Dutch famine of 1944 killed thousands of people in the Netherlands during World War II (1939-1945). The famine took place mainly in cities of the western Netherlands from November 1944 to May 1945. At that time, Nazi Germany controlled much of the country. Causes of the famine included transportation problems, a harsh winter, and Germany’s decision to briefly cut off food supplies. In the Netherlands, the famine is remembered as the Hongerwinter (hunger winter).
Background.
Nazi Germany invaded and occupied the Netherlands, along with much of western Europe, in 1940. Dutch resistance groups began operating against German forces almost immediately. The resistance groups spied on German forces for the Allies . They sometimes attacked German troops and communications and transport systems. Resistance leaders also organized labor strikes to slow or shut down German-controlled production and transportation.
In September 1944, the Allies launched Operation Market Garden , an invasion of the German-occupied Netherlands. The invasion freed parts of the southern Netherlands, but it failed in its goal to clear a path into Germany. In coordination with the attack, thousands of Dutch railway workers abandoned their trains and went into hiding. The railway strike was intended to prevent the Germans from moving troops and supplies around the Netherlands. The strike failed to achieve this aim, as the Germans quickly replaced the Dutch workers with their own. The strike did, however, make it difficult for Dutch people—including the resistance—to move about the country. It also led to German retaliation.
The famine.
To punish the Dutch for the railway strike, the Germans banned food shipments into the western Netherlands. Many cities were cut off, including The Hague , Rotterdam , and Amsterdam , the capital. The ban was lifted in November, but the failing transportation system and German control of goods caused food shortages to worsen. Coal shipments also were disrupted, leaving many Dutch people unable to heat their homes during the winter. Frozen canals and harbors hampered shipping, and, to slow the Allied advance, the Germans flooded parts of the low-lying countryside. Dutch people burned books and furniture to keep warm, and soup kitchens fed hundreds of thousands. But people in western Dutch cities—mainly the elderly, ill, and very young—began to die from hunger, exposure, and disease.
Shipments of Swedish flour were allowed into the Netherlands in early 1945, and bread distribution, in varying amounts, began in late February. Switzerland too sent relief shipments that trickled into the western Netherlands. The famine eased, but malnourished people continued to die. In late April, local German authorities allowed the Allies to airdrop food parcels over the worst affected areas. In early May, as German troops began to surrender, Allied trucks loaded with food entered the famine areas. The food was distributed over the next few weeks, finally ending the famine.
Aftermath.
An estimated 20,000 Dutch people died during the Hongerwinter. Later studies showed that many children born to pregnant women affected by the famine were underweight and sickly. Many other children developed health problems later in life because of the famine.
Severe famines also occurred in German-occupied parts of Greece and the Soviet Union during World War II. Terrible famines occurred in China during the war, the result of the Japanese occupation as well as political rivalries within China.
