August 19, 1944
Introduction to the content
Curt Bloch addresses German arrogance in his poem “At our place“: When people travel, they amuse themselves over things that are different from home. Whether it’s coffee, bread, meat, order, or cleanliness, in Germany, they think everything is better. They act as “educators of the world” and exhibit a “superiority complex,” criticizing the perceived weaknesses and mistakes of others. Bloch concludes his text with a parable from the Gospel of Matthew: Germans do not see the beam in their own eye.
In June 1944, the German armed forces began firing V1 rockets at England. This was celebrated in the National Socialist press as retaliation for attacks by the Royal Air Force on German cities. Curt Bloch’s Little V1 Song joins in the praise – the use of these weapons would be a pleasure for Germany and bitter for Winston Churchill. But the lyrics end with the realization that the war is still lost for Germany. Joseph Goebbels’ propaganda about the V1 rockets is just meant to deceive the people.
A tormenting situation in which people are under pressure or experiencing intense conflicts is also referred to in German as a “bone mill”. Curt Bloch uses this word in connection with an advertisement from the “Reich Commissioner for Scrap Material Utilization,” which calls for collecting and turning in boiled bones – for five kilograms, one would receive enough ration coupons to afford a bar of soap. The ad highlights, on the one hand, the scarcity in Germany in the summer of 1944, where leftovers were not discarded as usual. Everything was saved and recycled. On the other hand, animal bones could be used to extract fat for the operation of war equipment. Curt Bloch speaks in this context of “Adolf’s bone mill,” which “turns at feverish speed” – “for the swastika figures, their necks will be broken inevitably shortly.”
There is also a great shortage in Romania, which, at the time of this OWC publication, was still fighting alongside Nazi Germany. A newspaper article reports that all male inhabitants of Romania are obliged to contribute clothing to the army. In Explaining of a Course of Action, Curt Bloch shares his thoughts: the Romanian has been proverbially stripped by Hitler. Because he could not resist the Führer’s temptations, he will now find himself without shirt and socks. And his pants are no longer usable because, after the military defeat, the Romanian soldier has soiled himself …
The German weekly magazine “Koralle” reports that Ion Antonescu traveled from Romania to St. Petersburg in 1917 and there, amid the chaos of the revolution, met Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Lenin stood on a table and shouted “Newa, Newa, Newa!” This meant that the supposed enemies of workers and farmers – namely, citizens, intellectuals, and officers – should be thrown into the Neva River and thus killed. This experience made a lasting impression on the Romanian ruler; now he knew about the danger of the Bolshevik system. Curt Bloch pretends that this news worries him. Actually, the Russians had seemed sympathetic to him, but after reading the article, he is afraid of the “red hordes.” Stalin is certainly meaner than Lenin. He suspects that the Russian dictator will choose a much larger river to destroy his enemies and will shout “Volga, Volga, Volga!”
