά του φόβου που έχει ζώσει κάθε πολίτη κάτω από την πολυπλόκαμη ναζιστική εξουσία: Μια εξουσία που συνθλίβει το Πρόσωπο,καταλύοντας την ιδιωτικότητά του και την αυτοδιάθεσή του. Η καχυποψία κι η προδοσία έχουν δηλητηριάσει κάθε γειτονιά,κάθε σπιτικό. Το καθεστώς έχει παρεισφρήσει σε κάθε κάμαρα,
Αυτοί που δοκιμάζονται δεν είναι μόνο οι πολίτες, αλλά και οι ίδιοι οι δραπέτες, που κάτω από την ίδια ισοπεδωτική συνθήκη εμφανίζουν διαφορετικά επίπεδα ανθεκτικότητας. Οι ιδιοσυγκρασίες τους σηματοδοτούν διαφορετικές αντιδράσεις με φιγούρα πανταχού παρούσα κι έμπνευση, τον καρτερικό Βάλαου.
Χαρακτήρες, που αναλογούν σε πραγματικά μεγάλα βιβλία: Aπόλυτα πειστικοί και αναγνωρίσιμοι στα καθημερινά μέτρα του μέσου ανθρώπου.Θα μπορούσαν να είναι καποιοι από εμάς.
Μέσω των ηρώων της, η Άννα Ζέγκερς συνθέτει ένα κοινωνιολογικό κολάζ της προπολεμικής Γερμανίας τους πρώτους μήνες της ανόδου των Ναζί, όταν ήδη ο τρόμος έχει σφίξει τη μέγγενη του γύρω από τους πολίτες.
Σε περιεκτικές αναφορές και σε συνεργασία με την εξαιρετική επιμέλεια, από το βιβλίο ξεπηδά το γερμανικό πνεύμα, η ιδιαίτερη προτεσταντική κουλτούρα κι αναδυόμενη πραγματικότητα του εθνικοσοσιαλισμού.
Παράλληλα, τίθενται ερωτήματα ατομικής ηθικής!
Θα μιλούσα για ένα πραγματικό αριστούργημα αν δεν έβρισκα κάποιες λεπτομερείς περιγραφές υπερβολικά μακροσκελείς και τον ρυθμό σε ορισμένα σημεία μακρόσυρτο.
Επίσης κάποιες εναλλαγές στο πρόσωπο της αφήγησης αφήνουν μικρά νοηματικά κενα.
Ωστόσο ο Έβδομος Σταυρός συνιστά ένα από τα χαρακτηριστικότερα λογοτεχνικά δείγματα που ανέδειξαν το δράμα του απλού πολίτη στη Γερμανία του Χίτλερ και αξίζει να το ανακαλύψει ο αναγνώστης, για να προβληματιστεί γύρω από τους ηθικούς μετασχηματισμούς του ατόμου κ της κοινωνίας μπροστά σε καταστάσεις κρίσεων.
Ένα βιβλίο, που οι αναγωγές του στο σήμερα είναι ανησυχητικές και προβληματίζουν κατά πόσο τα έθνη διδάχθηκαν από την ύστερη γνώση που με τόσο αίμα πλήρωσαν...
Η έκδοση του Κέδρου με εντυπωσίασε καθώς, πέρα από το "απολαυστικό" μέγεθος και την ωραία ποιότητα σελίδων, είχε ένα πένθιμο χρώμα, υποβλητικό...
Οι εύστοχα βαμμένες μαύρες σελίδες του στην αρχή, ένιωσα πως ήταν "διαποτισμένες από την τέφρα των κρεματορίων".
Η "καταλληλότερη" αισθητική προσέγγιση για ένα έργο που ανέδειξε την ανθρώπινη βαρβαρότητα και τον πόνο των αθώων.
http://stonasterismotouvivliou.blogsp...
