April 15, 1944
Introduction to the content
The poem Mohammedan SS belittles both the Nazi policy of welcoming followers of Islam into the SS and the men who join. These Muslim units including mountain divisions with Bosnian and Albanian volunteers were incorporated into the Waffen-SS and other parts of the Wehrmacht. Curt Bloch mocks the gullibility of these Muslim SS fighters, manipulated as they are by the senior Muslim cleric, the Grand Mufti in Jerusalem and the Nazi commanders in Germany. The fighters themselves believe they will win, as they’ve received the “blessing of the Quran.” The Germans see these volunteers as “not racially pure and not Germanic.” Bloch calls them what they are: “welcome cannon fodder,” “good enough to die.”
Soldiers at the Atlantic Wall describes the activities of the men awaiting Allied invasion on the supposedly unbreachable fortification. Bloch illustrates this poem with a news photo of a Dutch windmill painted by a soldier featured in an art exhibit. These soldiers have nothing to do but kill time. They play cards, chess, and make art of varying quality. Bloch is certain that this peaceful time will soon come to an end in “a deadly finale.”
A railway line runs between Lviv and Odessa, crucial for supplying the German troops in southern Ukraine with munitions and food. The newspaper reports admit that the battle against Russia for this “lifeline” is being lost, but Germany will not give up. Bloch predicts that the Germans are facing further territorial losses in the near future and these are undeniable and decisive.
The war has created shortages and many food items are no longer available. Germans and their occupied territories have to make do with substitute products of lesser quality, “exchange materials.” Two examples: tea and eggs are mentioned in advertisements that Curt Bloch has pasted into his magazine. The marketing calls these exchanges, trying to put a positive spin on shortages and the diminished quality of the goods that are now available. Exchanging new crap for the old (better) product, including words that remind people that things were actually better before. Truth has been exchanged for lies.
Depressed, Bloch concludes this edition with a poem Farewell to OWC. Seeing no end to his time in hiding, his optimism has faded, and he “feels nothing more for the fight” – “the air is out of it.” He’s done and assumes that his audience will understand the discontinuation of his publishing activities. Despite this announcement, the next edition will appear just a week later. Bloch continues his work as a poet in the resistance for another year – until the final liberation of the Netherlands.
