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Abstract
In the beginning of the German occupation of Poland in 1939, press censorship and a strict ban on radio listening were imposed. Poles and ghettos-imprisoned Jews could obtain international information by reading German-controlled newspapers or, alternatively, by reading the clandestine press or listen to rumours. This article stresses the significance of information distributed by activists of Hashomer Hatzair, Zionist, leftist youth movement, who conducted radio monitoring and prepared daily news bulletins distributed in Warsaw ghetto. The article describes their monitoring practices and shows how news extracted from broadcasts was later used in the press. It also engages with the question as to why foreign news was so important to Jews struggling to survive in terrible conditions of the ghetto. It also identifies motivations for conducting radio monitoring during the Holocaust and compares it with those of people listening to foreign radio stations in other contexts and with different intentions.
Notes
1 Archiwum Ringelbluma, vol. 22, 6.
2 Mazur, Biuro Informacji i Propagandy.
3 Ribeiro and Seul, “Revisiting Transnational Broadcasting,” 369.
4 Lewin, A Cup of Tears, 130.
5 Kassow, “Who Will Write”; Haska and Bańkowska, “ … w podziemiach wymienionych domów.”
6 Archiwum Ringelbluma, vol. 22.
7 Okupacja i ruch oporu, 81–2.
8 Janczewska, “Gazeta Żydowska (1940–1942).”
9 Żurawski, “Polskie Radio w służbie konspiracji,” 136–7.
10 Okupacja i ruch oporu, 160.
11 Berman, Vos der goirl, 182.
12 Singleton, Tu mówi Londyn, 18.
13 Jasiewicz, “Polskojęzyczne radiostacje”; Jędrzejczak, “Polskie i polskojęzyczne audycje.”
14 Goldberg, “Rumor Culture.”
15 Ernest, O wojnie wielkich Niemiec, 126.
16 Leociak, “Sztuka czytania gazety.”
17 Koźmińska-Frejlak, “Żydowska prasa,” 206–8; Gutman, Jews of Warsaw, 147.
18 Gutman, Jews of Warsaw, 146–7.
19 Kaplan, Scroll of Agony, 347.
20 Lewin, A Cup of Tears, 74.
21 Engelking and Leociak, Getto warszawskie, 69–72.
22 Cohen, “Against the Current,” 64.
23 Kassow, “Who Will Write,” 48.
24 Cohen, “Against the Current,” 68–9.
25 Kassow, “Who Will Write,” 33.
26 Archiwum Ringelbluma, vol. 19, XIX; Archiwum Ringelbluma, vol. 16, XXIII.
27 Archiwum Ringelbluma, vol. 22, 2–7.
28 Briggs, The War of Worlds, 466–9.
29 The Warsaw ghetto Oyneg Shabes, 131, 139, 215, 271.
30 Engelking and Leociak, Getto warszawskie, 704–6.
31 Archiwum Ringelbluma, vol. 22, 255.
32 Morriss, “The BBC Polish Service,” 459.
33 Ernest, Wojnie wielkich Niemiec, 92.
34 Archiwum Ringelbluma, vol. 22, 2.
35 Ringelblum, Pisma z getta, 347.
36 Ibid., 340.
37 Archiwum Ringelbluma, vol. 22, 332–3.
38 E.g. “Płomienie,” newspaper, September 1, 1940. Archive of Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw, ARG I 1326.
39 Ribeiro, Seul, Revisiting Transnational Broadcasting, 366, 369; Ribeiro, A new medium at war, 229.
40 Archiwum Ringelbluma, vol. 22, 255.
41 Pszenicki, Tu mówi Londyn, 56–7.
42 Archiwum Ringelbluma, vol. 22, 246.
43 “Przedwiośnie.” Newspaper, May 2, 1942. Archive of Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw, ARG I 1330.
44 E.g. “Bourget” instead of “Bourges” in “News and Communiques” – 12 May 1942, repeated in “Przedwiośnie” on May 24th.
45 E.g. “Zarzewie” from July 15, 1942 repeated data from “News and Communiques” issued on July 12. “Zarzewie,” newspaper. Archive of Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw, ARG I 1341.
46 Koźmińska-Frejlak, “Żydowska prasa,” 183, 187.
47 Mazur, Biuro Informacji i Propagandy, 47.
48 Johnson, “What Can an Understanding … .”
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Maria Ferenc Piotrowska
Maria Ferenc Piotrowska, Institute of Sociology, University of Warsaw, Karowa 18, Warsaw 00-927, Poland. E-mail: [email protected]