Δύο είναι τα σημαντικότερα έργα που σκιαγράφησαν την καθημερινότητα του ανώνυμου Γερμανού πολίτη κάτω από τη σκιά της χιτλερικής εξουσίας:
Το ένα είναι το πολυβραβευμένο "Μόνος Στο Βερολίνο" του Χανς Φαλάντα σχετικά με μια βερολινέζικη συνοικία, που την έχει τυλίξει το ναζιστικό μίσος, και την αφύπνιση ενός ζεύγους όταν χάθηκε ο μοναχογιός του σε αυτόν τον αδηφάγο πόλεμο:
Το άλλο είναι ο "7ος Στα��ρός" της Άννα Ζάγκερς, ένα παράξενο και διορατικό βιβλίο που σκιαγραφεί την εξάπλωση του ναζιστικού τρόμου, πολύ πριν το ξέσπασμα του πολέμου.Η συγγραφέας του, μέλος του ΚΚΓ, το συνέγραψε βασιζόμενη σε μαρτυρίες Γερμανών πρώην κρατουμένων σε "προπολεμικά" στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης -σαν το Νταχάου.
Το πολύπαθο χειρόγραφο, δίνοντας εικόνα ενός πρώιμου στρατόπεδου συγκέντρωσης, από αυτά που έστησαν σταδιακά τα φονικά Ες Ες του Χίμμλερ σε όλη την Ευρώπη, πέρασε μετά δυσκολίας από τη χιτλερική Γερμανία και πρωτοεκδόθηκε τελικά το 1942 στην Αμερική, όπου ειχε καταφύγει η πολιτική πρόσφυγας , Άννα Ζέγκερς.
ΠΕΡΙΛΗΨΗ
1933. Στο στρατόπεδο συγκέντρωσης Βεστχόφεν, 7 πλατάνια έχουν κοπεί παράξενα σχηματίζοντας 7 σταυρούς, οι οποίοι -κατ' έμπνευση του σαδιστή διοικητή του, του Φάρενμπεργκ- "περιμένουν" να "υποδεχθούν" 7 δραπέτες...
5 μέρες μετά, μόνον ο ένας σταυρός έχει μείνει κενός:
Είναι εκείνος που προσμένει τον 7ο δραπέτη Γκέοργκ Χάισλερ, ενόσο εκείνος περιδιαβαίνει τα περίχωρα της Φρανκφούρτης και την παλιά του ζωή για να συναντήσει τις αντιφάσεις μιας κοινωνίας που βυθίζεται ολοένα και περισσότερο σε ένα σκοτάδι με ελάχιστους θύλακες αντίστασης στον ναζιστικό ζόφο:
Θα σταθούν αρκετοί αυτοί για να τον οδηγήσουν στη σωτηρία;
ΣΧΟΛΙΑΣΜΟΣ
Ο "Έβδομος Σταυρός" της Άννα Ζάγκερς συνιστά ένα δυνατό κοινωνικό μυθιστόρημα με υπόκωφη ένταση κι ενδιαφέροντες χαρακτ��ρες, που ιχνηλατεί όσο λίγα τη διάβρωση της γερμανικής κοινωνίας υπό το νέο καθεστώς και διεισδύει στην ψυχή του αναγνώστη πολύ αποτελεσματικά, εγείροντας την κρίση του:
Ο ανατριχιαστικός τίτλος του βιβλίου αιχμαλωτίζει το ενδιαφέρον του αναγνώστη, περικλείοντας, σε μια φράση, όλη την αγωνία, τη διαστροφή και την άμετρη φρίκη του ναζισμού.
Ο "σταυρός" αποτελεί ευθύ συμβολισμό του Μαρτυρίου και η Άννα Ζέγκερς αξιοποιεί την πανόσια εικόνα του Θείου Πάθους από την Καινή Διαθήκη, προκειμένου να αναδείξει τον "Γολγοθά των Αθώων", όπως τον σκηνοθέτησε η ελίτ των Ναζί με αποκορύφωμα το δολοφονικό πλέγμα των Ες Ες γύρω από τους Ανυπεράσπιστους.
6 "εσταυρωμένοι": Η Ανθρωπότητα "εσταυρωμένη". Αποτελεί έναν από τους πιο συγκλονιστικούς τίτλους που έχω δει σε βιβλίο.Τίτλος που το βιβλίο του δεν ακολουθεί την υποσχόμενη έντασή του και τις σαδιστικές σκηνές που αυτός προδιαγράφει, αλλά τον απώτερο συμβολισμό του.
