Projects

My Verses Are Like Dynamite

Cover picture »Curt Bloch - Het Onderwater Cabaret«
© Jewish Museum Berlin

»Het Onderwater Cabaret« by Curt Bloch

Over a period of more than nineteen months, between August 1943 and April 1945, Curt Bloch, a German Jew who had gone into hiding in the Netherlands in 1942, created a unique work of creative resistance: a magazine called Het Onderwater-Cabaret (The Underwater Cabaret).
Week after week, Bloch crafted little booklets with artfully designed covers, 95 of them in all. Across 483 poems written in Dutch and German, he addressed developments in the Second World War, the circumstances of his life in hiding, the fate of his family, and the crimes of the Nazis and their collaborators. With biting irony and sardonic wit, he set straight the deceptions of Nazi propaganda.

The Jewish Museum Berlin is dedicating an exhibition to this unique work in 2024. Extensive material and information will be presented on the dedicated project page.

Stage play »On the Piano of My Fantasy«

Part of the exhibition is the recording of a stage programme with settings and recitations of Curt Bloch's poems, which will also be performed live once at the Jewish Museum.

All the booklets can also be viewed online on the website Curt-Bloch.com. There are also a number of audio recordings of Curt Bloch's poems in German and Dutch, performed by various persons, as well as other video material.
This website received the Grimme Online Award 2024.

© Jewisch Museum Berlin / Charities Aid Foundation
Covers of »Het Onderwater Cabaret«

Credits

Exibition

Curators: Ulrike Kuschel und Aubrey Pomerance

from February 9th until June 23rd 2024 at the Jewish Museum Berlin

Stage play

with Marina Frenk, Richard Gonlag and Mathias Schäfer

Concept, Direction and Composition: Marina Frenk

Camera: Dalia Castel, Alex Badham

Light, Sound: Daniel Adsinskiy, Mark Volkov

to see as a recording at the exibition
and live at April 11th 2024 • 7 pm • Jewish Museum Berlin

Still image from the video at the exibition
Stage play from the exibition

Projects