Coping with Hunger and Shortage under German Occupation in World War II by Tatjana Tönsmeyer Peter Haslinger & Agnes Laba

Author:Tatjana Tönsmeyer, Peter Haslinger & Agnes Laba
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

Concluding Remarks

Belgian workers and miners were confronted with a permanent lack of food since the official rationing system did not provide the nutrition they were entitled to. For economic and political reasons, employers gave their workers extra food and lobbied with the authorities to improve the official rationing system. The workers considered this extra food as an acquired right and felt that the employers had a responsibility for their food supply . This led to political tensions with the creation of new workers ’ organisations, also demanding a monetary wage increase, which the employers wanted to avoid for economic reasons. Since prices were extremely high the black market was little more than a second option for workers who found other means of getting by. Using their capacity as the country’s producers, they participated in an allocation mechanism that was necessary to survive the war.

Notes

1.Peter Scholliers, Arm en rijk aan tafel. Tweehonderd jaar eetcultuur in België (Berchem: EPO, 1993), 175.

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