Horror on the Home Front: The squalor of World War II from London to Leningrad told first-hand

By Max Hastings

Last updated at 10:40 AM on 12th September 2011

Towards the end of 1942, British housewife Nella Last reflected on the state of her war and had to admit that, despite the Blitz and the shortages, it had inflicted little real hardship or suffering on her.

Especially, she noted, when compared with what was going on in the Soviet Union, where at that moment every inch of besieged Stalingrad was a wasteland.

‘We have had food, shelter and warmth when millions have had none,’ she conceded.

Pinta cheer: A milkman delivering milk in a London street devastated during a German bombing raid. Firemen are dampening down the ruins behind him

Mrs Last was unusually sensitive. Most of her compatriots on the Home Front were too preoccupied by their own troubles to concern themselves with the larger, but remote, miseries of others.

Housewife Phyllis Crook wrote to her husband serving in North Africa: ‘Christmas is going to be a beastly time, and I’m hating the thought of it. Life seems too mouldy for words. I wonder when we shall see you again. It all seems horribly far away, and doesn’t bear too much thinking about.’

Separation from her husband, the necessity to occupy lodgings far from her London home and the drab monotony of wartime seemed to her, like many others, sufficient causes for unhappiness. Ten days after writing that letter she became a widow when her husband was killed in action.

Yet Mrs Crook’s woes would seem trivial, her self-pity contemptible, to many people of war-ravaged nations. Her life and those of her children were not threatened and they were not even hungry. [Ron: Compare that to eg. Libya today which is being bombed back to the Stone Age by the British airforce.].

Orphans of the storm: Two young children either abandoned or orphaned, at a convent in Rome, where they were cared for by nuns in 1945

On the Home Front during World War II, the British endured six years of austerity and spasmodic bombardment. The night-time blackout promoted moral as well as physical gloom. Accidents in the blackout killed more people than the Luftwaffe.

Defence regulations were so stringently enforced that two soldiers leaving the dock at the Old Bailey after being condemned to death for murder were rebuked for failing to pick up their gas masks.

Yet the circumstances of Winston Churchill’s islands were much preferable to those of Continental societies, where hunger and violence were endemic. In many places, civilians suffered more than soldiers. Globally, more non-combatants perished than uniformed participants, notably in China and the Soviet Union.[Ron: ALSO in GERMANY!].

Real hardship: Refugees flee starvation and the war front in Russia in 1943

In Russia’s war with Germany, from the very start there was no such thing as a separate Home Front. The violence of war rushed inexorably towards them and engulfed them.

Tens of millions of civilians found themselves in the condition described by a Ukrainian partisan as he surveyed the remains of one of countless hamlets caught up in the fighting.

‘What is left of it? Heaps of ruins, chimneys sticking out, scorched chairs. Where there were roads and paths, there are thorns and weeds.

‘A family of refugees stands in front of me. They are so thin and gaunt, one can see through them. These people have suffered as much as us, the soldiers, or even more.’

Even those Russians who did not suffer siege or bombardment spent the war in conditions of extreme privation.

‘We had no life of our own,’ said Moscow woman Klavdiya Leonova, who worked 12-hour shifts making army tunics and camouflage netting.

They were fed badly baked bread and kasha — a porridge made with burned wheat. Their intake of food amounted to 500 calories a day less than their British or German counterparts were getting and 1,000 fewer than Americans.

Russians suffered widespread scurvy and other diseases associated with hunger and overwork.

Production lines operated around the clock. ‘Sunday was in theory a day off, but the factory Party Committee often called on us for outside work, such as digging trenches or bringing in timber from the forest.’

Under siege: Suffering after a bombing raid in the encircled city of Leningrad

In the unoccupied Western nations, life was cushy by comparison and some people even prospered. Industrialists made enormous profits, many of which somehow evaded windfall taxes. Criminals exploited demand for prostitutes, black-market goods and stolen military fuel and supplies.

Privileged Britons remained privileged. ‘The extraordinary thing about the war was that people who really didn’t want to be involved in it were not,’ the novelist Anthony Powell wrote afterwards.

This was true of a limited social milieu. The week before D-Day, as 250,000 young American and British soldiers prepared to hurl themselves at Hitler’s Atlantic Wall, in London Evelyn Waugh wrote in his diary:

‘Woke half-drunk and had a long, busy morning — getting my hair cut, trying to verify quotations in the London Library, visiting Nancy [Mitford]. At luncheon I again got drunk . . . ’

Waugh was untypical, and many of the friends with whom he caroused away his war were on leave from active service. Several were dead a year later.

But even so, Londoners were vastly better off than the inhabitants of Paris, Naples, Athens or any city in the Soviet Union or China.[Ron: And unbelievably better off than the inhabitants of German cities!].

