Latvia Under German Occupation in 1943Latvian Legation, 1944

Food Rations on Paper

The food supplies in the cities have become still smaller than they were in 1942. Officially the rations of the Latvians are from two to three times smaller than those of the Germans. In this respect everything has remained as it was in 1942. However, far worse is the fact that it is very difficult to obtain these already small rations in the stores designated for the Latvians. In this respect the Germans also enjoy a privileged position: they receive their rations in stores assigned to them alone, in which no Latvians are admitted.

Particularly the workmen and in general the laboring classes of the city population suffer from a lack of provisions and insufficient rations, as they have neither time nor money to seek for food on the “black market.” (The average workman works ten hours daily and earns from 60 to 100 marks monthly.)

Those city inhabitants who have any connections with the farmers in the country are a little better off as concerns food, as the farmers are extremely helpful and find the most unusual means of smuggling food into the cities.

Even coffins are used for this purpose, relate the refugees. For instance, the police once stopped a farmer on the highway with a coffin in his wagon, and ordered the coffin to be examined. When they raised the cover they saw in the coffin a corpse dressed in woman’s clothing and covered with a neat veil. All would have ended well if one of the policemen had not taken it into his head to raise a corner of the veil. Underneath it a pig’s snout stared at him! Upon examining the coffin more carefully a whole pig clothed in a woman’s dress was found.

At home the farmers eat better now than they did before, in normal times. Before they were eager to send all their best produce to market, whereas now they try to keep everything they can. This is due to the extremely low ceiling prices fixed for agricultural products as compared with the cost of the industrial products which are necessary for the farm. The farmer tries to “realize” his products on the black market by trading them for industrial commodities, such as nails, soap, wire, kerosene, tobacco, etc., or else he simply presents them to his friends and relatives in town.

During March and April 1943 the rations for Latvians were approximately as follows:

To be sure, these rations are only on paper. In most cases they are also issued, but only if the appropriate commodities are in stock in the stores assigned to the Latvians. During the course of the winter, for example, fish was obtainable in Riga only two or three times. In the summer of 1942 it was announced that every person was entitled to one-half liter of strawberries (for the entire summer!); it appeared, however, that they were not to be had in the Latvian stores. The growers had delivered all the strawberries to the German stores.

The Latvians do not receive regular rations for shoes and clothing. In order to receive them a special application must be submitted, and only after much deliberation in each individual case is the application either approved or rejected. Moreover, according to the regulations, no one may have more than two pairs of shoes. If a search should disclose that one has more shoes than that, the best shoes are confiscated and the “criminal” must pay a heavy fine.

There is a shortage of paper and books. Even newspapers are delivered to the news stands in insufficient numbers. People have to stand in line in order to purchase a newspaper or a book. Not more than 5 sheets of stationery are sold to a customer. All this despite the fact that those textile and paper factories whose machinery was not removed to Germany in 1941 and in the beginning of 1942 are going full blast.

The reason for this is that all textile, paper and wool products are shipped to Germany and do not remain in the country. Obviously Goering was not joking when in one of his speeches he declared that Germany would never lack anything, for others would work for her.

In consequence of the shortage of goods as well as of the fact that in various fields of production prices are not proportionate, speculation and dealings on the so-called “black market” have attained unbelievable proportions. Everyone speculates with everything in that all the refugees who have reached Sweden are unanimous. The workman speculates whenever he has a spare moment; the white collar worker, the official and the farmer speculate; also the German soldier, the German officer and even the German commissar speculate. The only difference is that the latter category speculate on a larger scale and partly involve their subordinates in such operations.

As usual when dealings on the black market flourish, prices have risen to dazzling heights. In Riga on the black market, for example: