From the archive, 3 October 1944: Paris is liberated but short of food

Paris, October 2
Perhaps the most significant picture of the real condition of the French people of Paris after four years of German occupation is that to be found in the records of hospitals where the wounded from the fighting in and around Paris at the end of August were treated. Both French and German wounded were treated in these hospitals, and the records show that out of every ten seriously wounded German soldiers approximately nine lived; out of every ten seriously wounded Frenchmen nine died. These figures speak for themselves in showing the direct effect of under-nourishment on general vitality.

Paris to-day is not a starving city, but it is still very much an undernourished city, and accounts of lavish meals in fantastically expensive restaurants must be related to the fact that the cost of one such meal would amount to something like the total income for two weeks of very many Paris citizens.

What food is available in Paris is distributed under a rationing system that is working quite well. A completely new rationing scheme had to be introduced after the liberation of Paris because an active effort of the Resistance movement had been to produce forged ration cards to add to the administrative difficulties of the Germans, and enormous numbers of these forgeries were in existence.

Present Rations
Under the Germans the quantities of foodstuffs laid down in ration-scales were largely theoretical and often bore little relation to what could actually be obtained. To-day, although the amounts of food available for each individual are not large, the housewife can rely on getting them. The figures that follow relate to the current housekeeping of a French family of three, typical of what the majority of Paris families are now getting.

The meat ration works out at about three ounces a week for each member of the family, but as the meat is weighed with bone the amount of meat available, particularly to small families, is meagre. Usually one egg a week can be obtained, and each individual has about ten ounces of bread daily, a few ounces more for those engaged in hard manual work. Butter works out at about three ounces a month per head, and also one-quarter of a cheese (cheeses vary in size) can be obtained for each person every month.

There is no milk at all for ordinary people, but children under three are given half a litre (rather less than one pint) daily. There is a special ration of about four ounces of chocolate monthly for children under two. The sugar ration is about four ounces a week.

For the rest, Paris very largely lives on vegetables, every week-end there is an exodus of people on bicycles to friends in the country near Paris to bring back what vegetables can be spared for the coming week’s housekeeping.

The wheat harvest on the Chartres Plain has been good this year, and the war moved so rapidly across this part of France, following mainly the roads, that the wheat crop in the fields did not suffer much damage. When transport can be made available to bring this grain to the Paris region the food situation will be improved.

Grave Fuel Shortage
The problem of feeding and (almost equally important and more difficult this winter) heating Paris is very largely one of transport. The Allied military authorities are providing as much transport as they can, but the Allied advance to the German frontier has made enormous demands on transport and the operational areas now are so far inland from ports and supply bases that the provision of purely military transport alone is a most complex and difficult problem.

Coal for cooking or domestic purposes is almost entirely lacking in Paris. There is gas available for cooking at certain hours during the day. Electricity has also been severely restricted, but the supply is getting rather better. But fuel is an intensely difficult problem, and Paris, with an undernourished population particularly susceptible to colds and chills, is faced with a very cold winter.

At present a family of three can obtain three sacks of coal. One asked whether this were the ration for a month. “No, monsieur,” was the reply, “for the winter.”

This is an edited extract