Feeding Her Children in the Paris Winter of 1942

A Parisian mother under the Occupation (generic role)

A Parisian mother queues at dawn outside the shops of her neighbourhood, her and coupons in hand. In this winter of 1941-1942, the official rations have fallen very low: bread is measured out, butter and fats have all but vanished from the shelves, and meat arrives only in trickles. Her children are hungry, and the coupons handed out each month no longer cover a household's needs.

In occupied , regular provisioning no longer depends on coupons alone. A black market has sprung up everywhere, where almost anything can be found — butter, eggs, meat — but at prices far above the official rates, and in defiance of the law. In the countryside, farmers agree to trade food for linen, jewellery, or household goods; Parisians take the train, suitcase in hand, for the family "provisioning run" that has become a ritual. Everywhere, the "," the art of getting by, makes up for what the administration no longer supplies.

The mother must decide how to fill her children's plates: turn to the black market despite its ruinous cost and illegality, to find what is missing; stick strictly to the ration coupons, at the risk of seeing her children slide toward malnutrition; or set off to barter in the countryside, trading linen and household goods for food, at the price of long, uncertain journeys.