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Just the other day, I inquired to a friend from the US – as one does these days – concerning where he sees "it" progressing, meaning the political situation. He paused. "From my perspective, the US is in a very similar position to Germany in 1933-4," he stated. "We need to question, could 1936, 1937, 1938 been prevented? That's precisely where we currently stand. One might argue fascism couldn't emerge in the United States. Yet in my view the outcome is unclear."

Unearthing a Neglected Literary Work

These statements appeared strikingly relevant in my view since I'd just concluded reading an extraordinary book precisely to do with Weimar Germany's transition. Forgotten for decades, Sally Carson's Bavaria-set Crooked Cross received new publication this spring by a niche publishing house. After its release, it has been a surprise hit, a jaw-dropper shared among readers.

The Narrative Unfolds

Crooked Cross starts in December 1932 concluding during the summer the following year. It takes place in the little, fictional Alpine community named Kranach, an idyllic location situated in the lower regions of the Alps. Its focus is the Kluger household – a simple, respectable household with caring parents with three mature offspring.

Everything is warm and delightful and hopeful: the Christmas tree with decorations, the tissue-wrapped presents, the carols, the traditional dinner.

All is gorgeously decorated, "even" – one reads with a shudder – "the portrait of the Führer that sat atop the instrument."

The Writer with Her Work

Carson wrote two subsequent novels to Crooked Cross. The complete series came out by 1938. Subsequently, during the war years, in her thirties, she succumbed from the disease. The work was critically acclaimed in 1934, but remained relatively unknown and gradually disappeared from literary memory.

A striking feature about this book is its real-time quality. It was written during the events, and printed rapidly. The six-month period it describes coincided with significant political shifts.

Historical Background

• The Nazi leader took control
• The Nazis gained parliamentary control
• Dachau was opened
• Jewish people were excluded from government positions

Initially, the protagonists greet each other with the customary Grüss Gott; by the end, Herr Kluger is heil Hitler-ing fellow townspeople as the town bells have been altered so that they chime with the tune of the Nazi anthem.

Modern Relevance

Reading this novel, equipped with historical knowledge that Carson herself lacked, is a remarkable experience, sometimes difficult. For us in 2025, each element she depicts heads inevitably toward a single unavoidable outcome: the war, the Holocaust.

What is so impressive regarding the author remains, although she had no idea how things would conclude, the book possesses a solid moral compass.

No ambiguity exists. The measures implemented across the nation toward Jewish people, to political opponents, is clearly terrible, according to the book's perspective.

Continuing Relevance

The novel reveals how extremism, once established, provides these young men with purpose, employment, a narrative, optimism and distinct functions. Additionally, it offers them with a set of people – leftwingers and Jews – to despise, to accuse, to discipline and rapidly, to assault and to kill.

The similarities with the present are impossible to overlook. If only everyone possessed her understanding and her ethical certainty.