I recently viewed "The Seventh Cross" for the first time in many years and was favorably impressed both with the level of the acting, particularly Tracy, and the suspense that the filmmakers were able to generate in telling the story. Even though one suspects that a "happy" Hollywood ending is in the offing, it's a long time in coming -- and at times it seems that one's expectations will be unfulfilled.
A few historical notes:
Although this is usually classed as "World War II" film, one should keep in mind its chronology. The film was released in 1944; the novel, by Anna Seghers, on which is was based was published in 1942 and had been written in 1940-41; the film and novel are set in the fall of 1936; Seghers, a German Communist, had fled her homeland in 1933 to avoid Nazi persecution, and later lived in France and Mexico during the war years.
Shortly after Hitler came to power in 1933, the Nazi regime began to imprison thousands of Germans in "concentration camps." The inmates included many Jews, but most of the prisoners were held not for their ethnicity but for their anti-Nazi political views. (Gradually, the Nazis would expand their concentration camp population to include various religious dissidents, Gypsies, homosexuals, and certain common criminals.) Although the conditions of these camps were brutal and demeaning, the original "concentration camps" were not intended as "extermination camps" for Jews and other undesirables. The death camps would not be introduced until late 1941 and 1942.
At the time "The Seventh Cross" is set, political dissidents of the center and left still were the dominant type of prisoner found in concentration camps. Seghers based her book on the experiences of other German refugees she met in France in the late '30s, but she certainly had no direct knowledge of the concentration camps herself. However, by the time her book was published, many other accounts of the brutality of the concentration camps had made their way out of Germany and were widely circulated in the Allied nations. There were at least two pre-Pearl Harbor U.S. films that depicted concentration camps -- MGM's "The Mortal Storm" (1940) and Warner Brothers' "Underground" (1941).
There's very little in this film that pertains directly to the Holocaust. By the time MGM got around to releasing "The Seventh Cross" in 1944, the so-called "Final Solution" was well underway in Nazi-occupied Europe, but the horrors of the death camps were not generally known to most people in the United States until Allied troops entered German in the spring of 1945. Seghers was Jewish, but her leftist political ideology seems to have dominated her perception of Nazi persecution. Hollywood also was reluctant to focus on Hitler's anti-Jewish agenda. Anti-Nazi films, made before or after the U.S. entry into the war (December 7, 941), stressed the anti-democratic nature of Nazism and only occasionally mentioned Hitler's racial theories. Especially prior to Pearl Harbor, when many Americans still opposed U.S. involvement in the war, the predominantly Jewish studio heads feared that any specific mention of Hitler's anti-Semitic policies might be seen as "Jewish war-mongering." Their fear of being perceived as stressing Jewish interests, rather than "American" priorities in the war, carried over after Pearl Harbor.
Although many people tend to see "World War II" movies as all of a type, films made toward the latter part of the war, including "The Seventh Cross" tend to be less propagandistic and more thoughtful, whether they focus on the war itself or on the causes and ideologies that brought on the war. In some ways, "The Seventh Cross" can be seen as a movie that sought to prepare American and other Allied viewers for the post-war world. There were some people in the Allied nations in 1944 who would just as soon have seen Germany razed to the ground and all Germans, of whatever political stripe, exterminated or, at best, reduced to peonage. Although the overt message of "The Seventh Cross" is the restoration of a man's faith in the goodness of human nature, the subtext is that the "good German," the anti-Nazi German, did exist and was worth saving.
"The Seventh Cross" is no doubt rather dated, but the filmmakers do a masterful job in conveying the main character's sense of desperation and helplessness, as well as the fears of even the "innocent" in a police state. In an age when the Nazis have become pop culture comic figures, it is good to remind one's self what fascism really means. "The Seventh Cross" is not a bad reminder.
A few historical notes:
Although this is usually classed as "World War II" film, one should keep in mind its chronology. The film was released in 1944; the novel, by Anna Seghers, on which is was based was published in 1942 and had been written in 1940-41; the film and novel are set in the fall of 1936; Seghers, a German Communist, had fled her homeland in 1933 to avoid Nazi persecution, and later lived in France and Mexico during the war years.
Shortly after Hitler came to power in 1933, the Nazi regime began to imprison thousands of Germans in "concentration camps." The inmates included many Jews, but most of the prisoners were held not for their ethnicity but for their anti-Nazi political views. (Gradually, the Nazis would expand their concentration camp population to include various religious dissidents, Gypsies, homosexuals, and certain common criminals.) Although the conditions of these camps were brutal and demeaning, the original "concentration camps" were not intended as "extermination camps" for Jews and other undesirables. The death camps would not be introduced until late 1941 and 1942.
At the time "The Seventh Cross" is set, political dissidents of the center and left still were the dominant type of prisoner found in concentration camps. Seghers based her book on the experiences of other German refugees she met in France in the late '30s, but she certainly had no direct knowledge of the concentration camps herself. However, by the time her book was published, many other accounts of the brutality of the concentration camps had made their way out of Germany and were widely circulated in the Allied nations. There were at least two pre-Pearl Harbor U.S. films that depicted concentration camps -- MGM's "The Mortal Storm" (1940) and Warner Brothers' "Underground" (1941).
There's very little in this film that pertains directly to the Holocaust. By the time MGM got around to releasing "The Seventh Cross" in 1944, the so-called "Final Solution" was well underway in Nazi-occupied Europe, but the horrors of the death camps were not generally known to most people in the United States until Allied troops entered German in the spring of 1945. Seghers was Jewish, but her leftist political ideology seems to have dominated her perception of Nazi persecution. Hollywood also was reluctant to focus on Hitler's anti-Jewish agenda. Anti-Nazi films, made before or after the U.S. entry into the war (December 7, 941), stressed the anti-democratic nature of Nazism and only occasionally mentioned Hitler's racial theories. Especially prior to Pearl Harbor, when many Americans still opposed U.S. involvement in the war, the predominantly Jewish studio heads feared that any specific mention of Hitler's anti-Semitic policies might be seen as "Jewish war-mongering." Their fear of being perceived as stressing Jewish interests, rather than "American" priorities in the war, carried over after Pearl Harbor.
Although many people tend to see "World War II" movies as all of a type, films made toward the latter part of the war, including "The Seventh Cross" tend to be less propagandistic and more thoughtful, whether they focus on the war itself or on the causes and ideologies that brought on the war. In some ways, "The Seventh Cross" can be seen as a movie that sought to prepare American and other Allied viewers for the post-war world. There were some people in the Allied nations in 1944 who would just as soon have seen Germany razed to the ground and all Germans, of whatever political stripe, exterminated or, at best, reduced to peonage. Although the overt message of "The Seventh Cross" is the restoration of a man's faith in the goodness of human nature, the subtext is that the "good German," the anti-Nazi German, did exist and was worth saving.
"The Seventh Cross" is no doubt rather dated, but the filmmakers do a masterful job in conveying the main character's sense of desperation and helplessness, as well as the fears of even the "innocent" in a police state. In an age when the Nazis have become pop culture comic figures, it is good to remind one's self what fascism really means. "The Seventh Cross" is not a bad reminder.