When the Nazis commenced excluding and persecuting the Jewish population in Germany in 1933, Bloch fled from his hometown of Dortmund to the Netherlands.
In 1940, German troops marched into the Netherlands. With the occupation, the discrimination of Dutch Jews followed there as well. When in 1942 mass deportations and systematic extermination of Jews began, Curt Bloch went into hiding.
In his hiding place, starting from August 1943, Bloch created small magazines with self-written poems. The title of the magazines: Het Onderwater-Cabaret.
Until Curt Bloch’s liberation in 1945, he created 96 issues with a total of 492 poems on over 1,700 pages. The magazines were read by other people in hiding and their helpers.
With rhymes in Dutch and German, Bloch commented on the course of the war and mocked the fascists. He also provided insight into his emotional state between hope and despair. All these magazines are now, approximately 80 years later, being publicly presented for the first time. They are a unique testament to the Nazi era, war, and oppression, but also to creative resistance and belief in the triumph of humanity.
Curtain up for the Underwater Cabaret!
