Considered a classic work of exile literature, The Seventh Cross, first published in English translation 1942 and not appearing in German until 1946, was completed by Seghers in 1939 whilst she was in exile in France. It tells the story of the escape of seven prisoners from a Nazi concentration camp in the mid-1930s, when such camps were used for the detention, torture and often murder of political dissenters, before they became used for the mass extermination of Jews and other minorities during World War Two.
The tense narrative reflects the urgency and precariousness of the situation under which it was written. Seghers was herself in exile and uprooted, learning first-hand from witnesses of the conditions back home in Germany.
The Seventh Cross became an international bestseller and was made into a film by MGM in 1944, directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Spencer Tracy in the lead role. It was one of the few films of this period to deal with the existence of Nazi concentration camps. The Seventh Cross made Anna Seghers into an author of international renown.
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