From her exile in Zurich, Switzerland, the dancer and writer Jo Mihaly (actually Elfriede Steckel) sent a manuscript in spring 1938 to the American Guild for German Cultural Freedom in New York in the hope of winning the prize money in a competition held by the organisation and as well as a contract with an American publisher. Mihaly's manuscript Der Hüter des Bruders, which tells the story of the torture and humiliation of a political prisoner and his flight to a Roma and Sinti camp, was subjected to the review process. Richard A. Bermann, who as a dedicated member of the prize jury read all submitted manuscripts but often kept his remarks to a minimum, in this case reviewed the manuscript at length and very positively. He prompted other jury members not to overlook the book. And Bermann was not the only one who was impressed with the manuscript; writer and fellow jury member Lion Feuchtwanger also admired it. In opposition to the majority opinion, he regarded Mihaly's novel as the best manuscript to the last. Ultimately the prize was won not by Mihaly but Arnold Bender with his novel Es ist später denn ihr wißt [The Farm by the Lake (1943)].