Food
The food supply at St. Lambrecht women’s concentration camp was considered adequate compared to that of the main camp at Ravensbrück, at least regarding quantity. But the quality of the food was inferior and the diet unvaried. Breakfast consisted of diluted milk and, at times, coffee. The female inmates additionally received a measured quantity of bread, that was weighed out daily by kitchen help Margarete Messnarz-Günter and Bible Student Ella Hempel. The daily quantity of bread for around two hundred persons (sixty loaves) was always baked by the female inmates and the civilian staff together on Tuesdays and Fridays. This was so-called sour bread, made with flour, potatoes and salt water. Now and again, there was some butter and jam for breakfast.1PA, interview Messnarz-Günter, Margarete, 13-09-2002; interview Huisman, Gerdina, 15-10-2002.
The midday meal was always a casserole of white cabbage, potatoes and tinned meat. A slight improvement on the quality of the food only happened when the kitchen personnel managed to slip the prisoners some extra vegetables across the stove. The evening meal was turnips. The food was the same on Sundays as on weekdays. The male inmates received the same food as the female Bible Students.2PA, interview Messnarz-Günter, Margarete, 13-09-2002.
The amount of food for the female Bible Students performing hard labour being relatively sufficient, can be explained by the fact that the women’s metabolism had slowed down and they were somewhat older. The women appeared to be well-nourished in comparison to the male inmates who were ‘all skin and bone’.3PA, interview Messnarz-Günter, Margarete, 13-09-2002. They were generally considerably younger than the female Bible Students and had to carry out more exhausting labour.
But because of the poor quality of the food the female inmates were also undernourished. Though they did have more opportunities of obtaining better food by their work in the garden, in the household or by herding the sheep. Furthermore, the female Bible Students regularly received parcel-post packages that were not withheld but handed over to them. The extra foodstuffs were divided among the group.
Besides that, food packages were a popular means of transport for secret messages. Jans Hoogers-Elbertsen remembered a package with rye bread. Her ‘mother had inserted a piece of ham and a letter when baking the bread. When the SS cut the bread in two the letter suddenly fell out. Gerdina Huisman-Rabouw snatched this letter away and put it in her apron to hide it from the SS guards.’4PA, interview Hoogers-Elbertsen, Jans, 16-10-2002.
The female Bible Students ate their meals in the eating and sleeping area of the concentration camp. The tableware they had brought along from Ravensbrück consisted of a tin bowl, a coffee cup and cutlery.5PA, interview Hoogers-Elbertsen, Jans, 16-10-2002. When the inmates were at work in agriculture or forestry, the food was brought to their place of work in a tub.
The meals of the inmates who worked as chambermaids or cleaning women in the abbey formed an exception. They had the privilege of taking all their meals in the kitchen and of receiving the same food as the guards and the civilian staff. ‘The food in the kitchen tasted good.’6PA, interview Hoogers-Elbertsen, Jans, 16-10-2002. Because breakfast was so frugal, these female Bible Students could also ask for a second portion, which was always given them by cook Anna or kitchen help Margarete Messnarz-Günter.
Through their work at the SS estate, there was social contact with the guests, and this offered another opportunity of getting extra food. In this manner Gerdina Huisman was once given a piece of chocolate by a female guest.7PA, interview Huisman, Gerdina, 15-10-2002.
Now and then the head housekeeper, Lore Kröll, also supported the female Bible Students who ‘worked for her’, with something extra such as coffee or sweets.8PA, interview Kröll, Lore, 18-11-2002. Margarete Messnarz-Günter described Lore Kröll as ‘a very nice person’, who proved to be generous when someone aroused her sympathy or when she felt that this person deserved a reward for certain achievements (PA, interview Messnarz-Günter, Margarete, 13-09-2002).
Next →