IN GERMANY NOW

Evening Star, Issue 23882, 12 May 1941, Page 11

IN GERMANY NOW

LAND OF FEAR AND SHORTAGES DEFECTS OF FOOD SUPPLY No. 11. The following is tho continuation of an article taken from the London ‘ Sunday Chronicle ’ of February 2, with the introduction; “ This is a true picture of Germany to-day. It is not wishful thinking; it is a first-hand account by a neutral observer.” Tho conquest of half a dozen countries gave Germans an additional egg and one-quarter pound of diluted butter each mouth. Otherwise it placed on the staggering Reich the . burden of Europe’s greatest food-deficit nations. Tho only 1 food item that is adequate is bread, the weekly ration of 51b foi, normal consumers and 711 b for labourers being more than is ordinarily needed. More remarkable than tho size of the bread ration is the fact that every housewife is obliged to accept a full • ration for each member of her family, although she knows they cannot possibly eat it. The Government is determined to keep the stomachs of the natinon filled with something, be it only black bread, and is urging housewives to use their ingenuity in producing delectable dishes out of it. The broad consumption problem is complicated by the fact that waste of any kind is forbidden and garbage bins | are regularly inspected to see that I nothing is thrown away. Consequently, the ordinary family I man is compelled not only to cat his I own 51b of bread, but to assist his wife J and children with theirs. V QUEER FOOD. [ Keeping pace with the reduction in the supply of food is its deterioration in quality. Tho" pigs of Germany are now fattened- almost exclusively on the nation’s garbage, which is carefully collected, boiled, pressed into cakes, and distributed to the farmers. Each housewife has in her kitchen a card stating that pigs relish all kinds of food remains, but not broken glass, tin cans, paper, or cigarette ends. Pork from garbage-fed pigs is spongy and watery, will not brown under any condition, tastes like wood pulp, and in preparation gives off a strong stench of garbage. For Germany’s poultry there is fish powder made from the boiled and pulverised remains of the northern fisheries plus tons of small fish and erustaeea scooped from the teeming Baltic, cooked in huge vats, dried, and powdered. Geese, ducks, and chickens taste uniformly like fish, and the cooked meat has the slimy consistency of a raw herring. Cabbage, the staple item of diet in Berlin, is grown principally on the endless sewage flats, where the waste of tho city is pumped to evaporate. Housewives have discovered that while boiling, sewage-fertilised cabbage gives off a well-nigh unbearable stench, one that to-day is inseparably associated with war-time Berlin. Berliners have given names to the things they eat that describe them aptly. APT NAMES. The “ ersatz ” coffee, a bitter wash made of burnt grain, dried leaves, roots, acorns, and chemical flavourings, is called “ nigger sweat.” The pale, blue milk, from which not only the last vestige of cream but also most of the colouring matter has been removed, is called “ cadaver juice.” The sodden, boiled potatoes are ‘‘ four-year-plan nuggets,” the cabbage and carrot stew is “ belly padder,” and the inevitable oatmeal soup that usually precedes a meal is referred to simply as “ slime.” Dog moat is called “ blockade mutton.” and cat is “ roof rabbit.” The shelves of drug-stores are becoming bare because cosmetics, toilet articles, and even drugs are no longer available. Gauze and absorbent cotton are unobtainable, and aspirin, originally a German commodity, cannot be bought. Nazi calculations assumed that the human body under normal conditions possesses a sufficient reserve in vitamins to keep it going for two years on bulk food alone. The clothes-rationing authorities estimated that under normal conditions every German would have sufficient clothing for two years. Both authorities erred; conditions were not normal. Germany went to war after almost seven years of shortage, rationing, and malnutrition. Unable because of depleted stocks and prohibitive prices to replenish their wardrobes, her citizens were accustomed

to living with one change of clothing. They were both threadbare and hungry when the war began. DRESS RATIONS. Attempting to control the clothing situation, Germany, a country with no cotton and very little wool, established a point system for rationing the available textiles in altogether inadequate quantities, but even this minimum far exceeded the supply. Each person, young or old, has been provided with a rationing card containing 100 coupons, valid for one year. A dress, for example, costs 45 coupons, a man’s suit CO, a shirt 20, pyjamas 30. a sweater 30, socks 5, silk stockings 5. For propaganda reasons Germans are allowed 150 coupons during the second year of war as a proof of improved economic status. Most of them wore unable to find sufficient clothing during the first year for the 100 coupons they were permitted to spend, and realise that between permission to buy and the actual acquisition of the article there is a substantial difference.