Ruined: In Liverpool, 68-year-old Sarah Manson sits outside her bombed home with her grandchildren after a Nazi [Ron: Surely the writer means "German" NOT "Nazi"?] bombing raid

All over the world, millions of people were on the move, forced in one way or another from their homes. Half the population of Britain moved in the course of the war, some because they were evicted to make way for servicemen, others because their houses were destroyed, most because wartime duties demanded it. [Ron: All of this was courtesy of the Jews who created WWII namely, Churchill and Roosevelt and their Jewish masters (and Stalin and his Bolshevik Jewish advisers like Kaganovich). See eg; England Instigated World War Two, http://abundanthope.net/pages/Political_Information_43/England-Instigated-World-War-Two.shtml]. See also:Early Hitler letter on Jews unveiled (& references therein)- http://abundanthope.net/pages/Ron_71/Early-Hitler-letter-on-Jews-unveiled.shtml ]

Elsewhere in Europe, more brutal imperatives intervened.

In January 1943, a British nurse found herself giving birth in the maternity ward of a hospital in Germany rather than her native Channel Islands.

She was one of 834 civilians on occupied Guernsey deported to the Reich in September 1943 to spend the rest of the war in an internment camp as hostages [Ron: WTF?!? If they were "hostages" what about the 250,000 US citizens of Japanese descent who were interned in the desert by the US; and all others interned on both sides?] There should have been 836 of them, but an elderly major and his wife from Sark slashed their wrists before embarkation. [Ron: This is typical emotional blackmail journalism. This sort of thing and much worse happened to tens of millions of people throughout Europe BECAUSE OF WWI & WWII which were created by the Rothschild and Rockefeller Jews and their co-religionists globally].

We should not make light of the hardship felt by Britons on the Home Front. News of the violent and premature deaths of distant loved ones was a pervasive feature of the wartime experience. Countless families struggled to come to terms with loss. [Ron: Sooo, compare that to what is happening in Libya today. Libyans are struggling to even bury their dead with UK and NATO planes, drones, missiles and helicopters seeking to kill them day and night.].

Fragments: A sailor lends a hand in recovering belongings from a house in Bath during the Baedeker Blitz

Sheffield housewife Edie Rutherford was preparing tea when her young neighbour, the wife of an RAF pilot, knocked on the door and said: ‘Mrs Rutherford, Henry is missing.’ [Ron: Was he a bomber pilot dropping bombs on German civilians?]

‘I just opened my arms and let her have a good weep while I cursed this blasted war.’ The girl was close to hysteria and babbling that he couldn’t be dead because ‘he was home only last Wednesday’.

Another housewife tried to comfort a neighbour who received the news of her son’s death on the day he had been expected home on leave. She’d got some rabbit in especially for his dinner. He was a 19-year-old officer, ‘such a nice boy’.

In every war-torn land, they were all ‘nice boys’ to those who mourned.

Safety first: A family wheel all their bedding in a pram, as they make their way to an air raid shelter where they will spend the night

More than any other aspect of the war, food or lack of it emphasised the relativity of suffering. Overall, far more people suffered serious hunger or died of starvation than in any previous conflict. This was because an unprecedented number of countries became battlefields, with consequent loss of agricultural production.

Even the citizens of those countries that escaped famine found their diets severely restricted. Britain’s rationing system ensured that no one starved. Indeed, the poor were better nourished than in peace-time. But few found anything to enjoy about their fare.

Derek Lambert, then a small boy, remembered a morning when a jar was put on the breakfast table and his father spread the contents on his bread. ‘He bit into it, frowned and said: “What was that?”

‘  “Carrot marmalade,” said my mother. My father picked up the jar, took it into the garden and poured it on to the compost heap.’

Any Russian or Asian peasant would have deemed it a luxury.

On their Home Front, the German population ate well enough, at least until the war neared its end, largely because the Nazis [Ron: Always the German government and people are referred to in perjorative terms!] starved conquered nations to keep their own citizens fed.[Ron: This is a lie. What proof does the author provide? NONE! This incessant anti-German propaganda is like subliminal advertising! Enough already! The German nation did NOT cause WWII (or WWI) and they acted more honourably than the Ango-US alliance throughout both wars. They were the victims and were in fact the subject of genocidal bombing by Churchill and Roosevelt during WWII and genocidal starvation policies that killed some 11-13 million Germans after WWII.].

To be fair, every nation with power to do so put its people first, heedless of the consequences for others at their mercy. The U.S. insisted that its people and armed forces abroad should receive fantastically generous allocations of food.

The Japanese also adopted draconian policies throughout their empire to provide food for their own people, which caused millions to starve in South-East Asia.

