CATASTROPHE. ACTION FROM THE UNDERGROUND
Tour of the Exhibition “My Verses are Like Dynamite.” Curt Bloch’s Het Onderwater Cabaret
The tour connects the exhibition “My Verses are Like Dynamite.” Curt Bloch’s Het Onderwater Cabaret” with the core exhibition epoch room Catastrophe.
Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazi regime enacted hundreds of measures targeting Jews. These are printed on giant banners that hang from the ceiling of the core exhibition, creating an installation that lets the extent and perfidiousness of state-sanctioned antisemitism be spatially experienced.
For Curt Bloch, the 1933 Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service marked the end of his career as an attorney in Germany. He emigrated to the Netherlands, where he went underground in May 1940 following the German occupation. From his hiding place in Enschede, he created a unique work of creative resistance: Week by week, from August 1943 to April 1945, he put together a magazine featuring handwritten poems that dealt with Nazi propaganda as well as other themes: “Het Onderwater Cabaret.”
This tour examines the impact of the National Socialists’ anti-Jewish policies on Jews in Germany, as well as the potential for Jews in the Netherlands to take action.
Het Onderwater-Cabaret from Jan 15, 1944; Jewish Museum Berlin, Konvolut/816, Curt Bloch Collection, on loan from the Charities Aid Foundation America thanks to the generous support of Curt Bloch's family
Het Onderwater-Cabaret from Jan 15, 1944; Jewish Museum Berlin, Konvolut/816, Curt Bloch Collection, on loan from the Charities Aid Foundation America thanks to the generous support of Curt Bloch's family
Exhibition “My Verses are Like Dynamite” Curt Bloch’s Het Onderwater Cabaret: Features & Programs
- Exhibition Webpage
- “My Verses are Like Dynamite” Curt Bloch’s Het Onderwater Cabaret: 9 Feb to 23 Jun 2024
- Accompanying Events
- Current page: Tour of the Exhibition “My Verses are Like Dynamite” Curt Bloch’s Het Onderwater Cabaret: Dates by arrangement (from 9 Feb to 26 May 2024)
- Exhibition Opening: 8 Feb 2024
- Curator Tour for FRIENDS OF THE JMB: 8 Apr 2024, in German
- Joodse Vluchtelingen: The Fate of German-Jewish Émigrés in the Netherlands: 3 Mar 2024, in German
- Archival Objects of German Jews in the Netherlands: Show & tell for FRIENDS OF THE JMB, 7 Mar 2024, in German
- Het Onderwater Cabaret Live. An evening of music and poetry: 11 Apr 2024, in German
- Publications
- JMB Journal 26: Het Onderwater Cabaret: Special edition on the occasion of the exhibition
- Digital Content
- OWC Online Feature: A Glimpse Behind the Scenes of the Exhibition
- Life and Work of Curt Bloch: Essay with biographical insights, JMB Journal 26
- Hidden in Enschede: Conversation with Contemporary Witness Herbert Zwartz: – Video recording, 16 April 2024, Jewish Museum Berlin, in German
- On the Piano of My Fantasy – Video with Marina Frenk, Richard Gonlag, and Mathias Schäfer, in German, Dutch and German Sign Language
- “It’s Complicated”: A text by Simone Bloch, daughter of Curt Bloch
- “Ik neurie mee ’t propellerlied…”: Essay on Het Onderwater-Cabaret: A Testament to Political Resistance in the Occupied Netherlands, 1943–45
- Clandestine Literature in the Netherlands 1940–1945: Essay, JMB Journal 26
- All Audio Pieces of the Exhibition with Transcriptions and Translations
- All issues of Het Onderwarter-Cabaret: All 95 issues to browse
- See also
- Survivors in Hiding (National Socialism)
- To the Web Project www.curt-bloch.com