Ο "Έβδομος Σταυρός",λοιπόν, ανήκει σε κείνα τα οξυδερκή, πολιτικής υφής έργα που, αφουγκραζόμενα τον παλμό της συγχυσμένης εποχής τους, "βλέπουν μπροστά" και αποδεικνύονται προφητικά: Είναι από εκείνες τις προειδοποιητικέ�� φωνές που ματαιοπονούν μες στα τραγούδια της ανεμελιάς και του εφησυχασμού.
Ο "7ος Σταυρός" γράφτηκε το 1937, όταν η Ευρώπη του Τσάμπερλαιν και του Νταλαντιέ είχε ισότιμο συνομιλητή τον Χίτλερ και (1938) ασκούσε ανόητες πολιτικές κατευνασμού και παθητικές "Συφωνίες του Μονάχου", ανοίγοντας τον δρόμο στον Χίτλερ να εξαγάγει τη θηριωδία που άσκησε στη δική του χώρα ως τότε.
Αφορμή της δράσης στον "7ο Σταυρό" της Ζάγκερς είναι ένα περιστατικό πολλαπλής απόδρασης στο στρατόπεδο συγκέντρωσης "Βεστχόφεν".
Όπως και ο Ρέμαρκ στη Σπίθα Ζωής, έτσι κι η Ζάγκερς στήνει ένα φανταστικό σκηνικό δράσης με βάση όμως τα ήδη υπάρχοντα στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης που είχαν ήδη στηθεί για αντιφρονούντες Γερμανούς και κομμουνιστές στο Νταχάου (1933) και μετέπειτα στο Σαξενχάουζεν κλπ.
Ανάμεσα στους 7 δραπέτες, η συγγραφέας εστιάζει στον ήρωά της Γκέοργκ Χάισλερ, ο οποίος είναι ο μοναδικός που διαφεύγει τη σύλληψη, στο μεγαλύτερο μέρος του βιβλίου.
Η συγγραφέας ανατέμνει την ψυχολογία του Δραπέτη και τις αγωνιώδεις διαδρομές του, σε ένα οδοιπορικό ανάμεσα σε πόλεις, ποτάμια, γέφυρες και όχθες "αγεφύρωτες".
Παραπέμπει αυτή η πορεία, στον "Γιάννο Μπερ" από το γνωστό τραγούδι του Καμπανέλλη , μόνο που για τον Γερμανό Γκέοργκ Χάισλερ στη ναζιστική Γερμανία αποδεικνύεται πως δεν υπάρχει πια "σπίτι" να τον περιμένει...Η πατρίδα που ήξερε έχει σκορπίσει στις φυλακές και στον τρόμο.
Με επίκεντρο τον Χάισλερ, η Ζάγκερς μας συστήνει πλήθος προσώπων που σχετίζονται ποικιλοτρόπως με την πρότερη ζωή του φυγά.
Στις σελίδες λοιπόν παρελαύνει όλος ο κοινωνικός του κύκλος:
Συναντάμε την πρώην γυναίκα του κ μάνα της κόρης του, την ονειροπόλα Έλλη, (κόρη ενός κλασσικά προσκολλημένου σε αυτήν στοργικού πατέρα), έναν άσπονδο φίλο, έναν ξεχασμένο συμμαθητή, σπουδαστές που καλούνται να ωριμάσουν πρόωρα, μέλη της ανερχόμενης ναζιστικής στρατοκρατικής ελίτ και φυσικά εκπροσώπους της γερμανικής υπαίθρου και της πρωτογενούς παραγωγής,αφού για το ναζιστικό καθεστώς η έννοια της πάτριας γης δεσπόζει.(βοσκός).
Πρόσωπα που η απόδραση τα φέρνει αντιμέτωπα με αναμνήσεις ευχάριστες και οδυνηρές, ενόσο μπροστά τους ορθώνονται αναπόδραστα ηθικά διλήμματα.
Είναι το κρίσιμο μεταίχμιο που το άτομο καλείται να εγκαταλείψει την ουδετερότητά του, η στιγμή που ο Σαββόπουλος σημειώνει ότι πρέπει "να αποφασίσεις με ποιους θα πας και ποιους να αφήσεις".
