| dc.description.abstract | The subject of the analyses and considerations of this essay is the informational- propaganda periodical „Goniec
Częstochowski” [„The Częstochowa Messenger”] (called „Kurier Częstochowski” [„The Częstochowa Courier”] from
November 4th, 1939 on), started by the Nazi occupiers on November 14th, 1939 and published until January 16,
1945. The paper (initially issued 3 times a week, it became a daily on November 4th, 1939) was chronologically
the first Polish-language German reptile newspaper in the Polish lands, having been brought into being earlier
than such representative dailies as the „capital” „Goniec Krakowski” [„Kraków Messenger”] or the „Nowy Kurier
Warszawski” [„New Warsaw Courier”], as well as the local, district-level „Dziennik Radomski” [„Radom Journal”].
On the territory of the General Government, the „The Częstochowa Messenger / Częstochowa Courier” was one of a
very few propaganda periodicals published outside of the district authorities1 headquarters. Another specific
characteristic of the paper was its nomination by the Germans as the „Catholic press organ of the General
Government”, for which reason it was also distributed beyond its primary area of circulation, which comprised
Częstochowa, Radomsko, and Piotrków Trybunalski. Indeed, the „Catholic” nature of the Częstochowa daily was
manifested only in the existence of a weekly religious supplement (of varying content and title), which didn't
have any substantial influence on the „Courier's” main sections and political-propaganda materials, always
strictly subservient to the needs of the Third Reich.
Yet that which interests the author of this article is not so much the publication's history and political
content, or the reflection on its pages of the day-to-day wartime existence of the city's inhabitants, in turn
(these questions have been penetrated earlier by such researchers as Witold Mielczarek and Tomasz Mielczarek),
but the „Częstochowa Courier’s” relationship to cultural- artistic problems that, obviously, could only arise
within the extraordinarily restrictive bounds imposed by the Nazi censorship organs, as well as the norms of the
official cultural policy applied to Poles under the General Government. It seems that in this area (neglected up
till now by researchers as well as bibliographers), the reptile publication from Częstochowa, as compared with
publications similar to it, maintained a certain originality and personality.
Principally, the paper published a number of religious poems - unproblematic in terms of censorship - by selected
known Polish authors (including lyric works by Jan Kochanowski, Ignacy Krasicki, Cyprian Norwid and Leopold
Staff). It also undertook a series of inspirational and „promotional” activities, the goal of which was to
revitalise the official „literature of the General Government”, which was developing under German tutelage. This
end was served primarily by a literary contest organised in 1941, for serial fiction works. Overall there were 22
such works by Polish authors printed in the „Courier” that were, at least in part, the fruit of this contest.
Amongst the mostly scribbling sensational-adventure, crime or romance pieces, the debut of the only „real” writer
among this group, Krystyna Wajcht (active after the war under the name of Krystyna Salaburska, maily in the area
of children's literature), distinguished itself somewhat more favourably. Thanks to „connections” how not known,
the Częstochowa reptile newspaper got the authorities' permission - inadmissible on the pages of other Polish-
language publications - to print translations of works by modem German writers, representatives of the apolitical
popular circuit (Otto Franz Heinrich, Otto Willi Gail). It clearly had a preference for Scandanavian and Dutch
writing also. A unique event as well, on the scale of all non-clandestine literary writing in the GG, was the
„Courier's” publication in 1942 of a cycle of humoresques by Soviet satirist Michaił Zoszczenko.
The Częstochowa reptile newspaper was also a relatively dependable recorder and reviewer of all of the German-
approved, non-clandestine cultural-artistic events organised in Częstochowa, based for the most part on „guest”
appearances by artists from - most often - Warsaw and Krakow. Among other things, the paper recorded and
described 39 local theatricalstage events on its pages, and 7 musical performances. Information concerning
cultural events outside of Częstochowa (almost exclusively in Krakow and Warsaw), however, was treated
selectively, didn't have a systematic character, and disappeared all but completely after 1943.
This article compiles a documentary annex, chronologically listing all of Czçstochowa’s non-clandestine
cultural-artistic endeavours that were covered and discussed in the „Częstochowa Courier”, and took place between
April of 1940 and January of 1945 (52 events overall, which most often took place in the hall of the local fire
department). In the opinion of the author of this essay, using the „Częstochowa Courier” as a source reliable at
least in terms of basic facts - allows for revision of the view, prevalent until now, that attests to the non-
existence in Częstochowa of any open manifestations of cultural life under the Nazi occupation. | en_EN |
