A Message from Arnold Mittelman After a career in not-for-profit and commercial theater spanning more than 40 years I was honored in 2007 to found the National Jewish Theater / Foundation and in 2010 to assume leadership of its Holocaust Theater International...
Crooked Cross
Author(s): Sally Carsons
Adapted from Sally Carson's 1934 novel of the same name, the play is about a working class German family in a Bavarian village during the early months of the Nazi government—between Christmas 1932 and June 1933. The Klugers are facing the economic and political challenges of life in their mountainside village. At the heart of the play is a family torn apart by conflicting loyalties. Lexa Kluger is engaged to Moritz Weissmann, a Jewish doctor. Lexa’s brothers, Helmy and Erich, are becoming increasingly involved with the Nazi party. We see the rise of fascism, but we also see the yearning for belonging that drives these young men into the darkness.
Format: Staged adaptation and streamed performance
Notes:
Directed by Jonathan Bank.
Streaming on the Mint Theater Company website: minttheater.org.
Snapshot
Original or Prominent Production:
The play premiered in Birmingham, U.K., in 1935. Performed by the Mint Theater Company, New York, NY, October 9, 2025, and streamed through the Mint Theater Company website from February 9–22, 2026.
The play premiered in Birmingham, U.K., in 1935. Performed by the Mint Theater Company, New York, NY, October 9, 2025, and streamed through the Mint Theater Company website from February 9–22, 2026.
Original Source Material: Dramatization of Sally Carson's novel of the same name.
Nationality of Author: British
Original Language: English
Publisher:
The novel Crooked Cross was published in 1934. Persephone Books reissued the long out-of-print novel in April 2025. persephonebooks.co.uk
Experience(s) Chronicled: European Jewry Before the Holocaust | Germany, Hitler and the Growth of Nazism
HTC Insights
Views, reference and research of interest.
Lifetime Achievement Award
The National Jewish Theater Foundation presented its 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award to Alfred Uhry. The presentation took place as part of the Lincoln Center Library event on January 27th 2025 in commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on the 80th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz
Lifetime Achievement Award
On September 30, 2024, French playwright, Mr. Jean Claude Grumberg received the Lifetime Achievement Award. It was presented by NJTF HTII President, Arnold Mittelman with Dominique Trimbur, PhD-Manager for the History of Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, Teaching of the Holocaust of Fondation Pour La Memoir de la Shoah Project.