The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Seghers, Anna. The Seventh Cross. Translated by Margot Bettauer Dembo. Virago, 2019.

The Seventh Cross (first published in 1942) tells the story of George Heisler, and six other prisoners who escape from a concentration camp in Nazi Germany. There are seven chapters covering seven days, with the action split between George’s time on the run, the authorities’ efforts to find him, and his friends’ efforts to help him. There are also regular digressive episodes featuring the mischievous shepherd, Ernst, and his interactions with families (the Marnets, Mangolds and Messers) in the rural Taunus region. Complications in the plot arise from George’s lack of a clear escape plan, and the dangers of communication in a police state. While George tries to work out who he can trust and how to reach them, his friend Franz Marnet wonders where George might be, and how he can help. Franz’s friend Hermann (a well-connected figure in the resistance movement) is able to get George out of the country, but George remains unaware throughout the novel of Franz’s machinations in his favor, or Hermann’s role in his ultimate escape. George (along with most of his fellow prisoners, and Seghers herself) is a Communist, and Franz and Hermann are secretly loyal to the Communist Party (the KPD). However, many others in the novel who are sympathetic to George – including his friends the Roeders, and his estranged wife, Elli – are apolitical characters simply trying to live normal lives. As George’s comrades are recaptured one by one, Fahrenberg (commander of the concentration camp) displays them to the rest of the camp in front of seven trees which he has shaped into crucifixes. The eponymous seventh cross is reserved for George.

Chapter 1 describes not the breakout itself, but its aftermath. Having successfully escaped from Westhofen concentration camp in the early hours of Monday morning, the seven men (Beutler, Pelzer, Belloni, Wallau, Fuellgrabe and Aldinger, as well as George) had separated. The guards picked up Beutler in the swamp surrounding the camp, but George made it to the village of Westhofen. He injured his hand, and found clothes (including a new jacket) in a shed, before moving on to another village, where the locals assisted in capturing Pelzer. George traveled on to Mainz, but the police – realizing that he had hidden in the shed – were now on the lookout for his stolen jacket. Meanwhile, Franz listened to rumors about the escape and became desperate for news of his old friend George, who he knew to be an inmate at Westhofen.

In Chapter 2, George spent the day in Mainz, but could not find a way to cross the Rhine. He went to a doctor for his injured hand, and swapped his jacket for a sweater. In Frankfurt, police located and killed Belloni. The Gestapo were watching George’s wife Elli, and they brought her father in for questioning. Franz saw Elli and followed her, hoping to talk about George, but the Gestapo seized her and her lover, who they mistook for George.

In Chapter 3, George crossed the river and reached the outskirts of Frankfurt, but his former girlfriend (Leni) turned him away. Next, he tried Mrs Marelli – a friend of Belloni – who gave him new clothes. The police caught Wallau and brought him back to Westhofen, where Fahrenberg had stripped the seven trees and nailed boards to them, in imitation of crucifixes. The Gestapo released names and details of the remaining fugitives to the public, thereby making news of the escape official for the first time. They tracked down the jacket that George had been wearing, and the people in Mainz who had spoken with him. However, the owner of the jacket denied that it was the same one, which cast doubt on whether the man in Mainz had been George after all. Franz found an opportunity to talk to Elli at the cinema, and they arranged a further meeting.

In Chapter 4, George encountered Fuellgrabe, who hoped to avoid punishment by turning himself in, and tried persuading George to do the same. George went to the house of his old friends Paul and Liesel Roeder, who took him in. The Gestapo traced George as far as Mrs Marelli’s flat. Fuellgrabe joined Pelzer, Beutler and Wallau, standing in front of his cross at Westhofen. Franz quizzed Elli about George’s acquaintances in the city, identifying Paul Roeder as a likely ally.

In Chapter 5, Paul went out in search of help, but had no success with the men George had recommended. Franz tried to get in touch with Paul, but when Paul learned that a stranger had been asking questions about him, he decided that George was not safe in the house. He took him to his aunt, who put him to work at her haulage yard. Aldinger died of natural causes, just as he had finally reached his home village. With only one fugitive left to catch, the Gestapo commissars at Westhofen left for Frankfurt, where (thanks to Fuellgrabe’s evidence) they knew him to be. Hermann worked out that Paul was probably hiding George.

In Chapter 6, Paul confided in his colleague, Fiedler, who knew a man – Kress – who would be willing to shelter George. Fiedler sent his wife round to the Roeders, to confirm that Kress had successfully picked George up. When Liesel told her that the Gestapo had called Paul in for questioning, she went to warn the Kresses. George opted to remain at their house and await further assistance, hoping that Paul would give nothing away in the meantime. The guards at Westhofen – now free from Gestapo supervision – murdered Wallau after a final attempt to interrogate him, and went on to kill Beutler, Pelzer and Fuellgrabe.

In Chapter 7, Fiedler met with Reinhardt. Reinhardt was already in contact with Hermann, who had entrusted him with a fake passport and money for George. Mrs Fiedler passed these onto George, along with instructions for getting out of Germany. Paul came home safe. Elli’s father gave his approbation to a colleague, who hoped to marry Elli. Franz encountered Lotte, a woman he had known in the past, and they rekindled their friendship. The novel ends by glimpsing ahead to the following day (one week after the breakout). George safely boarded a Dutch boat, after spending the night with a waitress. Fahrenberg left Westhofen, and reportedly killed himself. His successor cut down the seven trees.