Underground media in German-occupied Europe

Depiction of the production of a typewritten underground newspaper by the Norwegian artist Odd Hilt. At the top, an individual listens to news on foreign radio broadcasts while, to the right, another produces articles on a typewriter. On the left, a person produces copies on a mimeograph. The sheets are stapled into brochures at the bottom.

Various kinds of clandestine media emerged under German occupation during World War II. By 1942, Nazi Germany occupied much of continental Europe. The widespread German occupation saw the fall of public media systems in France, Belgium, Poland, Norway, Czechoslovakia, Northern Greece, and the Netherlands. All press systems were put under the ultimate control of Joseph Goebbels, the German Minister of Propaganda.[1]

Without control of the media, occupied populations began to create and publish their own uncensored newspapers, books and political pamphlets.[2] The underground press played a "crucial role" in informing and motivating resistance across the continent and building solidarity.[3] They also created an "intellectual battlefield" in which ideas like post-war reconstruction could be discussed.[4] Underground forms of media allowed for information sharing among the oppressed, helping them build solidarity, strengthen morale and, in some cases, stage uprisings.

  1. ^ Gould.
  2. ^ Sherefkin 2013.
  3. ^ Moore 2000, p. 256.
  4. ^ Moore 2000, p. 257.