Neither Bullets nor Threats can Crush Europe’s Secret Papers

Camp News, Volume 3, Issue 148, 13 November 1942, Page 2

Neither Bullets nor Threats can Crush Europe’s Secret Papers

in the “Daily Mirror.”

Recently I have looked at a hundred of the secret newspapers that are circulating in underground Europe to-day. They are sometimes the neatly-printed products of hidden I hand-presses, sometimes duplicated typewritten sheets, and often leaflets written out laboriously by hand over- and over again. These secret papers . . . what courage and devotion they demand! From the man or woman listening furtively to the free radio of the world, the shorthand typist who records the news, the men who set it in leaden type, , and the daring ones who distribute it under the very noses of the Gestapo. Just imagine their risks! From start to end, death stalks every member of this devoted band. For every one of these secret newspapers, the 8.8. C. is the star re-

- porter. That torrent of words in a foreign tongue from London, which you hear on your radio as you chase a good programme from Home to Forces, is perhaps a burning message which, tomorrow, will flash from end to end of Europe. The Polish hidden Press published in Warsaw pictures of Winston Churchill and General Sikorski, Polish Commander-in-Chief, reviewing Polish troops in Britain. I The pictures were taken in November last. They were carried to Poland and smuggled in by a boy who returned to England two months later with copies of the hidden papers

which published the pictures. It is wonderful to learn that the Poles can laugh in their misery. In fact, humour and satire play a large part in the 100-odd papers that they publish. One of them, “Lipa,” has a horselaugh as a crest. Their names illustrate the spirit behind them. There is “The Needle,” to puncture the swollen ambitions of Hitler; “Revenge,” Poland in Struggle; “The Polish Daily,” “The Rampart,” “The Lamp.” . There are articles of' cold, implacable hatred. There are even advertisements, all satirical. Here is one from Hitler:— “As my work—‘How I Conquered England’has not sold well, I am offering surplus copies as waste paper. I invite subscriptions for my next work, to be entitled ‘My End.’ Adolf < Hitler.” L To such a stage of efficiency have the under-cover newspaper tactics in . Poland risen that now secret organi- J sations bring out special journals for ' their members and maintain their own < Press bureaux and propaganda de- (

partments. I have frequently seen the Press of Occupied and Vichy France. Not the secret Press, but that on which Herr Otto Abetz and Darlan are pleased to smile. It is a parade of eunuchs, and just as negative. Not one of those papers could be termed French. Their front pages are made up for them by Abez. and Darlan men. Even the size of their headlines on the main stories are decided for them and must not be altered. A. Frenchman tells me they buy “Paris

| Soir” now only to see what’s on at the cinema. It’s not surprising, be- i cause the chief of the paper is a German who was a liftman in the building until the Nazis arrived. It ,is impossible to know the number of underground papers that circulate across all France, but all of them unite in recognising Hitler, and Darlan as the joint enemy. Sometimes there is a delay in publication if the Gestapo are hot on the trail of the printing press. But, though the quality of the paper varies it never fails to appear, even though Nazi bullets may cause changes in the editorial staff. | When I turned to the Belgian secret > Press, I found the new series of “La Libre Belgique,” the famous secret newspaper of World War I. With superb humour the publishers

print the name of the Nazi C.-in-C, i as “director” of the paper, and Peter • Pan as the responsible editor. (There [ is a Peter Pan statue in Brussels.) . To the rage of the Gestapo, this paper and a half-dozen others “cover” all Belgium with their weekly editions. There are, in addition a flood of news sheets. In this way it is estimated that 99 per cent, of Belgians learn the news diffused by radio from London. One of Norway’s principal peace time newspapers, “Tidens Tegn” (Signs of the Times”), still appears as a duplicated sheet little bigger than a postcard so that it can be easily hidden. •

At least 100 persons read each copy of each secret newspaper, its news and articles and its instructions in sabotage. There are still “national” newspapers published in secret, as well as hand-written sheets, and the speed with which they gather news exceeds that of the Quisling Press. An editor, who was in southernmost Norway at the time of the Lofoten Islands raid, said that on the day of the raid he received in his office a detailed report of what happened at Lofoten, 1,000 miles away, by 11 a.m. The Germans in the town knew nothing about it. One patriot newspaper is produced) inside one of the Quisling Government departments, and another — “The 1 Wasp”—is often found on the waiting room table of one of Oslo’s principal prisons. Holland, too, has its army of heroic journalists who flood the country with pamphlet-newspapers. One of the most significant discoveries I made is that even within the German Army itself, this secret news-

paper war goes on. , ' • I saw a copy of a newspaper, “Die ; Rote Front” (The Red Front), which ■ was printed in Vienna, dated April 5, 1941. It was taken from the knapsack of a German N.C.0., captured during the Balkan campaign. ] Its front page article was a fervid | appeal to soldiers and workers “to sabotage the war where and how you can.” “Down with Hitler, the master warcriminal!” it cried. “Long live Free Democratic Europe.”