From 1942 until the war's end in 1945, German-Jewish lawyer Curt Bloch hid from the Nazis in a crawl space in Enschede, Netherlands. His protectors brought sustenance and clothing, as well as - at his request - newspapers, scissors, glue, and pens. He produced 95 issues of a satirical magazine which, through razor-sharp satire, collage, poetry, and song, ridiculed the Nazis and their collaborators, twisting their own propaganda against them.

 

The defiant verse of his magazine, “The Underwater Cabaret”  is equal parts Weimar decadence, protest opera, and torch song confessional. This isn't nostalgia, it's a warning.

 

​​Read the New York Times article about Bloch, his magazine, and an exhibition at the Jewish Museum in Berlin.