Press in the ghettos

Written by: Cyryl Skibiński
With the beginning of the German occupation in Poland, all editorial offices operating till the outbreak of the war were shut down.
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With the beginning of the German occupation in Poland, all editorial offices operating till the outbreak of the war were shut down. Therefore, they had to move underground, where publishing developed very dynamically. Also in the Warsaw Ghetto each conspiratorial political party released at least one title, which depending on the world views of the editorial boards was issued in Yiddish, Polish or Hebrew. Copies of 44 conspiratorial magazines survived the war, being part of the Ringelblum Archive.

The occupier’s intention was to fill the gap in the market after the liquidation of the independent press with magazines edited as German propaganda dictated. „Gadzinówki” addressed to the Polish started to be published shortly after the Invasion of Poland. Licensed by the Germans, Polish-language „Gazeta Żydowska” (GŻ) [Jewish Newspaper] was created not earlier than in mid 1940, so at the moment when the occupier’s policy towards the Jews began heading for the tragic end.

 

Cyryl Skibiński  
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