Abstract

Europe's Underground Press

A few minutes after Congress declared war against Germany and Italy, WRUL in Boston, WGY in Schenectady, and BBC in London flashed the word to the occupied countries by short-wave radio. These powerful illegal radios rebroadcast the news to hundreds of mobile stations throughout the Continent. Special editions of newspapers, pamphlets, news sheets, letters, and slogans soon flooded the countryside. From the underground press the Allies obtain strategic information, military and civilian, that could not be obtained in any other way. As the war lengthens, as suffering increases, nationalistic differences are breaking down more and more into the realization that democracy, mutual aid, and cooperation are essentials for any future peaceful Europe. This is the basic principle of Europe's underground press.