Handlung

In 1936, seven prisoners escape from a concentration camp. The Nazis put up seven crosses for demonstrative executions. This story about one of the fugitives, who relies on own courage and compassion of people to avoid the seventh cross.

In Nazi Germany in 1936 seven men escape from a concentration camp. The camp commander puts up seven crosses and, as the Gestapo returns each escapee he is put to death on a cross. The seventh cross is still empty as George Heisler seeks freedom in Holland.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

In the fall of 1936, the Germans are purging the rebels and sending them to the Concentration Camp of Westhofen. One day, there is a break out and the prisoners Pelzer, Bellani, Aldinger, Beutler, Fuellgrabe, George Heisler and the leader Ernst Wallau escape. They are hunted down by the soldiers and the camp commandant builds seven crosses to put each escapee on each cross. The bitter George Heisler heads to his hometown Mainz without any help and loses his faith in the German people. Meanwhile one by one of the prisoners are captured by the German soldiers. Once in Mainz, George seeks out his former girlfriend Leni that said that would wait for him but she is married and refuses to help him. Then he witnesses the suicide of Bellani and he meets his friend Mme. Marelli that gives clothes and some money that she was keeping for Bellani to him. When George finally arrives at the address of his contact, he discovers that he had been arrested by Gestapo. Without any alternative, George decides to risk and visit his friend Paul Roeder and Liesel Roeder. Meanwhile there are friends of George that want to help him but do not know where he is. Paul decides to help George with the support of his friend Fiedler and they bring George to an inn. But the waitress Toni recognizes George and there is a reward of five thousand-Marc on him. What will happen to George?—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In the autumn of 1936, seven men escape from the Westhofen concentration camp, the Nazis who have already imprisoned those they consider enemies to the regime. The Nazis are not only certain they can capture all seven, but the commandant has transformed seven trees in the camp into crosses onto which each of the seven escapees will be crucified to be made examples of. One of the seven, Ernest Wallau, tells the story of another one of the seven, his friend George Heisler, the two separating upon leaving the camp in a plan to meet in nearby Mainz at the home of Wallau's friend Rudolf Schenk, who will set them up with fake passports among other things needed for them to get out of the country. Beyond having to deal with a serious injury sustained soon after leaving the camp, George will have to figure out who he can and cannot trust as he gets into one close call after another, most of the populace who seem to be against the escapees either in solely being "prisoners" or in their own fear of being questioned by the Gestapo. George, who lived in Mainz before he was imprisoned, will have the extra burden of questioning if he can trust family and old friends, gauging if time and politics have changed them. In these close calls, George is unaware that there is an old friend who is looking for him in a want to help in any way he can.—Huggo

Germany, 1936. Seven prisoners escape from a concentration camp. The camp commandant is determined to recapture them and make an example of them, erecting seven crosses in the camp on which to hang the prisoners. One by one the prisoners are recaptured or killed but the seventh is still free and determined to stay that way.—grantss