Depiction of the production of a typewritten underground newspaper by the Norwegian artist Odd Hilt. At the top, an individual listens to news on foreign radio broadcasts while, to the right, another produces articles on a typewriter. On the left, a person produces copies on a mimeograph. The sheets are stapled into brochures at the bottom.
Without control of the media, occupied populations began to create and publish their own uncensored newspapers, books and political pamphlets.[2] The underground press played a "crucial role" in informing and motivating resistance across the continent and building solidarity.[3] They also created an "intellectual battlefield" in which ideas like post-war reconstruction could be discussed.[4] Underground forms of media allowed for information sharing among the oppressed, helping them build solidarity, strengthen morale and, in some cases, stage uprisings.
By country
Belgium
Examples of mimeograph machines used by the Belgian resistance to produce illegal newspapers and publications
An important underground press emerged from the Belgian Resistance in German-occupied Belgium soon after the defeat in May 1940. Eight underground newspapers had appeared by October 1940 alone.[5] Much of the resistance's press focused around producing newspapers in both French and Dutch languages as alternatives to censored or pro-collaborationist newspapers. At its peak, the clandestine newspaper La Libre Belgique, a title which had first appeared under German occupation in World War I, was relaying news within five to six days; faster than the BBC's French-language radio broadcasts, whose coverage lagged several months behind events.[6] Copies of the underground newspapers were distributed anonymously, with some pushed into letterboxes or sent by post.[7]
The Faux Soir was a one-edition satirical issue of the German-controlled Le Soir newspaper
Since they were usually free, the costs of printing were financed by donations from sympathisers.[8] The papers achieved considerable circulation, with La Libre Belgique reaching a regular circulation of 40,000 by January 1942 and peaking at 70,000, while the Communist paper, Le Drapeau Rouge, reached 30,000.[9] Dozens of different newspapers existed, often affiliated with different resistance groups or differentiated by political stance, ranging from nationalist, Communist, Liberal or even Feminist.[10] The number of Belgians involved in the underground press is estimated at anywhere up to 40,000 people.[11] In total, 567 separate titles are known from the period of occupation.[12]
The resistance also printed humorous publications and material as propaganda. In November 1943, on the anniversary of the German surrender in the First World War, the Front de l'Indépendance group published a spoof edition of the censored newspaper Le Soir, satirizing the Axis propaganda and biased information permitted by the censors. The new newspaper was then distributed to newsstands across Brussels and deliberately mixed with ordinary official newspapers to be sold to the public. 50,000 copies of the spoof publication, dubbed the "Faux Soir" (literally, the "Fake Le Soir"), were sold.[13]
The Channel Islands were occupied by Germany in June 1940 and were the only British territory invaded during the war. Although little active resistance occurred, a number of underground publications existed. The most notable was the Guernsey Underground News Sheet, or GUNS, on Guernsey. The newspaper, directed by Frank Falla and published between 1942 and 1944, reproduced material from BBC news bulletins. Its workers were denounced in February 1944 and deported to concentration camps.[15]
Czechoslovakia
An underground press emerged rapidly in Czechoslovakia after the German annexation and invasion of 1938–39. One of the first was the newspaper V boj (To Fight) published by Josef Skalda in Prague. Although it achieved a circulation of 10,000, Skalda was arrested in November 1939 and the publication ceased.[16] Later newspapers included the Voice of the People and National Liberation.[16]
In 1941, during German occupation of Czechoslovakia, the Czech Resistance was in radio contact with the exiled Czech government in London. These radios were strategically airdropped by Allied forces, and by October 1941, all resistance radios had been discovered by the Gestapo. There were multiple airdrops in 1942 that led to new radio contact between January and June 1942. These secret radio stations were not only used with the sole purpose of communicating with London, but could also reach the Czech people. These secret radio stations would broadcast military intelligence and reports of both Nazi movements and Allied movements. These reports varied, some were true, some were false and served only to raise national morale. Many consider these clandestine radios to be a failure for their lack of reporting on the state of the Jewish population in Czechoslovakia, under Nazi rule.[17]
The Czechoslovak resistance groups were also known to send anti-Nazi pamphlets into Germany, in hopes that anti-fascist Germans would rise up against the Nazi regime. They would hide the small books and other pieces of anti-Nazi literature in tea pouches, shampoo, plant seed packaging, and German tourist pamphlets etc. One of the better known pamphlets was inside the German tourism brochure Lernen Sie das schöne Deutschland kennen (Learn About Beautiful Germany) which included a map of the Nazi death camps.[2]
