While hiding from the Nazis, the Jewish Curt Bloch created 96 small satirical magazines containing nearly 500 poems across more than 1,700 pages. His publications, titled “Het Onderwater-Cabaret,” circulated among other people in hiding and their support network from 1943 to 1945. Bloch commented on the course of the war and mocked the fascists with rhymes in Dutch and German. However, his texts also provided insights into his emotional states fluctuating between hope and despair. All zines have been preserved in their original form and were stored for nearly eight decades in a New York apartment.

Curt Bloch’s magazines from hiding are a unique testimony to the Nazi era, of war, antisemitism, and oppression, but also of creative resistance and the belief in the victory of humanity. With the trilingual website, this amazing discovery can be made accessible to the public for the first time, it provides access to all pages and poems.

The online presence was created as an initiative of our agency in close collaboration with the descendants of Curt Bloch, thanks to the support of German Rotary Clubs (led by the Rotary Club Wiesbaden-Kochbrunnen), private donations, and foundations, as well as complementing the exhibition “My Poetry is Like Dynamite – Curt Bloch's Het Onderwater-Cabaret” at the Jewish Museum Berlin (February 9 to March 26, 2024).

www.curt-bloch.com