ITEM: Underground in the West, 10x9 inches, illustrated. 24pp. Illustrated with drawings throughout. Old folds. Nice copy. Scarce. $125
JF Ptak Science Books Post 1399
This pamphlet really seemed like a tiger in a cage—looking through some of the collection here relating to WWII literature on activities in occupied countries, the startling cover graphic of Underground War in the West (printed at some time in 1943, and not before or after) really rattled its cage. Its contents were non-too tame, either—while being reasonably polite (as was the fashion) it still invoked some very difficult ideas and images.
This was a terrific, mass appeal pamphlet on the underground actions of occupied Europe illustrated with pencil and charcoal drawings by Cuneo, with each page depicting a resistance activity—including the underground press, medical aid, sabotage, and general murderous nuisance-making and in general pamphlet praises and celebrates the heroism in occupied countries such as Czechoslovakia (with a drawing showing the assassination of Heydrich), Holland (showing the Dutch caring for a wounded RAF pilot), Belgium, France, Greece. Norway, Poland, Yugoslavia and Luxembourg.
There are full-page drawings relating to the strength of occupied people in the face of "Mass Deportation (cannot dishearten them, thousands and thousands of families have been torn asunder in mass deportations...") and "Firing Squads…thin the patriot ranks yet ever more step into their places" . The section on "Facts from the Occupied Countries" list activities in 9 occupied countries; under “Poland”, we read that "Germany has drawn a veil of silence around Poland...it is estimated that 2,500,000 Poles have died in concentration camps or by execution up to December 31, 1942. There are 54 concentration camps in Poland...and the average life span in the camps is nine months..." Nowhere in the pamphlet however is there any singular mention of
deportation or murder of the Jewish people—there were hundreds of articles printed in American newspapers up until this time on the beginning of the (yet named) Holocaust, though acknowledgment of a fact doesn’t necessarily make it widely known in spite of its incredible and massive significance. This pamphlet, while extraordinary in mentioning the millions of deaths in the concentration camps and “deportations”, was rather ordinary in its coverage of who it was that was being murdered in the camps.
There is also a two-page spread exhibiting examples of underground newspapers:
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