Denmark
Following their invasion of Denmark in 1940, the Germans did not confiscate the population's radios, removing much of the need for underground media. Only with the 1941 banning of the Communist Party of Denmark did a significant underground press emerge, with the illegal continued publishing of the Communist Party's paper Land og Folk. At its height, Land og Folk reached a circulation of 130,000,[18] and was the largest underground newspaper in Denmark throughout the German occupation.[19] In respectively December 1941 and April 1942 the major bipartisan papers De Frie Danske and Frit Danmark followed. In all some 600 different underground papers were published in Denmark.[19]
With the population having access to news from the United Kingdom and Sweden through radio, the underground press in Denmark focussed on opinion pieces until 1943, when relations between Danish authorities and the Germans deteriorated. The only paper established in wartime Denmark that is still being published is Information.[19]
The first French underground newspapers emerged in opposition to German and Vichy control of French radio and newspapers.[21] In the German-occupied zone, the first underground titles to emerge were Pantagruel and Libre France, which both began in Paris in October 1940.[22] In Vichy France, the first title to emerge was Liberté in November 1940.[23] Few produced issues for both German and Vichy zones, though Libération was an early exception.[24] In early newspaper issues, individuals often wrote under a number of pseudonyms in the same issue to convey the impression that a team of individuals was working on a newspaper.[25] Initially underground newspapers represented a wide range of political opinions but, by 1944, had generally converged in support of Gaullist Free French in the United Kingdom.[26]
The four major clandestine newspapers during the German occupation were Défense de la France, Résistance, Combat and Libération. Défense de la France was founded by a group of Parisian students in the summer of 1941. After the invasion of the Soviet Union, these were joined by a number of communist publications including L'Humanité and Verité.[24] These newspapers were anti-Nazi propaganda, but practiced propaganda themselves by misreporting events, and glorifying and enlarging Allied victories. The reporting in these newspapers was often subjective, as they aimed to capture and shape public opinion rather than accurately represent it. The extent to which underground newspapers actually affected French popular opinion under the occupation is disputed by historians.[27]
A small number of underground presses were also active in printing illegal books and works of literature. The most notable example of this was Le Silence de la mer by Jean Bruller published illegally in Paris in 1942. Its publisher, Les Éditions de Minuit, became a successful commercial literary publisher in post-war France.
The National Library of France (Bibliothèque nationale de France, BnF) began a project in 2012 to digitise surviving French underground newspapers. By 2015, 1,350 titles had been uploaded on its Gallica platform.[28]
A group of former army officers, organized into the Army of Enslaved Victors (Stratia Sklavomenon Nikiton) began publishing a newspaper called Great Greece (Megali Ellas). The Panhellenic Union of Fighting Youths (Panellínios Énosis Agonizómenon Néon, or PEAN) published an alternative newspaper called Glory (Doxa) in both German-occupied Athens and the Bulgarian-occupied Macedonia. The pre-war newspaper The Radical (Rizospastis), produced by the Communist Party of Greece, was produced as an underground publication.[30] Other newspaper included Fighting Greece (Mahomeni Ellas).[30]
The first underground newspaper, Ons Hémecht (Our Homeland), was published by the LPL but soon ceased publication after its directors were arrested. The main newspaper of the occupation period was the De Freie Lötzeburger (The Free Luxembourger), also printed by the LPL and based on La Libre Belgique. It was printed in Belgium.[31]Ons Hémecht was restarted by the De Freie Lötzeburger late in the war.[32]
Fearing that Dutch exposure to Allied radio programming would turn the Dutch against them, the Nazis called for the confiscation of all radio transmitters soon after the country was occupied in May 1940. By May 1943, they had confiscated nearly 80 percent of Dutch radios, amounting to just over one million sets. With the Nazi grip on the media tightening, many Dutch households hid their radios, receiving illegal broadcasts from the BBC and Radio Oranje (Radio Orange) that kept them up to date on Allied forces and their accomplishments on the war front – and in some cases messages that helped them resist Nazi rule. Allied radio broadcasts were so important to the Dutch people that many people began building crystal radios. Crystal radios were fairly easy to build and could be made quickly in large quantities. Their main advantage was that they required no batteries and could only be heard by those operating them but were very hard to control or tune.[33] During the Dutch famine (Hongerwinter) of 1944, many people smuggled crystal radios to farmers in exchange for fresh produce.[34]
