Basis Of Ration Cards example essay topic

Quite a range of fashion shifts occurred during and after World War II. Some of the major changes included: an increasing shift to casual dress, less elaborate fashions, and the disappearance of knickers. Short pants began to be worn as summer attire, and American boys stop wearing knee socks and long stockings. Short hairstyles become popular for boys in America after the War. Anything using vast amounts of cloth or thought unnecessary were not allowed, such as: leg-of-mutton sleeves, aprons, overskirts, decorative trim, patch pockets and petticoats. Men's suits consisted of two-piece suits-a jacket and pants without cuffs, although before 1942 they consisted of four pieces-two pairs of pants, a vest and a double-breasted jacket.

(Feldman) The war, bringing on many civilian shortages, substitution became a way of life stateside, affecting daily life. Even though, powder, eye makeup and lipsticks were considered necessary for persevering wartime spirits, some ingredients were no longer available. Military and civilian provisions included the same manpower, facilities and fibers. The government wanted to conserve materials to prevent shortages and also keep the prices up, without harming standing industries. Private citizens had to adjust any new clothing to the conditions with very few exceptions. These were not the only changes being made.

There were changes in the food supplies also. The Nazis made the living conditions in the Warsaw Ghetto as terrible as possible. There were curfews, and guards were put on duty at all times near the walls to make sure no Jews escaped from the ghetto. Many Jews suffered from unemployment and diseases.

A typhus epidemic, which killed many Jews, broke out about a year after the ghetto was created. Due to low food rationing, many Jews starved to death. Some chose to kill themselves because they could not stand the physical and emotional pain anymore. From the moment that the Jews were isolated from the Polish society and were surrounded by a fence, their food distribution was entirely controlled by the Germans.

A strict food rationing was in effect. A working person was given food rationing that was sufficient barely for one person. In order to feed the sick and the old, they were put on the list of the producing people and their relatives had to cover for them by working even longer hours and producing a larger quota. The quantity of allocated food was insufficient and many basic food items were non existent in the ghetto.

'The official ration in the ghetto probably amounted to about 800 calories a day per person. This was half the ration for non-Jewish Poles and a third the ration for Germans in Poland. As the Nazis knew, people cannot survive for very long on 800 calories a day (Feldman)". Items supplied on the basis of ration cards were sold at a much lower price than they were on the free (black) market. The items supplied on the basis of ration cards were few in numbers: 70-250 g of bread, 250 g sugar / month, a few potatoes and sometimes jam, cabbage and beets' (Gutman 583).

Since he food supplied on the ration cards was far from enough, people with means tried to buy more food. People who did not have any savings went hungry or starved to death, despite the additional nourishment available in the soup kitchens. These provided a calorie-poor soup (the nutritional value of one portion of soup in the Warsaw ghetto at the end of 1941 was 110 calories) (Gutman 584). Each person had ration coupons for different categories of food.

Jews were not allowed to buy meat, poultry, fish, fruits, vegetables, eggs, or white flour. Their diet consisted mainly of potatoes and bread. They had hardly anything to wear and eat at the time of the holocaust. The Jews sacrificed a lot during the holocaust. The Jews starved and were deprived a lot. They weren't treated equally and they were abused physically and mentally.

Little by little things went back to normal but the Jews will never forget the suffering they had to go through. Work Cited Gutman, Israel; Editor in Chief. Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. Vol. 2. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1990 Feldman, George. Understanding the Holocaust.

Vol. 2. United States, 1998.