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Just the other day, I asked to an American colleague – as is common nowadays – regarding where he sees "it" progressing, referring to the current political climate. He hesitated. "Personally, America finds itself in a very similar position to Germany in that period," he declared. "We need to question, could those subsequent years have been avoided? That's the juncture we currently stand. It's possible to claim fascism couldn't happen in the US. However, I believe it remains uncertain."

Unearthing a Neglected Masterpiece

These statements appeared strikingly relevant to me since I recently completed reading a significant work of fiction specifically concerning Germany in 1933-4. Lost for years, writer Sally Carson's Bavaria-set Crooked Cross received new publication this spring through a specialty publisher. From that point, it emerged as an unexpected success, a jaw-dropper shared among readers.

The Story Develops

Crooked Cross starts in December 1932 concluding during the summer 1933. The location is the little, fictional Alpine community named Kranach, a picture-postcard place situated in the lower regions of the mountain chain. The story centers on the Kluger family – a simple, respectable group with affectionate guardians and three grown-up children.

The scene is warm and delightful and optimistic: the Christmas tree with its glass baubles, the carefully wrapped gifts, the holiday music, the roasted goose.

Everything is exquisitely arranged, "even" – it's chilling to read – "Helmy's picture of Hitler that sat upon the piano."

The Author with Her Work

The author created two sequels to Crooked Cross. The entire trilogy was published by 1938. Later, in the early 1940s, still young, she succumbed to cancer. The work was well reviewed when first released, but made no great waves and quickly faded without trace.

A striking feature of this novel is its real-time quality. It was written during the events, and released promptly. The brief duration that it covers coincided with dramatic political transformations.

Historical Background

• The Führer assumed power
• They obtained an effective majority
• Dachau was opened
• Jews were barred from civil service roles

Initially, the protagonists exchange greetings with the customary Grüss Gott; eventually, the family patriarch is heil Hitler-ing acquaintances in the street as the town bells were changed to play with the tune of the Nazi anthem.

Contemporary Significance

Exploring this book, possessing later understanding the writer didn't have, feels incredible, occasionally heartbreaking. For us in 2025, everything she describes heads inevitably toward a predetermined ending: the coming conflict, the systematic destruction.

What stands out concerning the writer remains, despite the fact she couldn't know how things would conclude, the work maintains an unshakeable moral core.

No uncertainty remains. What is being done throughout the country to Jews, to political opponents, is clearly terrible, according to the book's perspective.

Lasting Impact

The novel reveals how extremism, once established, offers these individuals with direction, work, an explanation, hope and specific positions. It also provides them with a set of people – political opponents and minorities – to resent, to blame, to punish and, quite quickly, to attack and to eliminate.

The resonances with the present are impossible to overlook. How fortunate we'd be had Carson's insight and her moral clarity.