This chapter explores the various methods employed by Jewish ghetto leadership and the German ghetto administration to distribute food inside the ghettos. Different ghettos used different methods at different times. Food distribution through house committees, ration cards, soup kitchen, private food stores, private kitchens, vegetable distribution points, and other methods were employed in various places at various times. In Warsaw and Krakow, a combination of rations and private provisioning prevailed while in Lodz, a ration system prevailed over private food sources. People also received food through mailed packages. All three ghettos employed communal coping mechanisms to supplement the scarce food resources through a variety of means. Food processing, particularly to minimize food waste, and agricultural projects were ways in which the community sought to expand food provisions. Soup kitchens and welfare supplemental payments were used to help supply food to the impoverished of the ghetto. Also discussed was the ubiquitous food line which was a major feature of many types of food distribution.

This chapter lays out key questions and concepts in the book. It discusses the author’s concept, the atrocity of hunger, the intentional starvation of a group through the denial of access to food, and it includes more than just the embodied experience of starvation: the physical and mental suffering that humans undergo due to the physiological effects of starvation, as well as the transformation and breakdown of families, communities, and individuals whose lives and core beliefs are shaped by starvation. It is also the process as experienced by individuals, households, and communities as they move from food insecurity to a state of starvation. It outlines that the coping mechanisms employed by the Jews during this experience provide a window into their everyday life during the Holocaust. This chapter lays out the role of food access as a key factor of survival and frames this question squarely within the framework of genocidal famine. It lays out the differences between the three cities under consideration: Lodz, Warsaw, and Krakow.

This chapter examines the multiple ways in which obtaining food was tied to labor in the ghetto. This includes trading labor for resources to purchase food as well as supplemental food which was provided for certain occupations. It explores different types of work in the ghetto including forced labor, work for the Judenrat, factory work, home-based piece work, as well as employment in the ghetto’s private sector. The chapter looks at ways in which people utilized their social networks to obtain better work as well as how hunger impacted productivity. This chapter also explores the tension between obtaining work that provided enough funds to meet one’s food needs versus positions which protected one against deportation and the strategies employed by individuals and households to meet their needs of adequate food and protection. This chapter also discusses the struggles of the Jewish communal leadership in providing labor to the Germans while feeding working and nonworking ghetto inhabitants. This chapter examines how the Germans took control of food distribution out of the hands of the communal leadership in order to prioritize labor.

The chapter explores deportations into the ghetto from surrounding towns and western Europe. It examines the food security issues for the newly arrived, particularly as they were displaced from the places of origin and social networks. This chapter also discusses the deportations out of the ghettos and the end of the ghettos. It examines how hunger drove some onto deportation trains, how deportations impacted food prices on the black market, and the cancelation of ration cards to force those directed for deportation onto trains. It also discusses how food resources were needed to avoid deportation, particularly if one wanted to go into hiding in the ghetto. This chapter also explores food and the Warsaw ghetto uprising.

This chapter explores the pre-war Jewish leadership, pre-war attributes, and political compositions of the three cities: Warsaw, Lodz and Krakow. It examines how the wartime Jewish leadership of these cities were selected shortly after the German invasion from the remaining pre-war prominent community members., the challenges they faced during the early occupation, and the changes in their roles after the creation of the ghettos. This chapter discusses the abuse and violence suffered by the Jewish communal leadership from German authorities while simultaneously enduring an erosion of power to protect their communities. This chapter also examines the creation and closing of each of the ghettos.

This chapter discusses the daily experience of hunger in the ghettos. It explores the myriad of coping mechanisms employed by those in the ghetto to combat hunger. This chapter discusses how individuals, families, and communities sought to increase the amount of food available. It discusses the sale of assets to obtain food and the preparation and consumption of hunger foods. This chapter reviews ways in which hunger drove individuals to behave in ways that challenged their core beliefs in terms of how they behaved, what they were willing to eat, and how they interacted with one another.

This chapter discusses the various factors that determined one’s socioeconomic position in the ghetto and the relationship between that status and food access. It explores the ways in which these various factors might intersect and benefit or impede access to food resources. Relative wealth and poverty before the war, social networks, geographical location before and during the war, gender and religious identity are each explored.

This chapter explores illicit means of obtaining food in the ghettos including smuggling, black market purchases, and food theft. The chapter discusses the ways in which geographical location impacted what types of illicit food access were available to individuals in the ghettos, how and at what time frame these illicit means might be prosecuted, and methods employed to illicitly obtain food. It juxtaposes large-scale and small-scale projects for obtaining additional food. It also includes a study of the black market prices in the three different ghettos and what factors impacted food prices.

This chapter explores the various ways that those in the ghetto at the communal and individual level tried to support the poorest of the ghetto. This chapter discusses how charitable groups, Jewish communal organizations, Judenrat, individuals and informal networks attempted to employ many means to support those who were most economically fragile. It examines how foreign aid was able to continue to enter the ghetto albeit at a far reduced rate. It discusses how Judenrat established formal public welfare programs and encouraged the creation of private charitable programs. It also discusses private individual efforts to provide support for the most vulnerable.

This chapter discusses the conclusions of the book including examining the connection between surviving the Holocaust and food access in the ghettos. It discusses the challenges to core values that people in the ghetto faced as they sought adequate food for survival.

Hunger is an embodied experience which impacts the physical and mental state. This chapter explores the impact of starvation. The physical effects of starvation on the body are wasting, swelling (edema), susceptibility to disease, and eventually death. The mental effects of starvation include behavioral changes, food obsession, and irritability. All of these were observed by individuals in the ghetto who recorded this as diarists or in some cases physicians studying the impact of the lack of food on their patients. This also chapter explores food fantasy resulting from hunger and humor which arose in response to food deprivation.

The German invasion and early occupation of Poland drained the resources of Jews and their communities even before ghettoization. On the individual and household levels, many Jews were severely impacted by the German seizure of their assets, the inability to work, and the requirement to expend limited resources even before ghettoization in order to provide food for themselves and their families as a result of these financial realities. Violence during the early occupation also could serve to pauperize a family through seizing, killing, or severely injuring a key family member on whom the household relied for support through work. Migration due to the war also sometimes served to sever social networks or access to assets as well as diminish social standing which endangered some individuals and families. The pressures placed on individuals and households left them more vulnerable to hunger and starvation. At the very point at which individuals and households were most in need of support, communities faced multiple challenges. These included an influx of refugees, seizure of community resources, and the flight of communal leadership during the occupation.