March 11, 1944
Introduction to the content:
“Fold your little hands, bow your little heads” – that’s how a prayer began that was practiced in kindergartens and schools during the time of National Socialism; it was dedicated to Adolf Hitler. Accordingly, each paragraph ended with the salute Heil Hitler! Four individuals in Germany were sentenced to prison for spreading a slanderous poem about this prayer, including the locksmith Karl Linde. Curt Bloch also insists on providing the prayer with a new text. In this way, he lists the major wrongdoings under Hitler’s leadership: persecution of Jews, invasion of neighboring countries, plunder, death, and destruction. Soon, according to Bloch, Poles and Czechs would seek revenge for the injustices suffered – “Heil Hitler!”.
In the poem The Education of Mr. Seyss Bloch outlines the career of the Reich Commissioner for the Netherlands. Arthur Seyß-Inquart was initially the Reich Governor in Austria until he became responsible for forced labor, the deportation of Jews to concentration camps, the suppression of strikes, and the execution of resistance fighters in the Netherlands from 1940 onwards. He wanted to introduce the Dutch “brother people” to National Socialist ideologies, writes Curt Bloch, but these proved to be “ramblings”, “fantasies,” and “a lie.” Those who followed him now feared for their lives. The Reich Commissioner, just like the group around NSB leader Anton Mussert, was “doomed to death.”
In the third text, Curt Bloch deals with Jacques Doriot (1898–1945). The politician started as a committed socialist, then became a communist, and finally joined the French fascists. Bloch finds it astonishing that one can change one’s beliefs so easily. This is also reflected in the title The Audacious story of Pére Doriot, for which Curt Bloch drew inspiration from Honoré de Balzac’s books. His appearance as Hitler’s lieutenant in a German uniform, Bloch optimistically suspects, would be Jacques Doriot’s final role – his deeds would soon be avenged.
