Dutch Famine Of 1944–1945
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The Dutch famine of 1944–1945, also known as the Hunger Winter (from
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
''Hongerwinter''), was a
famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food caused by several possible factors, including, but not limited to war, natural disasters, crop failure, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenom ...
that took place in the German-occupied Netherlands, especially in the densely populated western provinces north of the great rivers, during the relatively harsh winter of 1944–1945, near the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. A German blockade cut off food and fuel shipments from farm towns. Some 4.5 million were affected and survived thanks to
soup kitchen A soup kitchen, food kitchen, or meal center is a place where food is offered to Hunger, hungry and homeless people, usually for no price, cost, or sometimes at a below-market price (such as coin Donation, donations). Frequently located in Low i ...
s.
Loe de Jong Louis "Loe" de Jong (24 April 1914 in Amsterdam – 15 March 2005 in Amsterdam) was a Dutch historian who specialised in the Netherlands in World War II and the Dutch resistance. De Jong studied history and social geography at the University of Am ...
(1914–2005), author of ''
The Kingdom of the Netherlands During World War II ''The Kingdom of the Netherlands During World War II'' () is the standard reference on the history of the Netherlands during World War II. The series was written by Loe de Jong (1914–2005), director of the Dutch Institute for War Documenta ...
'', estimated at least 22,000 deaths occurred due to the famine. Another author estimated 18,000 deaths from the famine. Most of the victims were reportedly elderly men. The famine was alleviated first by "Swedish bread" flour shipped in from
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
to Dutch harbours, and subsequently by the airlift of food by the
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
, the
Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; ) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environmental commands within the unified Can ...
, and the
United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
– after an agreement with the occupying Germans that if the Germans did not shoot at the mercy flights, the
Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...
would not bomb the German positions. These were
Operations Manna and Chowhound Operation Manna and Operation Chowhound were humanitarian food drops to relieve the Dutch famine of 1944–45 in the German-occupied Netherlands undertaken by Allies of World War II, Allied bomber crews during the End of World War II in Europe, ...
. Additional pre-surrender relief came via truck during Operation Faust, which took place from May 2nd to May 9th. The effort, the result of negotiations between Lieutenant General Charles Foulkes of the
Canadian Army The Canadian Army () is the command (military formation), command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also re ...
and the
Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...
's Generalleutnant Paul Reichelt, allowed Canadian trucks to pass through German lines, delivering hundreds of tons of food daily, along with medical supplies and coal. Although the humanitarian missions mitigated the emergency, the famine persisted and ended only with the liberation of the Netherlands by the Allies in May 1945.


