‘Satirical resistance’: the magazine-maker who risked his life poking fun at the Nazis

As Hitler’s forces razed Europe, Curt Bloch was writing subversive anti-Nazi zine The Underwater Cabaret. Now, all 95 issues form a new exhibition of satire and sedition

As the daughter of antiques dealers, Simone Bloch grew up in a New York house filled with rare and mysterious materials. The dining room was packed with precious volumes, including a collection of small, hand-written magazines, illustrated with collages in a dadaist or surrealist style.

“All of my parents’ books were kind of intimidating,” Simone, now 64, says. “But this was weirder. It wasn’t something I would ever want to pick up.” She found them a little creepy, with their frequent images of Adolf Hitler and other wartime leaders. It was only many years later that Simone came to understand that these magazines represented her father’s resistance to the Holocaust.