Books

The Seventh Cross

—by Anna Seghers

When men are enslaved or imprisoned, any little thing whereby they outwit their gaolers counts as a tremendous victory. They regain some self-respect in the feeling that they are not completely powerless. So, when the governor of a concentration camp prepares seven crosses for the seven men who have escaped, the prisoners gain a sense of power as, day after day, the seventh cross is still unoccupied, and the morale of the commandant himself is gradually broken by this sign of the loss of his omnipotence.

But what of the seventh man? What are his feelings, as he makes his way across the country? He is different from an escaped convict against whom every man's hand is turned, in that some at least of the people are prepared to help him? But whom can he trust? Will his friends betray him? The characters and reactions of those who do assist him, working-class men, a scientist, a Jewish doctor, are carefully portrayed. How much the author knows of conditions inside prewar Hitler Germany it is difficult to say, but the book rings true. We feel that there is some hope left for Germany, if these men retain some of their old allegiances. Not of course that the book is a superb masterpiece. The writing is good, but not outstanding. Yet it is a book worth reading in its sketching of a situation and development of an idea.

•