Causes

After
D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
in the summer of 1944, the Allied forces, to their own surprise, swiftly advanced from Normandy and overran northern France and Belgium. In anticipation of a likewise imminent collapse of German defences in the Netherlands, the Dutch national railways complied with the exiled Dutch government's appeal for a nationwide railway strike starting in September 1944. This precisely coincided with the beginning of Operation Market Garden, the Allied forces' sharp thrust offensive deep into eastern Dutch territory that same month. The Allies were able to swiftly liberate southern portions of Dutch territory, but ceased their advance further into the Netherlands when Operation Market Garden failed in its attempt to seize a bridge across the
Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...
at
Arnhem Arnhem ( ; ; Central Dutch dialects, Ernems: ''Èrnem'') is a Cities of the Netherlands, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands, near the German border. It is the capita ...
after a German counter-offensive. Meanwhile, after a public warning by the German administration's ''Reichskommissar''
Arthur Seyss-Inquart Arthur Seyss-Inquart (; ; 22 July 1892 16 October 1946) was an Austrian Nazi politician who served as Chancellor of Austria in 1938 for two days before the ''Anschluss''. His positions in Nazi Germany included deputy governor to Hans Frank in t ...
on September 24 that sabotage of the railways, telephone lines, or post offices would be severely and collectively punished, the Nazi military command led by ''Wehrmachtbefehlshaber''
Friedrich Christiansen Friedrich Christiansen (12 December 1879 – 3 December 1972) was a German general who served as commander of the German ''Wehrmacht'' in the Netherlands in World War II, occupied Netherlands during World War II. Christiansen was a World War I ...
began to implement the German retaliation by placing an embargo on all food transports to the western Netherlands. The food embargo started immediately as the military counter-offensive against Allied troops (Market Garden) was winding down on September 27. The embargo was partially lifted after three weeks, and fully lifted after six weeks in early November 1944, because the Germans feared chaos and disease might spread. This lifting of the blockade, however, didn't lead to food supply resuming and reaching pre-embargo levels. The drastic food scarcity that was ignited continued to persist as a result of the increasingly harsh winter, increasing scarcity of other resources such as fuel and vehicles, the ongoing administrative and logistic inconveniences caused by the Germans, such as transport restrictions, shipment delays, and defensive flooding; as well as due to farmers and traders who had switched to supplying the black market during the embargo remaining in that parallel circuit. In the last two months of 1944 the officially distributed ration stock supply began to dwindle: first slowly, then drastically. The rations, which had been relatively stable up to around D-Day (June 1944), became progressively less and less worth in food value in the subsequent months, particularly in October and beyond. The overall Allied advance into Germany was delayed by supply problems as the strategic port of
Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...
was not usable until the approaches had been secured and cleared in the
Battle of the Scheldt The Battle of the Scheldt in World War II was a series of military operations to open up the Scheldt river between Antwerp and the North Sea for shipping, so that Antwerp's port could be used to supply the Allies in north-west Europe. The oper ...
. But Montgomery had given priority to "Market Garden" and to the capture of the French Channel ports like Boulogne, Calais, and Dunkirk, which were resolutely defended and had suffered demolitions by the retreating Germans. These developments led to Germans becoming more securely entrenched north of the major rivers in all of the Netherlands, which originally had been anticipated to fall into the hands of the Allies before the end of 1944.


Starvation

In the last months of 1944, in anticipation of the coming famine, tens of thousands of children were brought from the cities to rural areas where many remained until the end of the war. In October, food shortages began to escalate everywhere in the still-occupied parts of the country. But particularly in the cities in the western Netherlands the stocks of various food items rapidly ran out in their entirety. The adult rations in cities such as
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
dropped to below 1000 
calories The calorie is a unit of energy that originated from the caloric theory of heat. The large calorie, food calorie, dietary calorie, kilocalorie, or kilogram calorie is defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one liter o ...
(4,200 
kilojoule The joule ( , or ; symbol: J) is the unit of energy in the International System of Units (SI). In terms of SI base units, one joule corresponds to one kilogram- metre squared per second squared One joule is equal to the amount of work don ...
s) a day by the end of November 1944 and to 580 calories in the west by the end of February 1945.Z. Stein, (1975). ''Famine and Human Development: The Dutch Hunger Winter of 1944–1945''. Over this ''Hongerwinter'' ("Hunger winter"), a number of factors combined to cause starvation in especially the large cities in the West of the Netherlands. The winter in the month of January 1945 itself was unusually harsh, freezing rivers and canals and thereby prohibiting the important system of supply transport by boat for roughly a month between early January 1945 and early February 1945. Also, the German army destroyed docks and bridges to flood the country and impede the Allied advance. This led to significant amount of land, particularly in the north and west, up to 250.000 hectares in total, to become flooded, further distorting supply routes and isolating regions from each other. Thirdly, Allied bombing made it extremely difficult to transport food in bulk, since Allied bombers could not distinguish German military and civilian shipments. As the south-eastern (the Maas valley) and the south-western part of the Netherlands (Walcheren and Beveland) became one of the main western battlefields, these conditions combined to make the transport of existing food stocks in large enough quantities nearly impossible. Malnutrition affected all occupied areas, but starvation level was reached in the western section of the country, then home to 4.5 million people. Butter disappeared after October 1944, shortly after railway transport to the western Netherlands stopped due to the railway strike. The supply of vegetable fats dwindled to a minuscule seven-month supply of 1.3 liters per person. At first 100 grams of cheese were allotted every two weeks; meat coupons became worthless. The bread ration had already dropped from 2,200 to 1,800 and then to 1,400 grams per week. Then it fell to 1,000 grams in October, and by April 1945 to 400 grams a week. Together with one kilogram of potatoes, this then formed the entire weekly ration. The black market increasingly ran out of food as well, and with the gas and electricity and heat turned off, everyone was very cold and very hungry. Tulip bulbs and sugar beets were commonly consumed. Furniture and houses were dismantled and trees were felled to provide fuel for heating. In search of food, Netherlanders would walk for tens of kilometres to trade valuables for food at farms. Deaths in the three big cities of the Western Netherlands (The Hague, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam) started in earnest in December 1944, reaching a peak in March 1945, but remained very high in April and May 1945. Malnutrition was rampant throughout all of the country. The famine was fully underway by January but the deadliest month would become March 1945.


