I do recall my father telling me stories about this time.



 He was just a young man back then but the memories of the "Hunger Winter" in 1944 never left him. This boy in the photo shows exactly what my family and thousands of other people went through in the Netherlands. It was not just a cold winter, though, it was a punishment by the occupiers. Because the Dutch people tried to help the Allied soldiers the Germans stopped all the food from coming into the towns.It is difficult for people today to imagine but families were living on almost nothing. My father told me that they would walk for miles just to find a few potatoes. When the potatoes ran out, they literally ate tulip bulbs. He said they were bitter and terrible tasting, but better than an empty stomach.


If you look closely at the boy, you see that he is holding a spoon. Back then, that was common. Children carried a spoon with them at all times as you never knew when a bit of watery soup might be served out. If you weren't ready with your spoon then you had lost your opportunity to eat for the day.


Doctors later found that hunger was so deep that it affected the health of babies born during this time for the rest of their lives. In fact, it changed the way their bodies processed food. Relief finally came when planes are dropping bread and supplies from the sky in 1945. My father said people cried from watching that food fall. It's a sad part of our history but we should never forget that... Click here on the link for complete the story 

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