April 29, 1944
Introduction to the content
Curt Bloch feels in his hiding place as if he were sitting in a waiting room. There, he remains impatiently, waiting for “the new time” to come. He has repeatedly thought that his door would open. He has been disappointed repeatedly. That’s why he lost his courage temporarily. However, Bloch does not want to give up hope of liberation.
In an address to members of the 5th SS Panzer Division “Wiking,” which also included Dutch soldiers, the Reich Commissioner appointed by Hitler for the Netherlands, Arthur Seyß-Inquart (1892–1946), referred to himself as a “trustee”: after the return of the fighters, he wanted to return the “fate” of the occupied territory to the Dutch. In his poem, Curt Bloch addresses Seyß-Inquart directly and confirms that he will not lead his “reign of terror” much longer, as he will soon be defeated and must pay for the suffering he has inflicted on the Dutch people under the administration “of your unfaithful hands.” In the Nuremberg Trials against the major war criminals before the International Military Tribunal, Seyß-Inquart was one of the 24 accused individuals and was executed after his conviction in October 1946.
In the years 1943 and 1944, Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980) led the resistance against the German occupation and collaborating forces in Yugoslavia. His partisan movement conducted numerous guerrilla battles against the Axis powers and their allies. Curt Bloch is pleased with the resistance in the Balkans and composes The Song of Tito for the “great marshal.” He wished for a resistance fighter like him for the Netherlands. – Tito and his partisans played a decisive role in the liberation of Yugoslavia and contributed to the establishment of a socialist Yugoslavia under his leadership; Tito served as the country’s president from 1945 to 1980.
As a token of appreciation for Romania’s participation on the side of the German Wehrmacht in 1941 in the conquest of territories in Ukraine and the war against the Russians, Adolf Hitler promised parts of Ukraine to the Romanian leader Ion Antonescu (1882–1946). Curt Bloch, however, regards the designations of these regions – including the city of Odessa – as hasty dispositions. Because with their counteroffensive in 1943 and 1944, Soviet troops were able to recapture Ukraine.
Max Blokzijl (1884–1946) was active as a press guardian and propaganda speaker on the radio during the occupation of the Netherlands. At a meeting in Maastricht in 1944, he assures people who are in hiding in the Netherlands of immunity when they leave their hiding places. Curt Bloch provides the reply from a fugitive through a poem: he prefers to remain hidden. Because he does not want to become a soldier or a slave for “NSB filth.” He does not want to fall into the pit “which you have dug for me.” Instead, he wants to wait, with the goal of later digging “many more graves for you crooks.”
In the Nazi press, two leading figures convey confidence in the developments on the Eastern Front: the advancing Russians are announced by the Deputy Chief of the Reich Press Chamber, Helmut Sündermann (1911–1972), as “this far and no further.” Governor General Dr. Hans Frank (1900–1946, also known as the “Slaughter of Poland”) claims that the Soviets will feel appropriate countermeasures from the Germans and “get everything back.” Curt Bloch regards these claims as bravado. The claims are lies, there will be no turnaround, “the Nazi deception is exposed.”
