POLAND'S SECRET PRESSES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 154, 12 September 1941, Page 3

POLAND'S SECRET PRESSES

When they occupied Poland, onr tef the first thing the Nazis did was to clamp down on tlic Polish press. "Of the 2200 periodicals, including 190 daily papers in Poland, only 10 were left and these were put under Nazi control. But alongside these has groAvn an illegal press which represents a net work widespread and rich in re--suits. It is known that there are al least 28 publications, among them daily papers on duplicator sheets which feature the BBC broadcasts. Then come weeklies normally printed which give an analj r sis of important articles from the British press. Even illustrations appear in these papers. Other are monthlies and quarterlies, one running to 32 pages. There are humorous papers, with janti-German cartoons and jokes and W*' 'the Warsaw ghetto a Yiddish paper appears. In addition there appear occasionHi leaflets and pamphlets. All these publications entail printing presses—probably concealed in the woods of Poland—well over a hundred editors and contributors, and hundreds of thousands of readers. Every person involved risks his life, for death is the penalty not only for working on an illegal paper, but even for reading it. The question arises, how is it possible to mainiain in secret such an organisation? (writes Czasiaw> Po/nastu). One of these papers gives the answer. It speaks of "the wall of siiencc" between the Poles and the Germans. This wall of silence is possible because there is eompl ete unanimity among the Polish nationals. While there may be isolated ih'lividual traitors, there is no group or party lhat would, collaborate. Avith the Nazis. Of course the Gestapo is funou.-. As they are unable to discover presses or the distributors* they themselves produce faked illegal papers, which their agents push un-

der doors or surreptitiously put in the pockets of peasants in market places. Afterwards agents discover these planted pap,ers and tlic bearers are shot. But the real illegal press remains undiscovered.