Specialist printing press used by the Dutch communist underground newspaper De Vonk, preserved at the Verzetsmuseum in Amsterdam
There were a number of underground Dutch newspapers, the first and most notable, however, was Het Parool (The Watchword). Het Parool was founded in February 1941 by Frans Goedhart, who went by the pseudonym "Pieter 't Hoen" (Peter the Chicken). The first issue of Het Parool (August 1941) saw a circulation of 6,000, a number that never significantly rose due to security issues. In 1943, Frans Goedhart was captured by Nazi officials and tried in a German court. To conceal his secret identity as Pieter 't Hoen, writers at Het Parool periodically published articles under his pseudonym. In August 1943, Goedhart was sentenced to death. He escaped three days before his execution, with the help of Dutch officials. Upon his escape, Goedhart returned to his position of editor at the newspaper Het Parool. Het Parool's main objective was to raise national moral and organize the Dutch people against Nazi rule. After the Germans began their occupation, working on an illegal newspaper was punishable by immediate jail time, and in the latter years of the war, death. Before the end of the war, four editors at Het Parool were sentenced to death, while two escaped to ally countries.[35] Altogether, as many as 1,200 separate newspaper titles were produced by the Dutch resistance during the war.[36] Collectively, the underground press provided a space for free debate about political and religious issues, as well as for planning for after the liberation.[37]
Norway
Alt for Norge (Everything for Norway), a minor newssheet produced by the Communist Party of Norway, from 1944
Some 300 underground newspapers were published in Norway during the war, the biggest of which was London-Nytt (London New), and 12,000 to 15,000 people were involved in their distribution. From the autumn of 1941, the Norwegian communists joined the underground press, publishing newspapers such as Friheten (Freedom).[38]
In October 1942, the German authorities in Norway made it a capital crime to read underground newspapers. Of the people involved in the underground press in Norway, 3,000 to 4,000 were arrested by the Germans, of whom 62 were executed and a further 150 died as a consequence of their captivity.[38]
There were over 1,000underground newspapers;[39] among the most important were the Biuletyn Informacyjny (News Bulletin) of Armia Krajowa and Rzeczpospolita (Republic or Commonwealth) of the Government Delegation for Poland. In addition to publication of news (from intercepted Western radio transmissions), there were hundreds of underground publications dedicated to politics, economics, education, and literature (for example, Sztuka i Naród (Art and Nation)).[40] The highest recorded publication volume was an issue of Biuletyn Informacyjny printed in 43,000copies; the average volume of larger publication was 1,000–5,000copies.[40] The Polish underground also published booklets and leaflets from imaginary anti-Nazi German organizations aimed at spreading disinformation and lowering morale among the Germans. Books were also sometimes printed. Other items were also printed, such as patriotic posters or fake German administration posters, ordering the Germans to evacuate Poland or telling Poles to register household cats.
The two largest underground publishers were the Bureau of Information and Propaganda of Armia Krajowa and the Government Delegation for Poland.[41]Tajne Wojskowe Zakłady Wydawnicze (Secret Military Publishing House) of Jerzy Rutkowski (subordinated to the Armia Krajowa) was probably the largest underground publisher in the world.[42][43] In addition to Polish titles, Armia Krajowa also printed false German newspapers designed to decrease morale of the occupying German forces (as part of Action N).[44] The majority of Polish underground presses were located in occupied Warsaw; until the Warsaw Uprising in the summer of 1944 the Germans found over 16underground printing presses (whose crews were usually executed or sent to concentration camps).[45] The second largest center for Polish underground publishing was Kraków.[41] There, writers and editors faced similar dangers: for example, almost the entire editorial staff of the underground satirical paper Na Ucho (In [Your] Ear) was arrested, and its chief editors executed in Kraków on 27May 1944. (Na Ucho was the longest published Polish underground paper devoted to satire; 20issues were published starting in October 1943.)[44] The underground press was supported by a large number of activists; in addition to the crews manning the printing presses, scores of underground couriers distributed the publications. According to some statistics, these couriers were among the underground members most frequently arrested by the Germans.[44]
See also
Tarnschriften – disguised publications in Nazi Germany
Related Research Articles
Het Parool is an Amsterdam-based daily newspaper. It was first published on 10 February 1941 as a resistance paper during the German occupation of the Netherlands (1940–1945). In English, its name means The Password or The Motto.
