The Lost Novel of 1934 that gave horrifying warnings about the horrors of Nazi Germany

Sally Carson’s visionary novel, published several years before World War II, captures the dawn of Nazi tyranny in a small German town, and is still relevant today.

Eighty years after VE Day, enthusiasm for World War II has not been suppressed.

The demand for a ever-healthy wartime European tale has been awarded the Pulitzer Award in 2015, especially since the publication of Anthony Doerr’s lyrical all-light, and has since adapted to the Netflix series. Love stories, battle stories, codebreaker stories, resistance stories, and concentration camp stories – are all listed on bestseller lists around the world.

And while many novelists in this subgenre are skillfully portrayed in documents, letters and witness accounts from 80 years ago, the world is rarely removed again to see new works of fiction based on personal experiences of this era. This is one of the Crooked Crosses, republished by Persephone’s book this spring, and is a very extraordinary read. Author Sylvia “Sally” Carson, a young British woman, inspired by a visit to a friend in Bavaria in the early 1930s, wrote a novel about the dawn of Nazi tyranny in a small German town.

The famous American novelist Eldcteru, author of Ragtime, Billy Busgate, and other fictional works set in the past, once said, “Historists will tell you what happened. Novelists can tell you what it feels like.” And Carson’s achievement is to lead the fictional Kruger family, who live near the mountains south of Munich, into a vivid life for six months from Christmas Eve in 1932 to Midsummer Night in 1933 – the Midsummer Night in 1933.

Carson wrote a bent cross – the title refers to the swastika symbol adopted by the Nazis – at speed. It was published in 1934, a year after the event she spoke about. The reviews were praised, and Carson premiered her novel at the Birmingham Repertoire Theatre in 1935, then moved to London’s West End two years later. Carson proved remarkably foresightful about the horror to come, but after her premature death from breast cancer in 1941, her novel sank into obscurity. The decision to reissue it now on Persephone is wise and welcome.

The action begins with Hans and Rosa Kruger, as well as three adult children, daughter Lexa and sons Helmy and Erich gather together for the Christmas holiday. Living in Germany during the depression period is difficult. Herr Kluger’s salary at the post office has been reduced, his eldest son, Helmy, loses his job, and Erich’s seasonal job as a ski instructor needs to humiliate the whims of a rich woman. But Christmas is “time to complete the knitting of personal happiness and the magic circle of family,” Carson writes. Lexa’s handsome and successful fiancee, young surgeon Moritz Weissman, is included in all celebrations.

When Helmy and Lexa are in charge of the decoration of the wood – the two brothers are always nearby – the environment of the celebration is accurately described. The given mention to “Helmy’s Photo of Hitler” sitting on the piano is decorated just like everything else in the cozy home. Sheen makes the reader believe that despite the flickering of threats, he cannot destroy this faithful, decent, loving clan.

A month later, in January 1933, Hitler was appointed Prime Minister. Machtergreifungwhich begins when the Germans call it Nazi power integration. Within a few days, Hermy is rewarded for his early loyalty to the Nazis and their promise to once again thrive the nation with his work as a local party secretary. Moritz, who has a Jewish father, is fired from the Munich clinic where he works.

Carson shows her compassion for all her characters, along with razor-intense insight into her very human weaknesses. Nevertheless, a sensitive and conscientious person, Hermy line up with evil ideology. He tries to convince his sister that in a new reality, she must break the engagement and never see Moritz again. Lexa resists and clings to the hope that Hitler will be thrown out of the government in the distance in Berlin.

Instead, the family world becomes even darker when mountain meadows become green in spring. Erich quits his submissive job to join the brown shirt and steals stolen goods around town with his uniform and jack boots. Kruger’s parents are prideful, but Kruger, a World War I veteran, is wary of another bloody conflict. Idealistic Hermy attends Nazi rallies and is fascinated. Carson wrote:

With his job and income stripped of Moritz, he is disappointed as he is no longer allowed to borrow books from the public library. In search of a carefree night, Lexa persuades him to take her to the dance. On the crowded floor, the two accidentally bump into another couple while they’re doing foxtrots. Moritz is an apology. “Blow you up!… you’re a dirty Jew… you’re out of the way,” cried the other man.

Carson told the Bradford Observer newspaper how he heard these exact words from the Jewish man who partnered her in a dance hall while on his vacation in Bavaria.

On a midsummer night, when the simmering violence beneath this idyllic horn surface in Germany explodes into clear vision, Lexa concludes with love for Moritz over all other loyalty, and the outcome is devastating. (More than that, it’s about ruining the story.)

Novels relating to domestic territory only show chilling and emphasising how civilized states can be captured by authoritarianism. Speaking today in the BBC Radio 4 news program, historian Francesca Beauman, editorial director of Persephone Books, quoted the review in Acton Gazette when the book was published. “Crooked Cross is more true than telegraph reports. It’s fairer than propaganda and more interesting than either.”

Not all Carson’s contemporaries wanted to hear the warnings embedded in the bent cross. When her play moved to the London stage in 1937, parts of the UK blasted it as anti-German, claiming that Lord Chamberlain’s office would eliminate all “Heil Hitler.” Many of the British at the time wanted to coexist peacefully with Berlin’s warlike regime.

Some readers quickly draw modern similarities, particularly to the rise of right-wing populism around the world, and the tendency of young men to be seduced by extremist movements, as unintentionally, dissatisfied or lost by millions of Germans in the 1930s. But Crooked Cross Raise’s personal issues are personal. What would you do if the person you like started supporting an idea you dislike?

Now that the indelible portrait of the tragic Kruger family of Carson has resurfaced, it guarantees a permanent location for the growing canon of World War II.

Crooked Cross by Sally Carson is published by Persephone book, It mainly reproduces fiction and non-fiction that women have been ignored.

Claire McHugh is the author of the historical novel “The Romanov Bride.”