Humanitarian intervention

By the middle of that month
Swedish Red Cross The Swedish Red Cross ( Swedish: ''Svenska Röda Korset'') is a Swedish humanitarian organisation and a member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Founded in 1865, its purpose is to prevent and alleviate human suffering wher ...
flour, known as the "Swedish bread", (which had originally arrived in January from Sweden, but had been stuck unloaded in the northern harbour of
Delfzijl Delfzijl (; ) is a city and former municipality (which now belongs to the municipality of Eemsdelta) with a population of 25,651 in the province of Groningen in the northeast of the Netherlands. Delfzijl was a sluice between the Delf and the Em ...
) began to reach a network of Dutch bakeries in cities, towns and villages, who used it to bake bread and ration it to the local population. For many, that was the first proper bread (without diluted ingredients) they consumed in months. The following month, more humanitarian interventions took place, this time by airdrops. From 29 April to 7 May
Operation Manna Operation Manna was the Code word (communication), codeword for a Second World War operation by the British and Greek forces in Greece in mid-October 1944, following the gradual withdrawal of the Axis Occupation of Greece, German occupying for ...
was conducted by the
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
and
Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; ) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environmental commands within the unified Can ...
. From 1 to 8 May, the
U.S. Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
conducted Operation Chowhound. The Germans agreed not to shoot at the planes flying the mercy missions, and the Allies agreed not to bomb German positions. A third humanitarian assistance was domestically organized via a land-based, civilian supply chain from the east of the country. Called ''Operation Faust'', food was trucked beginning on 2 May, first to the centrally located
Rhenen Rhenen () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the central Netherlands. The municipality also includes the villages of Achterberg, and Elst (Utrecht), Elst. The town lies at a geographically interesting location, n ...
before further distribution westwards.


End of the famine

The Dutch famine ended with the liberation by the Allies. Wehrmacht forces in the Netherlands surrendered on May 5, two days before Germany's overall surrender and official end of the war in Europe. Ongoing and new humanitarian assistances took place in the liberated country and the death rate quickly returned to normal figures by the early summer of 1945.


