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Recently, I asked to an American acquaintance – as is common nowadays – concerning where he believes "it" going, referring to the political landscape. He took a breath. "Personally, the US is in a comparable situation to Germany in the early 1930s," he declared. "It's crucial to wonder, could 1936, 1937, 1938 been averted? That's the juncture we find ourselves. It's possible to claim fascism couldn't happen in America. Yet in my view the jury's out."

Rediscovering a Neglected Literary Work

These statements appeared strikingly relevant to me since I had just finished exploring a significant work of fiction exactly about that exact period in Germany. Lost for years, author Sally Carson's Bavaria-set Crooked Cross received new publication this spring by a niche publishing house. From that point, it has been a word-of-mouth phenomenon, a stunning revelation passed from hand to hand.

The Plot Develops

Crooked Cross begins in December 1932 and ends at midsummer the next year. The setting is the little, fictional Bavarian town called Kranach, a charming setting in the foothills of the mountain chain. The story centers on the Kluger clan – an ordinary, bourgeois group with caring parents and their three adult children.

The scene is warm and delightful and optimistic: the tree with decorations, the gift-wrapped packages, the Christmas songs, the festive meal.

Everything is gorgeously decorated, "even" – one reads with a shudder – "Helmy's picture of the Führer which stood upon the piano."

The Novelist and Her Contribution

Carson wrote two follow-up books following Crooked Cross. The complete series came out before World War II. Then, during the war years, in her thirties, she passed away of cancer. This book received positive reviews upon publication, but remained relatively unknown and quickly faded from public consciousness.

An impressive element about this book is its real-time quality. It was composed during the events, and printed rapidly. The half-year timeframe that it covers coincided with momentous political change.

Historical Context

• The Führer assumed power
• The Nazis gained an effective majority
• The concentration camp began operation
• Jewish citizens were prohibited from government positions

At the start, the characters exchange greetings with the customary Grüss Gott; by the end, the family patriarch is offering the fascist greeting acquaintances in the street and the local church bells have been altered so that they chime with the notes of the Horst Wessel song.

Current Importance

Reading this novel, equipped with historical knowledge unavailable to the author, proves extraordinary, sometimes difficult. Today, everything she describes heads inevitably toward one inexorable conclusion: the war, the Holocaust.

What stands out about Carson remains, despite the fact she had no idea how things would conclude, the book possesses a firm ethical foundation.

No uncertainty remains. What is being done throughout the country against Jewish citizens, to political opponents, is plainly horrific, following the novel's worldview.

Enduring Influence

The novel reveals how extremism, when it gains power, offers these individuals with meaning, work, an explanation, hope and specific positions. It also provides them with a set of people – political opponents and minorities – to resent, to hold responsible, to discipline and soon enough, to assault and to kill.

The similarities with today are unmistakable. Would that we all had Carson's insight and her moral clarity.