The Atrocity of Hunger
Starvation in the Warsaw, Lodz, and Krakow Ghettos during World War II

Explores the impact of hunger on Jews – designated 'useless eaters' – in World War II ghettos, and their struggle to survive.

Helene J. Sinnreich (Author)

9781009100083, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 February 2023

300 pages
23.5 x 15.5 x 2 cm, 0.61 kg

'This is a wonderful book on an important yet understudied topic. Using the themes of food and hunger to analyze everyday life and experience in three Nazi ghettoes, Sinnreich significantly expands our understanding of Jewish experience during the Holocaust. Her careful attention to the symbolic, social, and material functions of food is especially impressive.' Alice Weinreb, Loyola University Chicago

During World War II, the Germans put the Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland into ghettos which restricted their movement and, most crucially for their survival, access to food. The Germans saw the Jews as 'useless eaters,' and denied them sufficient food for survival. The hunger which resulted from this intentional starvation impacted every aspect of Jewish life inside the ghettos. This book focuses on the Jews in the ?ód?, Warsaw, and Kraków ghettos as they struggled to survive the deadly Nazi ghetto and, in particular, the genocidal famine conditions. Jews had no control over Nazi food policy but they attempted to survive the deadly conditions of Nazi ghettoization through a range of coping mechanisms and survival strategies. In this book, Helene Sinnreich explores their story, drawing from diaries and first-hand accounts of the victims and survivors. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Introduction
1. The Nazi invasion: violence, displacement, and expropriation
2. Jewish leadership
3. The supply and distribution of food: strategies and priorities
4. The physical, mental, and social effects of hunger
5. Hunger and everyday life in the ghetto
6. Socioeconomic status and food access
7. Relief systems and charity
8. Illicit food access: smuggling, theft, and the black market
9. Labor and food in the ghettos
10. Deportations and the end of the ghettos
Conclusion
Appendix: List of kitchens and food distribution sites in the Warsaw ghetto.

Subject Areas: Second World War [HBWQ], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]