July 15, 1944
Introduction to the content
With the poem Leaflet Explosion, Curt Bloch responds to a report in the newspaper Hamburger Fremdenblatt. It states that a German had touched a package containing “enemy propaganda material,” causing an explosive charge inside the package to detonate, inflicting severe injuries on him. Bloch knows that such a bluff is an attempt to keep people away from the truth. Because after reading the leaflets of the Allies, even “the greatest idiot” would know that the war is hopelessly lost for the German people and would lose his mind. Nevertheless, Curt Bloch still believes in an imminent explosion – that of the German Reich.
Following the Allied landing on June 6, 1944, in France, Heinrich Himmler ordered the deportation of the Belgian king to Germany. Leopold III (1901–1985) and his family were brought to Castle Hirschstein in Saxony and detained there until March 1945. Curt Bloch writes a sarcastic text about Host Adolf, who was concerned about the king’s life and would now provide him with outstanding service in Germany – even down to the Sunday breakfast egg.
Eduard Dietl (1890–1944) was a Colonel General in World War II and died on June 23, 1944, in a plane crash in the Wechselgebirge mountains in Styria, Austria. In Obituary for Dietl, Curt Bloch first lists the reports from the Nazi press that praise the deceased in extravagant terms. Bloch then rhymes his own thoughts about Eduard Dietl, who was a particularly fervent supporter of National Socialism and close to Adolf Hitler. The poem ends with the announcement: “Germany is like Dietl, it believes and will lose its life.”
As Commander-in-Chief West, Gerd von Rundstedt (1875–1953) came to realize, after the Allied landing, that the German army situation on the Western Front was hopeless. After he openly criticized the top leadership, Adolf Hitler replaced him with Field Marshal Günther von Kluge on July 2, 1944. Two weeks later, Curt Bloch comments on this change of personnel with his poem Von Rundstedt resigns. Bloch doubts the “health reasons” officially given for Rundstedt’s replacement. He believes that other factors contributed to his early retirement, such as the lack of troop strength to the defend the occupied territories. From his perspective, the departure of the Commander-in-Chief is a clear sign: “Greater Germany breaks down.”
In The Rocket Song, Curt Bloch cynically joins in the hymn of praise for the flying bombs that hit English soil and are meant to avenge the destruction of German cities by the Royal Air Force. Bloch exaggerates that the course of the war will now, change, thanks to the fantastic rockets of the Nazis – the German people will believe in victory again. But that would be misleading – because “the world will soon repay you for your rockets and your crimes.”
