The Hunger Winter

Reviews / Votes

'A humane and penetrating study that offers a new, layered appreciation of food security in the final years of the war, and the importance of household and communities strategies for survival during the Dutch Hunger Winter.' Patricia Clavin, University of Oxford 'This book is a tour de force by a young Dutch historian. It provides a long overdue synthesis of the Dutch, German, and Allied interests that shaped the Dutch Hunger Winter and dispels commonly held beliefs with extensive documentation. A trailblazing analysis that will set the tone for future studies.' L.H. Lumey, Columbia University, New York 'Ingrid de Zwarte delves beyond the myths that have surrounded the Hunger Winter since the end of the Second World War to provide us with the first definitive analysis of the circumstances and consequences surrounding this traumatic event in modern Dutch history.' Bob Moore, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Sheffield 'Ingrid de Zwarte's The Hunger Winter rejects a version of events based on the role of the Nazi occupier in causing the famine and of Allied food drops in relieving it. Instead, she highlights the role of civil society in making most of the little food available and of extracting crucial concessions from the German authorities. This luminous study is a paean to what human resilience can achieve under adversity.' Cormac O Grada, University College Dublin