Η παρουσία του διωκώμενου Γκέοργκ αναδεικνύει ποιότητες χαρακτήρων, κυρίως όμως αναδεικνύει τη σκιά του φόβου που έχει ζώσει κάθε πολίτη κάτω από την πολυπλόκαμη ναζιστική εξουσία: Μια εξουσία που συνθλίβει το Πρόσωπο,καταλύοντας την ιδιωτικότητά του και την αυτοδιάθεσή του. Η καχυποψία κι η προδοσία έχουν δηλητηριάσει κάθε γειτονιά,κάθε σπιτικό. Το καθεστώς έχει παρεισφρήσει σε κάθε κάμαρα,
Αυτοί που δοκιμάζονται δεν είναι μόνο οι πολίτες, αλλά και οι ίδιοι οι δραπέτες, που κάτω από την ίδια ισοπεδωτική συνθήκη εμφανίζουν διαφορετικά επίπεδα ανθεκτικότητας. Οι ιδιοσυγκρασίες τους σηματοδοτούν διαφορετικές αντιδράσεις με φιγούρα πανταχού παρούσα κι έμπνευση, τον καρτερικό Βάλαου.
Χαρακτήρες, που αναλογούν σε πραγματικά μεγάλα βιβλία: Aπόλυτα πειστικοί και αναγνωρίσιμοι στα καθημερινά μέτρα του μέσου ανθρώπου.Θα μπορούσαν να είναι καποιοι από εμάς.
Μέσω των ηρώων της, η Άννα Ζέγκερς συνθέτει ένα κοινωνιολογικό κολάζ της προπολεμικής Γερμανίας τους πρώτους μήνες της ανόδου των Ναζί, όταν ήδη ο τρόμος έχει σφίξει τη μέγγενη του γύρω από τους πολίτες.
Σε περιεκτικές αναφορές και σε συνεργασία με την εξαιρετική επιμέλεια, από το βιβλίο ξεπηδά το γερμανικό πνεύμα, η ιδιαίτερη προτεσταντική κουλτούρα κι αναδυόμενη πραγματικότητα του εθνικοσοσιαλισμού.
Παράλληλα, τίθενται ερωτήματα ατομικής ηθικής!
Θα μιλούσα για ένα πραγματικό αριστούργημα αν δεν έβρισκα κάποιες λεπτομερείς περιγραφές υπερβολικά μακροσκελείς και τον ρυθμό σε ορισμένα σημεία μακρόσυρτο.
Επίσης κάποιες εναλλαγές στο πρόσωπο της αφήγησης αφήνουν μικρά νοηματικά κενα.
Ωστόσο ο Έβδομος Σταυρός συνιστά ένα από τα χαρακτηριστικότερα λογοτεχνικά δείγματα που ανέδειξαν το δράμα του απλού πολίτη στη Γερμανία του Χίτλερ και αξίζει να το ανακαλύψει ο αναγνώστης, για να προβληματιστεί γύρω από τους ηθικούς μετασχηματισμούς του ατόμου κ της κοινωνίας μπροστά σε καταστάσεις κρίσεων.
Ένα βιβλίο, που οι αναγωγές του στο σήμερα είναι ανησυχητικές και προβληματίζουν κατά πόσο τα έθνη διδάχθηκαν από την ύστερη γνώση που με τόσο αίμα πλήρωσαν...
Η έκδοση του Κέδρου με εντυπωσίασε καθώς, πέρα από το "απολαυστικό" μέγεθος και την ωραία ποιότητα σελίδων, είχε ένα πένθιμο χρώμα, υποβλητικό...
Οι εύστοχα βαμμένες μαύρες σελίδες του στην αρχή, ένιωσα πως ήταν "διαποτισμένες από την τέφρα των κρεματορίων".
Η "καταλληλότερη" αισθητική προσέγγιση για ένα έργο που ανέδειξε την ανθρώπινη βαρβαρότητα και τον πόνο των αθώων.
http://stonasterismotouvivliou.blogsp...