The Danish resistance movements were an underground insurgency to resist the German occupation of Denmark during World War II. Due to the initially lenient arrangements, in which the Nazi occupation authority allowed the democratic government to stay in power, the resistance movement was slower to develop effective tactics on a wide scale than in some other countries.
Despite Dutch neutrality, Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940 as part of Fall Gelb. On 15 May 1940, one day after the bombing of Rotterdam, the Dutch forces surrendered. The Dutch government and the royal family relocated to London. Princess Juliana and her children sought refuge in Ottawa, Canada until after the war.
The National Front was a World War II French Resistance movement created to unite all of the Resistance Organizations together to fight the Nazi occupation forces and Vichy France under Marshall Pétain. Founded in 1941 in Paris by Jacques Duclos, André Pican and Pierre Villon, along with their wives all members of the French Communist Party (PCF) they felt that to be a vital force against the Nazis, the collaborationists and the informers that all of the Resistance movements, no matter their party or religion had to band together. Its name was inspired by the Popular Front, a left-wing coalition which governed France from 1936 to 1938. This helped them coordinate attacks all across France, to move weapons, food, false identity papers, information and food, protect and move people who were to be arrested or executed and supply multiple safe houses for the Resistance and for Jews. They also formed fighting units in early 1942 to assassinate German leaders and soldiers among the occupation forces, perform acts of sabotage on railroads and other forms of distribution of people and goods being taken from France to Germany and to help organize sabotage in factories forced to produce armaments and goods for the German military.
Trouw is a Dutch daily newspaper appearing in compact size. It was founded in 1943 as an orthodox Protestant underground newspaper during World War II. Since 2009, it has been owned by DPG Media. Trouw received the European Newspaper Award in 2012. Cees van der Laan is the current editor-in-chief.
Łapanka was the Polish name for a World War II practice in German-occupied Poland, whereby the German SS, Wehrmacht and Gestapo rounded up civilians on the streets of Polish cities. The civilians to be arrested were in most cases chosen at random from among passers-by or inhabitants of city quarters surrounded by German forces prior to the action.
The Polish Underground State was a single political and military entity formed by the union of resistance organizations in occupied Poland that were loyal to the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile in London. The first elements of the Underground State were established in the final days of the German and Soviet invasion of Poland, in late September 1939. The Underground State was perceived by supporters as a legal continuation of the pre-war Republic of Poland that waged an armed struggle against the country's occupying powers: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The Underground State encompassed not only military resistance, one of the largest in the world, but also civilian structures, such as education, culture and social services.
The Dutch underground press was part of the resistance to the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II, paralleling the emergence of underground media across German-occupied Europe.
Resistance movements during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation to propaganda, hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns. In many countries, resistance movements were sometimes also referred to as The Underground.
The Estonian resistance movement was an underground movement to resist the occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany, 1941–1944 during World War II. Due to the unusually benign measures implemented in Estonia by the German occupation authorities, especially in contrast to the preceding harsh Soviet occupation of Estonia (1940–1941), the movement was slower to develop effective tactics on a wide scale than in other occupied countries.
The Dutch resistance to the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II can be mainly characterized as non-violent. The primary organizers were the Communist Party, churches, and independent groups. Over 300,000 people were hidden from German authorities in the autumn of 1944 by 60,000 to 200,000 illegal landlords and caretakers. These activities were tolerated knowingly by some one million people, including a few individuals among German occupiers and military.
The military occupation of the Channel Islands by Nazi Germany lasted for most of the Second World War, from 30 June 1940 until liberation on 9 May 1945. The Bailiwick of Jersey and Bailiwick of Guernsey are two island countries and British Crown dependencies in the English Channel, near the coast of Normandy. The Channel Islands were the only de jure part of the British Empire to be occupied by Nazi Germany during the war. However, Germany's allies, Italy and Japan also had occupations in Africa and Asia, respectively.
The Belgian Resistance collectively refers to the resistance movements opposed to the German occupation of Belgium during World War II. Within Belgium, resistance was fragmented between many separate organizations, divided by region and political stances. The resistance included both men and women from both Walloon and Flemish parts of the country. Aside from sabotage of military infrastructure in the country and assassinations of collaborators, these groups also published large numbers of underground newspapers, gathered intelligence and maintained various escape networks that helped Allied airmen trapped behind enemy lines escape from German-occupied Europe.