But the Germans behaved the most brutally. Nazi policy was explicitly directed towards starving subject races, and even though people in occupied regions displayed extraordinary ingenuity in hiding crops, millions died with empty stomachs.[Ron: this is sheer racist propaganda! No proof is adduced to support these wild claims. In fact similar assertions have been made for the last 70 years TO HIDE THE TRUTH which is that the Jews sought to destroy the German nation totally but failed. Eisnehower deliberately starved at least a million POWs to death after WWII and probably 13 million Germans were starved to death and otherwise eliminated in the years immediateklly after WWII. See eg GRUESOME HARVEST The Costly Attempt To Exterminate The People of Germany - http://abundanthope.net/pages/Political_Information_43/GRUESOME-HARVEST-The-Costly-Attempt-To-Exterminate-The-People-of-Germany.shtml And:Did the Allies Starve Millions of Germans? - http://abundanthope.net/pages/True_US_History_108/Did-the-Allies-Starve-Millions-of-Germans.shtml And: 11 Million Germans murdered AFTER WW2 - http://abundanthope.net/pages/Human_Animal_Rights_104/11_Million_Germans_murdered_AFTER_WW2_3045.shtml And: The Deliberate Starvation of Germany - http://abundanthope.net/pages/True_US_History_108/The-Deliberate-Starvation-of-Germany.shtml And see:Eisenhower's Holocaust - His Slaughter Of 1.7 Million - http://abundanthope.net/pages/True_US_History_108/Eisenhower-s-Holocaust---His-Slaughter-Of-1-7-Million-Germans.shtml ] See also:A Real Holocaust: Dresden, 13 February 1945 - http://abundanthope.net/pages/True_US_History_108/A-Real-Holocaust-Dresden-13-February-1945.shtml

Meanwhile, back in Germany, housewives complained about the dreariness of rations.

One fantasised in her diary about ‘large juicy beefsteaks and long asparagus with lumps of golden butter’, the sort of meal Nazi functionaries continued to enjoy. They had privileges in food as well as in everything else. [WTF?! WHY are we being regaled with this racist, anti-German propaganda NOW?]

The same thing happened in the communist Soviet Union. Conditions for the citizens of Leningrad during the 900-day siege were horrendous. ‘Life has been reduced to one thing — the hunt for food,’ one resident wrote. ‘We have returned to prehistoric times.’

People made soup and bread with grass. Pigeons vanished from the city squares, caught and eaten, as were crows, gulls, then rats and household pets.

Privation: Residents of Leningrad try to go about their daily lives following a German bomb attack in the winter of 1941

Yet party officials ate prodigiously. Bread, sugar, meatballs and other cooked food remained readily available at a special canteen, which also gave access to a private heated cinema. It was a characteristic of Russia’s war that corruption and privilege persisted, even as tens of millions starved and died. [Ron: In fact  Hatonn says that the Bolshevik Jews genocided some 100 million Christians during their reign of power in the Soviet Union so this "story" may well be true but the writer gives us no proof what so ever. Alexandr Solzhensityn says the Bolshevik Jews killed at least 66 million Russians; and the Ukrainian Holodomor starved at least seven million Ukrainians to death so the Bolshevik Jews may well have not been very concerned about Russians starving in Leningrad.].

A protester who put out pamphlets denouncing ‘the scoundrels who deceive us, who stockpile food and leave us to go hungry’ was tracked down by secret police and shot.[Ron: The "secret police" were controlled by the Bolsheviks and they, and most commissars, were usually Jews.].

The least affected Home Front, of course, was the U.S., though that didn’t stop its citizens moaning about hardship.

‘My Dad just came back from the store and all he could get was blood pudding and how I hate that,’ a housewife complained in a letter to her soldier husband.

The war was a boom-time for the U.S. and its people, as everything grew in scale to match the largest war in history. There was plenty of work. The average American’s wealth almost doubled. [Ron: WWII pulled the US out of the Great Depression which was created and sustained by Jewish bankers. Incidentally, seven million USans died of starvation and/or malnutrition and associated medical conditions during the Great Depression.].

‘People are crazy with money,’ said a Philadelphia jeweller. ‘They buy things just for the fun of spending.’

In 1939, the U.S., had 4,900 super- markets; by 1944, there were 16,000. The remoteness of the U.S. from the fighting fronts and its security from direct attack or even serious hardship militated against the passion that moved civilians of nations suffering occupation or bombardment.

After Pearl Harbor, Americans hated the Japanese, but few felt anything like the animosity towards the Germans that came readily to Europeans.[Ron: More bullshit propaganda! Europeans didn't hate the Germans, many welcomed them. Jew propagands (such as this article) fuelled anti-German sentiment, especially in Britain and the US and their colonies - AS IT STILL DOES!].

It proved hard even to rouse American anger about Hitler’s reported persecution of the Jews.[Ron: That is hardly surprising given that Hitler DIDN'T PERSECUTE THE JEWS, he protected them by placing them in work camps away from cities which the Allies bombed unmercifully.].

