Athens, the Winter of Hunger

In the autumn of 1941, defeated Greece is carved up among three occupiers: Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria divide the country and its resources between them. The occupier's requisitions sweep up harvests, livestock, and stockpiles, while the Allied naval blockade cuts off the imports on which a land poor in wheat normally depended. The rail and road network, thrown into disorder by the war and then by the partitioning of zones, no longer moves supplies from the countryside to the capital.

In Athens, an overcrowded city with no food-producing hinterland of its own, the vise closes quickly. Rationed bread shrinks to a paltry portion, often impossible to find, and the currency collapses amid runaway inflation. On the official stalls there is nothing left; the prices of the little that remains soar to dizzying heights, far beyond the reach of wages. The cold settles over a population already worn out.

In this destitution, a mother bears alone the burden of feeding her family, day after day, with no assured relief. Each morning poses the same question, more pressing than the day before. She must decide now how to make it through the winter.