The Seventh Cross (Voices of Resistance) [Paperback]

Anna Seghers (Author), James A. Galston (Translator), Dorothy Rosenberg (Afterword), Kurt Vonnegut (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1987

This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The first title in the publisher's Voices of Resistance series, this work is about the escape of a Communist, George Heisler, from a Nazi concentration camp and his attempts to flee the country while avoiding the Gestapo and the complicit local population.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Noble simplicity of style and story...make this novel of pre-war Nazi Germany intensely engrossing and powerfully moving. --R. M. Ray, Atlantic --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Monthly Review Press; First Printing edition (August 1, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0853457123
• ISBN-13: 978-0853457121
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,725,637 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Convincing portrait of German society during Nazi reign., November 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Seventh Cross (Voices of Resistance) (Paperback)

Anybody who has ever wondered why things happened the way they did in Nazi Germany may find some answers here.

In contrast to other writers, screenwriters or film directors who sometimes prefer to dwell on horrific details of crimes committed by a totalitarian regime, Anna Seghers offers an insight into people's lives.

This is a portrait of German society of the late 1930s as realistic and convincing as one might dare to hope for. The fact that Anna Seghers was a contemporary distinguishes this book from many other works with similar aspirations. She wrote based on her own experiences, as well as accounts of friends, relatives or fellow exiles, while events similar to the ones narrated actually took place in her home country. (The Seventh Cross was first published in 1942.)

Seghers' ability to create believable characters is amazing. She managages to disintegrate the anonymous masses who cheered the Nazi dictators, and shows us THE PEOPLE in its diversity: Individuals with individual fears and hopes and scars from previous fights.

I approached this book very reluctantly, bearing in mind its status as standard school lecture (in Germany) and the author's standing as a GDR icon of Socialist literature. Segher's political views however, though clearly noticecable, do not harm the story and in this particular case may even have equiped her with a deeper insight into what really happened.

Apart from the book's informative value, the excellent writing style as well as the gripping story make it a great read.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great book about the escape out of an Nazi prison, August 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Seventh Cross (Voices of Resistance) (Paperback)

Seven men escape out of a conzentration camp in Nazi-Germany. Their goal now is not to get captured again. Its difficult to trust somebody because peoples true characters appear suddenly. The nazis catch one after the other again, let them nail on trees and torture them in the cruelest mannner. At last there is just one tree left empty. The seventh cross is a fabulous book. It describes in an very vivid and exciting way the situation among the german population at that time. The people midst decides about the lifes of these seven completely different guys. It's not easy to find the way out through the tight net of nazis. Tough situation let peoples true face appear. Danger is everywhere and you can't trust anybody. Faith, hope but also evil and death are reunited in that seventh cross (last tree that is left). The whole story of one man reflects and embodies the grief of a lot of german people. But finally it's just another war. Silence will return. Nobody is able to ! surpress and reign in such an unhuman manner about other people.