The Age of Pearl Barley
This chapter presents a hidden history of how food and hunger shaped the politics of everyday life in Terezín. It offers a social and cultural history of food, eating, and hunger, and of how food defined social structures and kinship. The German authorities consigned Jews to Terezín and restricted the supply of food. Shortages led to maldistribution, caused by the food categories introduced by the Jewish self-administration and corruption, which vastly increased rates of hunger and death. Maldistribution was a consequence of inmate society. The social hierarchy in Theresienstadt resulted in stark differences in access to food, with younger prisoners enjoying relatively good access while the underfed elderly population was deprived and had an extremely high mortality rate. Mass starvation in Theresienstadt was caused more by maldistribution than by lack of food.