A behaviourist noted for his work with rats suggested that Americans at home could be more effectively galvanised into a fighting mood by cutting off their petrol, tyres and civil liberties than by appealing to their ideals.

Carrying on: A greengrocer remains open for business at a market in Lambeth Way in London after a V-2 Bombing raid

As the war progressed, it was Germany’s Home Front that increasingly suffered as the horrors the nation had visited on the rest of Europe rebounded on its own people.[Ron: More racist unsubstantiated anti-German propaganda! WHY arent these statements HATE CRIMES?!]. Its cities experienced a scale of terror and devastation far beyond anything the Luftwaffe inflicted on Britain from 1940 to 1944. ‘For two whole hours this ear-splitting terror goes on and all you can see is fire,’ a resident of Hamburg recorded. [This is very TRUE. Notice though, how the reader is sucked into thinking that the German civilian population DESERVED WHAT IT GOT!].

In Darmstadt, a young girl remembered the ‘stench of roasted flesh’ after a raid killed 9,000 inhabitants. ‘Not a bird, not a green tree, no people, nothing but corpses,’ one resident recalled.[Ron: This, though devastating, was "peanuts" compared to what happened to Dresden, Berlin, Hamburg and other cities (not to mention Tokyo, Hiroshima,  Nagasaki et al).].

Germany’s city-dwellers were obliged to spend up to 12 out of 24 hours in cellars and shelters. Nazi officials’ exploitation of privileged access to the best-protected refuges caused resentment. [Ron: The Jews' propaganda agents never let up do they?! WHY does this writer and this newspaper feel the need to continue their hate campaign against the German government of that era? Actually the reason is obvious and it is the SAME reason that NATO is bombing Libya back to the Stone Age. Hitler's National Socialist government was very good for the German people and they loved Hitler because it refused to enslave the German people to the Jew bankers and so he issued German government (credit) money instead of accepting the Jews' "funny" fiat money and the usury that went with it. That meant Germany had to be destroyed just as Libya has to be destroyed today because it, too, is issuing its own money and refusing to allow the Jews' central banking system to enslave Libyans. See eg: Hitler’s freedom from International Debt Slavery - http://abundanthope.net/pages/Ron_71/Hitler_s_freedom_from_International_Debt_Slavery_3039.shtml See also:'Behind the Holocaust: What was Hitler’s unforgivable sin?' See: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/05/11/jb-campbell-behind-the-holocaust/

In one public shelter, party members were reported to have ‘made themselves comfortable with crates of beer’ while less fortunate citizens were exposed to the fury of the bombardment. [Ron: WTF?!]

[caption

Hitler devoted vast resources to his personal safety. A million cubic metres of concrete — more than the weight of materials employed throughout 1943-44 on all Germany’s public shelters — were expended on his East Prussian headquarters and Berlin bunker. [Ron: WTF? Really?! And the evidence for this ststement is?]

By the end of the war, half the country’s housing stock had been destroyed. [Ron: WHY?!]

‘Nuremberg is a city of the dead,’ an American reporter wrote. Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg were worse. [Ron: WHY?!]

The victorious Soviet army added to the woes of the German people with the appalling wholesale murder and rape of its citizenry.[ Ron: While Eisenhower and Churchill starved millions of Germans to death .].

None of this was right. The killing of civilians must always be deplored. But Nazi Germany represented a historic evil. Hitler’s people inflicted appalling sufferings upon the innocent. [Ron: This is a barbarous LIBEL that has been constantly chanted by Jew controlled media and Hollywood whores and sources for 70 years. GIVE IT A BREAK, MATE!]

The destruction of their cities and large numbers of their inhabitants was the price they had to pay for the horrors they unleashed upon Western civilisation.[Ron: IF you still believe this lying journalistic media whore after studying the actual facts you are beyond redemption (in this epoch). I am amazed that the Jew media has the hide to publish this sort of crappy propaganda NOW, when the SAME genocidal maniacs that tried to eliminate Germany from the face of the earth are now doing it to Libya in full view of all of humanity.].

But it was no wonder that in Britain, housewife Nella Last, while counting her blessings, felt a dreadful sadness and pessimism about the whole business of war. [Ron: This hypocritical journalist and his ilk is/are the cause of the problem. Wars and in particular the current war on Libya could not occur if journalists honestly and diligently did their jobs instead of spewing propaganda such as this piece all over the Jew controlled media!]

‘I saw a neighbour’s baby today,’ she recorded in her diary, ‘and I felt a sudden understanding for all those women who refuse to bring babies into the world now.’

• Extracted from All Hell Let Loose: The Experience Of War 1939-45 by Max Hastings, to be published by HarperPress on September 29 at £30. © 2011 Max Hastings. To order a copy for £25 (P&P free), tel: 0843 382 0000.
• [Ron: Max Hastings is in for a surprise then...].