History's Secret Heroes: Series 3: Curt Bloch and the Underwater Cabaret

History's Heroes

BBC

Documentary, History, Society & Culture

4.8 • 704 Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Hiding in an attic in the Netherlands, a German Jewish refugee risks his life to create The Underwater Cabaret, a secret, satirical magazine that seeks to ridicule the Nazis.

Helena Bonham Carter shines a light on extraordinary stories from World War Two. Join her for incredible tales of deception, acts of resistance and courage.

A BBC Studios Audio production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Producer: James Shield Assistant Producer: Rachel Oakes Executive Producer: Paul Smith Written by Alex von Tunzelmann Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts

Transcript

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0:00.0	Did you know that you can listen to many of your favourite podcasts first on BBC Sounds?
0:06.6	Like Desert Island Discs, where you can hear castaways like Cher, Gareth Southgate and Nick Cave,
0:12.7	and enjoy longer versions of the music they've picked.
0:15.7	Good things come to those who don't wait.
0:18.7	Listen to your favourite podcasts first on BBC Sounds.
0:23.9	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:28.0	You're about to listen to a brand new series of History's Secret Heroes.
0:33.9	Episodes will be released on Tuesdays, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:38.4	But if you're in the UK and can't wait, you can hear the full series right now, before anywhere else.
0:45.1	First on BBC Sounds.
0:48.5	A cafe in Alexanderplatz, Berlin, the summer of 1943.
0:54.0	In a cafe, where people relax a little bit more and drink, some, they loosen their tongues a little bit.
1:00.2	People were telling jokes, anti-Nazi jokes all the time, but that you had to be very careful
1:06.4	where you told these jokes.
1:09.4	On that day, there was a particular joke which spread through the cafe.
1:13.6	It was based on a rhyme which children used to say before they go to sleep.
1:20.7	Bow your head now, fold your hands, and think about Adolf Hitler.
1:26.8	Come out and be our guest.
1:29.3	And give us only half of what you promised us.
1:32.7	We don't want potatoes in the skin or herring.
1:36.3	We would like also to eat like Hermann Gurning and Joseph Goebbels.
1:41.3	You know, we want to eat the same things as they are eating.
	...

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