December 20, 2021
קראתי את הספר "טרנזיט" של אנה זגרס והתלהבתי. הבעיה איתה היא שחוץ מהספר ההוא היא כתבה (לפי מה שמספרים) עוד שלוש יצירות ראויות לקריאה: הספר הזה, "טיול הנערות המתות" ועוד אחד שכתבה ממש בנעוריה. בהיותה קומוניסטית נלהבת חזרה למזרח גרמניה לאחר המלחמה ושם יצירותיה התדרדרו לכדי תעמולה. הספר "הצלב השביעי" (כמו "טרנזיט") נכתבו לאחר שברחה מגרמניה ולאחר מכן מצרפת בתקופת המלחמה. שניהם לפני שנודע בעצם על ההשמדה. זה טרם אולי לתחושה של מיידיות שנמצאת בשני הספרים הללו. מדובר ביצירות מורכבות ומחושבות שיחד עם זאת התחברו במהירות והתפרסמו ("הצלב השביעי" אפילו הוסרט!) לא הרבה אחרי האירועים (הבדיוניים) המתוארים בהם בטרם הסתיימה המלחמה ונודעה מלוא משמעותה.
"טרנזיט" הקפקאי משקף את חוויית הפליטות שלה במרסי שלאחר הכיבוש הגרמני של צרפת. "הצלב השביעי" הוא סטנדרטי יותר מבחינת העלילה. מדובר בספר מתח על אסירים קומוניסטים הנמלטים ממחנה ריכוז לאחר חילופי המשטר בגרמניה ועליית היטלר לשילטון אך לפני פרוץ המלחמה. בתוך כך המחברת מיטיבה לשקף את חוויית ההימלטות והמתח כמו גם את החברה הגרמנית ששינתה את פניה על שלל הטיפוסים השונים המאכלסים אותה ושלל הדרכים השונות שבחרו להתמודד השינוי שחל בחברה.
התנועה הקומוניסטית מפוררת. מחנות הריכוז הם דבר איום, אך בתקופה זו משתמשים בעיקר למאסר של אסירים פוליטיים. סצנה המתרחשת בסוף הסיפור היא גם אלגוריה למצב של הסוציאליסטים תחת המשטר הנאצי. "'איפה הרברט?" שאל והצטער מיד על שאלתו. 'איפה הוא יכול להיות?' אמרה האישה, 'כאן!' הצביעה על אדמת-הגן החומה. על האדמה שפזורים עליה עלי אגוז וקליפות אגוז חדות. הצביעה ביד שלווה, עד שנדמה לפרנץ, כי הרברט שנעלם מעיניו, והוא גם לא חיפש אחריו, קבור כאן, בגן הזה שנכנס אליו באקראי, מתחת לשלכת ולמגפיהם הקשיחים של אנשי אס"אס ואס"א ונעלי נשותיהם, שכן נתמלא הגן בינתיים. ראה פרנץ לפניו רק בעלי מדים בלוויית נשותיהם, וכולם עוררו בו סלידה.'" (252)
למרות שאין כאן את הקפקאיות שב"טרנזיט" המופתי הרי שהספר כתוב בתחכום רב, תוך מעברים מהירים בין שלל הדמויות השונות: אסירים וסוהרים, נמלטים ורודפים, בני משפחה וחברים וסתם אנשים, תוך תיאור של סצנות ואירועים המתרחשים במקביל. הספר הוא ריאליסטי מאוד ומצליח לשמור על מתח אך יש בו גם שכבות עומק של תיאורים פסיכולוגיים קולעים ורובד אלגורי.
"טרנזיט" הקפקאי משקף את חוויית הפליטות שלה במרסי שלאחר הכיבוש הגרמני של צרפת. "הצלב השביעי" הוא סטנדרטי יותר מבחינת העלילה. מדובר בספר מתח על אסירים קומוניסטים הנמלטים ממחנה ריכוז לאחר חילופי המשטר בגרמניה ועליית היטלר לשילטון אך לפני פרוץ המלחמה. בתוך כך המחברת מיטיבה לשקף את חוויית ההימלטות והמתח כמו גם את החברה הגרמנית ששינתה את פניה על שלל הטיפוסים השונים המאכלסים אותה ושלל הדרכים השונות שבחרו להתמודד השינוי שחל בחברה.
