Curt Bloch and his Onderwater-Cabaret

When the Nazis occupied the Netherlands, the German Jew Curt Bloch went into hiding. From August 1942 until the liberation in April 1945, he successfully avoided becoming deported and murdered by the Germans. While being in hiding, he created small magazines with almost 500 German and Dutch poems on more than 1,700 pages. These 96 magazines – entitled “Het Onderwater-Cabaret” – circulated within the resistance network of the City of Enschede. The poems mirror the fear and dispair of a man in constant danger to life, but also express his hope for a life in freedom and peace. 

Now, 80 years later, these magazines and all poems are presented to the public for the very first time! The website curt-bloch.com provides an insight into Bloch’s enormous body of creative work – e.g. by a comprehensive keyword list, a timeline, a coverflow, or an overview with all title pages and poems at a glance. In 2024 – with its growing nationalism, right-wing extremism, and antisemitism almost everywhere – this website gives detailed information about the Nazi era with its despotism, homophobia, and oppression, pursuing the goal that such a regime of injustice shall never happen again.

The trilingual website (DE, NL, EN) was created in close collaboration with Simone Bloch, daughter of the Holocaust survivor in New York City, and sponsored by Rotary Clubs all over Germany. Many volunteers from various parts of the world – from New York and Amsterdam to Jerusalem and Berlin – contributed their help to (literally) translate Curt Bloch’s satiric rhymes. Editorial pages give additional historic context, such as about the persecution of Jews or living in hiding.