Legacy

The Dutch famine of 1944–45 was a rare case of a famine which took place in a modern, developed, and literate country, albeit one suffering under the privations of occupation and war. The well-documented experience has helped scientists to measure the effects of famine on human health. The Dutch Famine Birth Cohort Study found that the children of pregnant women exposed to famine were more susceptible to
diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...
,
obesity Obesity is a medical condition, considered by multiple organizations to be a disease, in which excess Adipose tissue, body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it can potentially have negative effects on health. People are classifi ...
, cardiovascular disease,
microalbuminuria Microalbuminuria is a term to describe a moderate increase in the level of urine albumin. It occurs when the kidney leaks small amounts of albumin into the urine, in other words, when an abnormally high permeability for albumin in the glomerulus o ...
and other health problems. Grandchildren of pregnant women carrying female babies during the famine were also shown to be smaller at birth and suffer increased health issues later in life. This suggests damage or
epigenetic In biology, epigenetics is the study of changes in gene expression that happen without changes to the DNA sequence. The Greek prefix ''epi-'' (ἐπι- "over, outside of, around") in ''epigenetics'' implies features that are "on top of" or "in ...
changes to the
ova , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and special episodes of a series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the ...
developing inside the female fetus ''in utero,'' a phenomenon known as ''intergenerational inheritance''. The discovery of the cause of
coeliac disease Coeliac disease (British English) or celiac disease (American English) is a long-term autoimmune disorder, primarily affecting the small intestine. Patients develop intolerance to gluten, which is present in foods such as wheat, rye, spelt ...
may also be partly attributed to the Dutch famine. With wheat in very short supply there was an improvement at a children's ward of coeliac patients. Stories tell of the first precious supplies of bread being given specifically to the (no longer) sick children, prompting an immediate relapse. Thus in the 1940s the Dutch
paediatrician Pediatrics (American English) also spelled paediatrics (British English), is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, pediatrics covers many of their yout ...
Dr. Willem Dicke was able to corroborate his previously researched hypothesis that wheat intake was aggravating coeliac disease. Dicke later went on to prove his hypothesis.
Audrey Hepburn Audrey Kathleen Hepburn ( Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress. Recognised as a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend from the Classical Holly ...
spent her childhood in the Netherlands (officially residing in
Arnhem Arnhem ( ; ; Central Dutch dialects, Ernems: ''Èrnem'') is a Cities of the Netherlands, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands, near the German border. It is the capita ...
, then in Velp) during the famine and despite her later wealth she had lifelong negative medical repercussions. She had
anemia Anemia (also spelt anaemia in British English) is a blood disorder in which the blood has a reduced ability to carry oxygen. This can be due to a lower than normal number of red blood cells, a reduction in the amount of hemoglobin availabl ...
, respiratory illnesses, and
œdema Edema (American English), also spelled oedema (British English), and also known as fluid retention, swelling, dropsy and hydropsy, is the build-up of fluid in the body's tissue. Most commonly, the legs or arms are affected. Symptoms may inclu ...
as a result.. Subsequent academic research on the children who were affected in the second trimester of their mother's pregnancy found an increased incidence of
schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...
in these children. Also increased among them were the rates of schizotypal personality and neurological defects.


See also

*
Bengal famine of 1943 The Bengal famine of 1943 was a famine in the Bengal province of British India (present-day Bangladesh, West Bengal and eastern India) during World War II. An estimated 800,000–3.8 million people died, in the Bengal region (present-day Ban ...
* Chinese famine of 1942–1943 *
Effect of the Siege of Leningrad on the city The 872-day siege of Leningrad, Russia, resulted from the failure of the German Army Group North to capture Leningrad in the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front during World War II. The siege lasted from September 8, 1941, to January 27, ...
* Great Famine in German-occupied Greece *
Historical trauma Historical trauma or collective trauma refers to the cumulative emotional harm of an individual or generation caused by a traumatic experience or event. According to its advocates, collective trauma evokes a variety of responses, most prominent ...
* Holodomor in Ukraine *
Hunger Plan The Hunger Plan () was a partially implemented plan developed by Nazi Germany, Nazi bureaucrats during World War II to seize food from the Soviet Union and give it to German soldiers and civilians. The plan entailed the genocide by Starvation (cri ...
*
List of famines List Table See also Main article lists * Bengal famine (disambiguation), Bengal famine * Droughts and famines in Russia and the Soviet Union * Famine in India * Famines in the Czech lands * Famines in Ethiopia * Great Bengal famine ...
*
Överkalix study The Överkalix study () was a study conducted on the physiological effects of various environmental factors on transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. The study was called "''Cardiovascular and diabetes mortality determined by nutrition during ...
*
Prenatal nutrition and birth weight Prenatal development () involves the development of the embryo and of the fetus during a viviparous animal's gestation. Prenatal development starts with fertilization, in the germinal stage of embryonic development, and continues in fetal deve ...
*
Siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad was a Siege, military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 t ...
*
Transgenerational epigenetics Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance is the proposed transmission of epigenetic markers and modifications from one generation to multiple subsequent generations without altering the primary structure of DNA. Thus, the regulation of genes via ep ...
*
Vietnamese famine of 1944–1945 The Vietnamese famine of 1944–45 ( – famine of the Ất Dậu Year or ''Nạn đói năm 45'' – the 1945 famine, due to most of the deaths occurring in 1945) was a famine that occurred in northern Vietnam in French Indochina during World ...