התנועה הקומוניסטית מפוררת. מחנות הריכוז הם דבר איום, אך בתקופה זו משתמשים בעיקר למאסר של אסירים פוליטיים. סצנה המתרחשת בסוף הסיפור היא גם אלגוריה למצב של הסוציאליסטים תחת המשטר הנאצי. "'איפה הרברט?" שאל והצטער מיד על שאלתו. 'איפה הוא יכול להיות?' אמרה האישה, 'כאן!' הצביעה על אדמת-הגן החומה. על האדמה שפזורים עליה עלי אגוז וקליפות אגוז חדות. הצביעה ביד שלווה, עד שנדמה לפרנץ, כי הרברט שנעלם מעיניו, והוא גם לא חיפש אחריו, קבור כאן, בגן הזה שנכנס אליו באקראי, מתחת לשלכת ולמגפיהם הקשיחים של אנשי אס"אס ואס"א ונעלי נשותיהם, שכן נתמלא הגן בינתיים. ראה פרנץ לפניו רק בעלי מדים בלוויית נשותיהם, וכולם עוררו בו סלידה.'" (252)
למרות שאין כאן את הקפקאיות שב"טרנזיט" המופתי הרי שהספר כתוב בתחכום רב, תוך מעברים מהירים בין שלל הדמויות השונות: אסירים וסוהרים, נמלטים ורודפים, בני משפחה וחברים וסתם אנשים, תוך תיאור של סצנות ואירועים המתרחשים במקביל. הספר הוא ריאליסטי מאוד ומצליח לשמור על מתח אך יש בו גם שכבות עומק של תיאורים פסיכולוגיים קולעים ורובד אלגורי.
March 3, 2024
The novel powerfully documents the insidious rise of a fascist regime - the seething paranoia, the sudden arrests, the silence and fear. [a summary]
It was a knowing portrait of the perils of ordinary life in Hitler's Germany before the IIWW. [Joseph Kanon]
The story gave the sense of an endless string of unbelievable things happening, leading to a murky, underwatery sensibility. [J.]
The characters were so human that it hurt. Their life choices, their lot, the unfairness, hopelessness, and striving for happiness were heartwrenching.
I think there are not many books, novels that remind us of ordinary Germans that were also victims of time and Nazi ideology. It is important to remember those Germans too.
Fear is the condition in which a certain idea begins to overrun everything else.
It was a knowing portrait of the perils of ordinary life in Hitler's Germany before the IIWW. [Joseph Kanon]
She knew nothing of the shadow behind the border posts of reality, and less than nothing of the strange proceedings that take place between the border posts: when reality fades into nothingness and can never return, or when the shadows show a desire to come crowding back in order to be taken for real once more.
The story gave the sense of an endless string of unbelievable things happening, leading to a murky, underwatery sensibility. [J.]
Was it permissible to jeopardize man because of another? If so, under what conditions? Yes, it was permissible. Not only permissible, but imperative.
The characters were so human that it hurt. Their life choices, their lot, the unfairness, hopelessness, and striving for happiness were heartwrenching.
Only when nothing at all is possible any longer does life pass by like a shadow. But the periods when everything is possible contain all of life — and of destruction.
I think there are not many books, novels that remind us of ordinary Germans that were also victims of time and Nazi ideology. It is important to remember those Germans too.
All of us felt how ruthlessly and fearfully outward powers could strike to the very core of man, but at the same time we felt that at the very core there was something that was unassailable and inviolable.
October 23, 2021
Anna Seghers is de schrijversnaam van de in 1983 op 82 jarige leeftijd overleden Netty Reiling, een Duitse van gedeeltelijk joodse afkomst. Ze werd lid van de communistische partij en scheidde zich af van de joodse gemeenschap. In 1932 publiceerde ze al een boek dat tegen het opkomende nazisme waarschuwde. Ze werd hiervoor door de Gestapo opgepakt. In 1934 emigreerde ze naar Parijs. In 1940 vluchtte ze naar Marseilles om een jaar later door te reizen naar Mexico. Seghers keerde in 1947 terug naar Duitsland, eerst naar West-Berlijn om zich in 1950 voorgoed in Oost-Duitsland te vestigen. Ze had haar boek “Das Siebte Kreuz” al in 1939 geschreven en dit werd in 1942 in Amerika uitgegeven waar het in 1944 werd verfilmd met Spencer Tracey in de hoofdrol.