Within nations occupied by the Axis powers in World War II, some citizens and organizations, prompted by nationalism, ethnic hatred, anti-communism, antisemitism, opportunism, self-defense, or often a combination, knowingly collaborated with the Axis Powers. Some of these collaborators committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, or atrocities in the Holocaust.
Polish culture during World War II was suppressed by the occupying powers of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, both of whom were hostile to Poland's people and cultural heritage. Policies aimed at cultural genocide resulted in the deaths of thousands of scholars and artists, and the theft and destruction of innumerable cultural artifacts. ''The maltreatment of the Poles was one of many ways in which the Nazi and Soviet regimes had grown to resemble one another", wrote British historian Niall Ferguson.
The Independent Front was a left-wing faction of the Belgian Resistance in German-occupied Belgium in World War II. It was founded in March 1941 by Dr Albert Marteaux of the Communist Party of Belgium, Father André Roland, and Fernand Demany, another communist. The aim of the organisation was to unite Belgian resistance groups of all opinions and political leanings; nonetheless the only political party that was affiliated as such was the Communist Party. The FI operated a significant propaganda, social and paramilitary organization, in addition to its military and sabotage functions and operated in competition with the larger pro-government Secret Army.
The February strike was a general strike in the German-occupied Netherlands in 1941, during World War II, organised by the then-outlawed Communist Party of the Netherlands in defence of persecuted Dutch Jews and against the anti-Jewish measures and activities of the Nazis in general.
During World War II, La Libre Belgique was one of the most notable underground newspapers published in German-occupied Belgium. This was partly a result of the success of a newspaper with the same title that had been produced in German-occupied Belgium during World War I. Though a number of editions appeared in 1940 and 1941, the most enduring La Libre Belgique published during the World War II was the so-called "Peter Pan" edition which ran to 85 issues with a circulation of 10,000 to 30,000 each.
Wim van Norden was a Dutch journalist. He was one of the founders of the resistance paper Het Parool during World War II. He was jailed for six months by the Germans in 1942 but was later released due to lack of evidence for his involvement with Het Parool. Van Norden was active in the resistance for the remainder of the war. After the war he became director of the newspaper and although he originally planned to serve for only several months he kept his function until 1979. Van Norden was responsible for the founding of the publishing company Perscombinatie in which three newspapers worked together.
The clandestine press of the French Resistance was collectively responsible for printing flyers, broadsheets, newspapers, and even books in secret in France during the German occupation of France in the Second World War. The secret press was used to disseminate the ideas of the French Resistance in cooperation with the Free French, and played an important role in the liberation of France and in the history of French journalism, particularly during the 1944 Freedom of the Press Ordinances.
Lagrou, Pieter (2000). "Belgium". In Moore, Bob (ed.). Resistance in Western Europe (1sted.). Oxford: Berg. ISBN1-85973-274-7.
Laqueur, Walter (1980). The Terrible Secret: Suppression of the Truth about Hitler's Final Solution. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. ISBN9781412848893.
Moore, Bob (2000). "Comparing Resistance and Resistance Movements". In Moore, Bob (ed.). Resistance in Western Europe (1sted.). Oxford: Berg. ISBN1-85973-274-7.
Salmonowicz, Stanisław (1994). Polskie Państwo Podziemne (Polish Underground State) (in Polish). Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne. ISBN83-02-05500-X.
Sanders, Paul (2005). The British Channel Islands under German occupation: 1940–1945. St. Helier: Jersey Heritage Trust. ISBN0-9538858-3-6.
Stone, Harry (1996). Writing in the Shadow: Resistance Publications in Occupied Europe (1sted.). London: Cass. ISBN0-7146-3424-7.
Warmbrunn, Werner (1963). The Dutch Under German Occupation, 1940–1945. Stanford University Press.
Further reading
Stenton, Michael (2000). Radio London and Resistance in occupied Europe: British political warfare, 1939–1943 (1sted.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0198208433.
Dewulf, Jeroen (2010). Spirit of Resistance: Dutch Clandestine Literature during the Nazi Occupation. Rochester, N.Y.: Camden House. ISBN978-1571134936.
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