Groveling for lentils: The culture and memory of food scarcity in occupied France

Food insecurity plagued France as well as other German-occupied countries during the Second World War. According to French perceptions of the food crisis, the occupiers aimed not only to starve the population, but also to humiliate it. German requisitions, a failed distribution and rationing system, poor harvests, and the suppression of trade were among the many conditions that resulted in unprecedented levels of undernutrition, malnutrition, and even starvation. Food scarcity was an all-consuming preoccupation. While eating was foremost on everyone’s mind, the effects of food scarcity far transcended the empty shopping basket. Hunger had profound ramifications on the culture of everyday life, on relationships between food producers and eaters, and not least of all on politics. For survivors of the period, the memory of hunger was the single most salient feature of life under German occupation.