Het verhaal gaat over een ontsnapping uit een Duits concentratiekamp in 1937 waarin toen voornamelijk communisten, socialisten en personen die zich tegen Hitler’s regime uitspraken of dingen deden die in de ogen van het regime niet door de beugel konden, werden opgesloten.
Zeven mannen ontsnappen waarvan zes vrij snel weer worden opgepakt. Het boek gaat voornamelijk over hoe het de zevende vergaat. Denk je eens in hoe het moet zijn om met een prijs op je hoofd op de vlucht te zijn in een land waarin een groot aantal mensen al op de hand van het nieuwe regime zijn en degenen die dat niet zijn of zich op de vlakte houden je misschien zullen aangeven omdat ze hun eigen hachje willen redden of gewoon op het losgeld uit zijn. De mensen die je welgezind zijn worden in de gaten gehouden en weten ook niet meer wie ze wel en niet kunnen vertrouwen. Er heerst een sfeer van angst. Dat is wat dit boek zeer goed overbrengt en qua sfeer vond ik het wel wat met het 8 jaar later voor het eerst uitgegeven “Alleen in Berlijn” van Hans Fallada hebben.
Het is moeilijk om te zeggen dat dit een mooi boek is, want met in gedachten het jaar dat het boek geschreven is en wat er daarna allemaal gebeurd is lopen de rillingen over je rug. Het is een indrukwekkend boek omdat het heel goed de sfeer weergeeft van een land waarin je de eigen buren, collega’s en kennissen niet meer kunt vertrouwen. Het is jammer dat ze de val van de muur niet meer heeft meegemaakt of misschien maar goed want ik weet niet hoezeer ze nog in de socialistische heilstaat van Oost-Duitsland geloofde. Het is natuurlijk wrang dat ze zich na de oorlog juist vestigde in een staat waarin dezelfde sfeer van angst die ze in “Het Zevende Kruis” beschreef, voor velen heerste.
Het verhaal gaat over een ontsnapping uit een Duits concentratiekamp in 1937 waarin toen voornamelijk communisten, socialisten en personen die zich tegen Hitler’s regime uitspraken of dingen deden die in de ogen van het regime niet door de beugel konden, werden opgesloten.
Zeven mannen ontsnappen waarvan zes vrij snel weer worden opgepakt. Het boek gaat voornamelijk over hoe het de zevende vergaat. Denk je eens in hoe het moet zijn om met een prijs op je hoofd op de vlucht te zijn in een land waarin een groot aantal mensen al op de hand van het nieuwe regime zijn en degenen die dat niet zijn of zich op de vlakte houden je misschien zullen aangeven omdat ze hun eigen hachje willen redden of gewoon op het losgeld uit zijn. De mensen die je welgezind zijn worden in de gaten gehouden en weten ook niet meer wie ze wel en niet kunnen vertrouwen. Er heerst een sfeer van angst. Dat is wat dit boek zeer goed overbrengt en qua sfeer vond ik het wel wat met het 8 jaar later voor het eerst uitgegeven “Alleen in Berlijn” van Hans Fallada hebben.
Het is moeilijk om te zeggen dat dit een mooi boek is, want met in gedachten het jaar dat het boek geschreven is en wat er daarna allemaal gebeurd is lopen de rillingen over je rug. Het is een indrukwekkend boek omdat het heel goed de sfeer weergeeft van een land waarin je de eigen buren, collega’s en kennissen niet meer kunt vertrouwen. Het is jammer dat ze de val van de muur niet meer heeft meegemaakt of misschien maar goed want ik weet niet hoezeer ze nog in de socialistische heilstaat van Oost-Duitsland geloofde. Het is natuurlijk wrang dat ze zich na de oorlog juist vestigde in een staat waarin dezelfde sfeer van angst die ze in “Het Zevende Kruis” beschreef, voor velen heerste.
October 29, 2018
Significant in the timing of its release in 1938. All of the pieces for the holocaust are in place. Even better, the writing is top quality and notable in its realistic description of the inner lives of those living under the Third Reich.
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