References

Notes Bibliography * Banning, C. (May 1946)
"Food Shortage and Public Health, First Half of 1945"
''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science''. Vol. 245, The Netherlands during German Occupation, pp. 93–110. (
JSTOR JSTOR ( ; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources founded in 1994. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary source ...
.) * Barnouw, David (1999)
''De hongerwinter''
. * Bijvoet, Tom and Van Arragon Hutten, Anne (2013)
''The Hunger Winter''
. * Collingham, E. M. (2011). ''The Taste of War: World War Two and the Battle for Food''. * de Jong, Loe. ''
The Kingdom of the Netherlands During World War II ''The Kingdom of the Netherlands During World War II'' () is the standard reference on the history of the Netherlands during World War II. The series was written by Loe de Jong (1914–2005), director of the Dutch Institute for War Documenta ...
'' (vol VII), p. 1–270 (Verarmend Nederland, 1914–2005) * Hart, Nicky
"Famine, Maternal Nutrition and Infant Mortality: A Re-Examination of the Dutch Hunger Winter"
''Population Studies'' Vol. 47, No. 1 (March 1993), pp. 27–46 (JSTOR) * Hitchcock, William I. (2009)
''The Bitter Road to Freedom: The Human Cost of Allied Victory in World War II Europe''
pp. 98–129. * Sas, Anthony. "Holland's 'Hunger Winter' of 1944–45", ''Military Review'', September 1983, Vol. 63, Issue 9, pp. 24–32. * Sellin, Thorsten (ed.) (May 1946)
"The Netherlands During German Occupation"
''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science'' Vol. 245, pp. i to 180. (
JSTOR JSTOR ( ; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources founded in 1994. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary source ...
.) * Stein, Zena (ed.) (1975). ''Famine and human development: The Dutch hunger winter of 1944–1945''. * van der Zee, Henri A. (1998). ''The Hunger Winter: Occupied Holland 1944–1945''. University of Nebraska Press. * Warmbrunn, Werner (1963)
''The Dutch Under German Occupation 1940–1945''
Stanford University Press.


External links


Dutch film
(starting at minute 2:00)
The Dutch Famine Birth Cohort Study



The Hunger winter and the allied food relief that followed
Multimedia
CBC Archives
– CBC Radio (22 April 1945) reporting on the famine in
Apeldoorn Apeldoorn (; Dutch Low Saxon: ) is a municipality and city in the province of Gelderland in the centre of the Netherlands. The municipality of Apeldoorn, including the villages of Beekbergen, Loenen (Apeldoorn), Loenen, Ugchelen and Hoenderloo ...
and the inflation of
food prices Food prices refer to the average price level for food across countries, regions and on a global scale. Food prices affect producers and consumers of food. Price levels depend on the food production process, including food marketing and food di ...
.
CBC Archives
– CBC Radio (30 April 1945) reporting on the agreement to provide food to the Dutch. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dutch famine of 1944-1945 1944 in the Netherlands 1945 in the Netherlands 1944 disasters in Europe 1945 disasters in Europe Famines in Europe Health disasters in the Netherlands Military history of the Netherlands during World War II Famines during World War II 1944 disasters in the Netherlands 1945 disasters in the Netherlands Nazi war crimes War crimes in the Netherlands Humanitarian crises in the aftermath of World War II